Software Quality Operations Specialist, Domain Expansion

Why This Team Is Essential To Waymo's Success

The Software Quality Operations (SWQOps) team is at the heart of ensuring the safety, reliability, and quality of the Waymo Driver. Our mission is to build an adaptable and scalable operation, increasingly powered by AI, to deliver the crucial insights necessary to confidently deploy and grow Waymo's autonomous vehicle service.

Waymo is undergoing unprecedented growth, rapidly expanding into new cities (targeting ~20 new cities by EOY 2026) and launching new vehicle platforms. SWQOps, especially our Technical Specialists, plays a critical role in this expansion, making it possible to scale safely and efficiently.

What You Will Do

• Partner with Engineering to design, test, and deploy cutting-edge Machine Learning (ML) and Generative AI (Gen-AI) models and tools to drive improvements in issue discovery & detection, triage efficiency, and quality assurance.
• Leverage AI-powered insights and traditional triage signals to proactively identify emerging on-road issue trends, new risk scenarios, and edge cases.
• Develop and refine data-driven strategies for issue discovery and monitoring, enhanced by ML model outputs.
• Serve as the key link between AI/ML development and operational execution. Define and document new policies, guidelines, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that integrate AI tools and insights into daily vendor workflows.
• Design and implement robust quality control processes for both human and AI-generated outputs. Perform meta-quality checks, validate the integrity of vendor work, and provide feedback to improve both human and model performance.
• Act as the subject matter expert for our Software Quality Operations, working closely with stakeholders, program leads, and vendor teams to ensure seamless adoption and maximum impact of AI/ML advancements in our quality processes.
• Be the trusted source for creating and updating technical policies, guidelines, and standard operating procedures for new scopes, platforms, and driving signals.
• Provide technical leadership and consultation to stakeholders to enhance our workflows and quality.
• Identify and escalate issues with our tools, provide technical requirements to engineering, and drive user testing to support the development and deployment of new tooling features.
• Scale workflow from 16/5 to 24/7, coordinating with external stakeholders, vendor team, and FTE team.

Qualifications

• BS/BA degree and 4 years of relevant work experience in QC or AV Software Quality Operations.
• Increased competency in supporting all phases of the machine learning development life-cycle: data preparation, training, validation, deployment, and continuous monitoring.
• Experience with ML testing and validation, including dataset quality assurance, bias detection, edge-case scenario testing, and performance evaluation using statistical metrics.
• Strong understanding of driving rules and regulations.
• A proven ability to work in a fast-paced, high-stress environment while maintaining good judgment.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to effectively collaborate with a wide range of individuals in a diverse and dynamic work environment.
• Demonstrated strong execution with ability to drive outcomes.
• Experience working with offshore teams / multiple local operations hubs.
• Competency in LLM / transformer models, and / or ML for robotics domain experience.
• Basic SQL querying and PLX coding experience.
• Self-motivated with basic skills in task planning and time management.

Benefits

• Health, dental, vision, life, disability insurance.
• Retail Benefits: 401(k) with company match.
• Paid Time Off: 20 days of vacation per year, accruing at a rate of 6.15 hours per pay period for the first five years of employment.
• Sick Time: 40 hours/year (statutory, where applicable); 5 days/event (discretionary).
• Maternity Leave (Short-Term Disability + Baby Bonding): 28-30 weeks.
• Baby Bonding Leave: 18 weeks.
• Holidays: 13 paid days per year.

Benefits for this role include:

• Health, dental, vision, life, disability insurance.
• Retail Benefits: 401(k) with company match.
• Paid Time Off: 20 days of vacation per year, accruing at a rate of 6.15 hours per pay period for the first five years of employment.
• Sick Time: 40 hours/year (statutory, where applicable); 5 days/event (discretionary).
• Maternity Leave (Short-Term Disability + Baby Bonding): 28-30 weeks.
• Baby Bonding Leave: 18 weeks.
• Holidays: 13 paid days per year.