Engineering&HardwareCategoryManager

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. Waymo's Procurement and Vendor Enablement Office (PVEO) is the strategic engine behind our rapid commercial scaling. We don't just buy services; we design the workforce architecture that powers the Waymo Driver. In this senior leadership role, you will lead the Enterprise Outsourcing lead negotiations for mission-critical engineering design firms to secure favorable long-term commercial and IP terms. Structure and negotiate complex Statements of Work (SOWs) and Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) agreements for hardware development to ensure successful project delivery and ROI. Optimize Joint Design Manufacturing (JDM) and Original Design Manufacturing (ODM) relationships for R lead complex "make vs. buy" analyses and influence technical requirements to drive commercial value and mitigate supply chain risk. Partner with Legal (IP/Security) to ensure all engineering services and hardware agreements meet Waymo’s rigorous intellectual property protection and cybersecurity standards. You have: 7+ years of strategic procurement experience, with at least 4+ years dedicated to Engineering Services, R&D, or Hardware sourcing. Deep expertise in outsourced engineering models (managed services, staff augmentation, fixed-bid) and experience negotiating with Tier 1 engineering service providers