Associate Counsel

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the world's 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’s fully autonomous ride-hail service and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over ten million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving over 100 million miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 15+ U.S. states.

As part of Waymo's Legal team, you will work on the exciting legal issues surrounding our transformational autonomous driving technology and help drive our business lines forward from technology ideation through scaled commercial deployment. We partner with our public policy, safety, security and privacy experts to define transportation policy for the autonomous driving world to come, advising on regulatory changes that support and protect our users around the world. We collaborate with our engineering, product, strategy and operations teams to develop and protect our intellectual property portfolio and drive our corporate and commercial transactions. We ensure compliance with an increasingly complex and dynamic range of global regulations. And we anticipate, mitigate, and litigate high-profile and precedent-setting legal matters.

In this hybrid role, you will report to a Assistant General Counsel.

You will:

• Advise on the applicability of U.S. state and local legal frameworks to novel operational scenarios and cutting-edge autonomous vehicle technology.
• Partner with cross-functional partners to support ground-breaking regulatory and legislative outcomes for the transportation industry.
• Represent Waymo’s legal and regulatory interests, fostering constructive, proactive relationships with government authorities and key agency stakeholders.
• Advise teams building scalable operational and regulatory compliance programs and processes.
• Support the expansion of highly regulated business operations.
• Gain subject matter expertise in new areas as novel issues and topics emerge.

You have:

• Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from an accredited law school and active bar membership.
• 2 to 4+ years of experience as an attorney at a firm, in-house at a company, or in government, practicing in the area of administrative law, agency regulations, regulatory legislation and/or compliance.
• Experience with relevant subject matter such as autonomous vehicles, other automotive, ride-hailing, delivery.
• Strong analytical acumen and legal comprehension, complemented by exceptional written and oral communication skills.
• Experience responding to regulatory inquiries, audits, and information requests, in partnership with with engineering, data science, product, safety, and compliance teams.
• Demonstrated ability to propose practical solutions to legal issues and lead legal compliance and risk mitigation efforts, executing with appropriate urgency.

We prefer:

• Experience securing operating authority and navigating complex regulatory approvals.
• Familiarity with appellate litigation strategies and proceedings relevant to judicial review of agency decisions and actions.

The expected base salary range for this full-time position across US locations 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. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the role location or, if the role can be performed remote, the specific salary range for your preferred location, during the hiring process. 

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$213,000—$263,000 USD