Vehicle Quality Engineer

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the most trusted driver. Since its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has focused on building the Waymo Driver—The World's Most Experienced Driver™—to improve access to mobility while saving thousands of lives now lost to traffic crashes. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo One, a fully autonomous ride-hailing service, and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over one million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving tens of millions of miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 13+ U.S. states.

Waymo's Supply Chain and Manufacturing teams are making the technology of the future a reality. We handle all production processes and supplier development strategies: from contracts and purchasing, to designs for improved manufacturing, through quality control and delivery. We collaborate actively with Waymo engineering teams as well as external suppliers and partners to make sure everything is built to spec and delivered on time to meet the rising demands of our business.

You will report to our Vehicle Quality & Manufacturing Design Lead and will be based on-site in Arizona.

You Will:

• Develop and execute the vehicle Control Plan for incoming, in-process, and outgoing quality controls, to assure the finished vehicle meets all technical specifications.
• Provide on-site support at the manufacturing operation site to manage quality controls in sub-assembly, vehicle integration, and vehicle system bring-up, including troubleshooting of vehicle systems, end-of-line testing, sensor calibration, and drive testing.
• Work with the manufacturing team daily on site at the factory, providing oversight of execution of agreed processes, assuring that manufacturing and inspection processes are performed correctly using the proper tools, materials and methods.
• Meticulously document problems and work cross-functionally to contain, root cause, and implement corrective actions. Assess and approve vehicle repairs and reworks to meet technical requirements.
• Verify each vehicle’s compliance to specification and sign off completed vehicles prior to shipment from the manufacturing facility to customers.
• Investigate, correct and monitor ongoing improvement of product quality issues identified in the manufacturing facility or experienced by customers. Must enable collaborative, timely, data-driven decision making to tackle product quality related issues.

You Have:

• 6+ years experience in a Manufacturing/Engineering/Operations Quality role in the automotive/transportation OEM or Tier supplier manufacturing arena.
• Bachelor's Engineering degree or equivalent work experience; extensive hands-on experience in automotive manufacturing can compensate for not having an engineering degree.
• Experience with a variety of light assembly and manufacturing processes.
• Understands typical automotive manufacturing, manual assembly, test and inspection methodologies.
• Strong skills leading the 7D problem solving processes : problem definition, containment, occurrence/escape root cause analysis, corrective/preventive action planning and execution.
• Demonstrates excellent problem solving & communication skills while working alone and in large teams; interfacing with assembly operators, inspectors, production supervisors, engineers, and technical managers.

Waymo's Supply Chain and Manufacturing teams are making the technology of the future a reality. We handle all production processes and supplier development strategies: from contracts and purchasing, to designs for improved manufacturing, through quality control and delivery. We collaborate actively with Waymo engineering teams as well as external suppliers and partners to make sure everything is built to spec and delivered on time to meet the rising demands of our business.

You will report to our Head of Vehicle Manufacturing and will be based on-site in Arizona.

You Will:

• Drive the development of cutting-edge test solutions to validate autonomous vehicle functionality
• Collaborate directly on software development for diagnostics, integration, and scalable automated testing platforms
• Design and implement optimized processes to achieve high-throughput vehicle commissioning (hundreds of vehicles daily)
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex electrical and software challenges on autonomous vehicles
• Lead the bring-up and calibration of the autonomous vehicle fleet

You Have:

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Computer, Mechanical Engineering or related field
• 5+ years of industry experience (nothing less)
• Strong understanding of electrical systems and components (Power distribution, networks, harnessing) and electrical diagnostic tools (DMMs, power supplies, oscilloscope, logic analyzers, CAN diagnostics)
• Strong understanding of embedded systems design and debugging methodologies (embedded firmware, RTOS, JTAG, SWD) and software diagnostic tools (command line interfaces, interpreting log files)
• Demonstrated proficiency in software development (Python, C++,Unix/Linux)
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills

We Prefer:

• 10+ years experience in a Manufacturing/Engineering/Operations Quality role in the automotive/transportation OEM or Tier supplier manufacturing arena.
• Strong experience with manufacturing supply chain techniques and processes such as supplier audits, new product introductions, product life cycles, manufacturing engineering, first article inspection, technical documentation, and APQP/PPAP.
• Experience with quality control planning for early development engineering projects, and then executing and improving those quality plans to complete the pre-production and scaling of manufacturing operations.
• Demonstrated hands-on mechanical, manufacturing process and vehicle electrical troubleshooting experience.
• Detailed understanding of factory-related and customer-related product quality and reliability metrics.
• Experience with interpretation of design drawings/GD&T, schematics, and cosmetic standards for creation inspection criteria and execution of inspection plans.

Travel:

Minimal travel (

The expected base salary range for this full-time position is listed below. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors, including exact work location, experience, relevant training and education, and skill level. Waymo employees are also eligible to participate in Waymo’s discretionary annual bonus program, equity incentive plan, and generous Company benefits program, subject to eligibility requirements.

Salary Range

$158,000—$171,000 USD