Waymo is the self-driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around. Building on software and sensor technology developed at Google, Waymo is now launching the world’s first fully self-driving transportation service that will take members of the public from A to B at the touch of a button.
Waymo takes an integrated approach to building the world’s first self-driving car, with researchers, product managers, and technical program managers working side by side. We seek to understand the needs of our users and the opportunities of the technology to ensure we build the best product. From self driving behavior to user interfaces, we work to inspire the product vision and then make it a reality.
In this Senior Researcher role you'll:
- Embed in product and engineering teams to identify opportunities for qualitative research to inform and evaluate measures and logic
- Run end-to-end research leveraging methodologies to suit the question - lab studies, field visits, ethnography, surveys, benchmark studies, server logs, job shadowing, experiments (A/B testing), and participatory exercises
- Lead critical research initiatives to deepen Waymo’s understanding of system stakeholders and actors to inform a broad and complex view of traffic through systems thinking and system stakeholder engagement
- Consistently deliver clear and rigorous research findings that inform and inspire action in a highly technical organization. Understand and translate complex technical and business needs into concise questions and studies
- Proactively collaborate with Marketing, PR, Engineering, Product, Executives, ID and UX teams and ensure stakeholders understand and take action on research insights
At minimum we'd like you to have:
- BA/BS degree in Anthropology, Sociology, Human Geography, Human Robot Interaction, Human Computer Interaction, or other related fields or equivalent practical experience
- 7+ years industry experience conducting user research, design research, ethnographic, and/or market research
- 2+ years focused on transportation, mobility, ride hailing, or AV in particular
It's preferred if you have:
- M.A/M.S./Ph.D. (in progress or completed) in social science field
- Research experience specifically focused on transportation as a service or mobility at a technology company
- Dexterity to work on both customer facing products as well as internal tools for engineering operations and workflows
- Proven ability to manage large-scale projects across a diverse set of stakeholders, launch and scale successful consumer products or services