Legal Specialist - Privacy

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 into our Managing Counsel, Product, AI & Privacy.

You will:

• Lead and coordinate cross-functional privacy projects, including technical audit programs and pre-launch reviews for new products/features, ensuring alignment on program goals, timelines, and successful delivery of business, operational, and technical improvements for multiple compliance programs.
• Conduct in-depth risk assessments, proactively identify potential compliance gaps, and develop and implement mitigation plans.
• Conduct Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs/DPIAs) for new AV features, data processing activities, and third-party integrations, identifying and mitigating privacy risks.
• Develop, implement, and maintain AV-specific privacy policies, standards, and data governance frameworks (e.g., data mapping, retention schedules).
• Collaborate closely with engineering, information security, and product teams to embed privacy-by-design principles and ensure privacy requirements are met in technical discussions and implementations.
• Support regulatory inquiries, certification requirements, and AI compliance efforts, working with legal counsel to demonstrate and ensure compliance across various jurisdictions.

You have:

• Excellent organizational, analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex privacy requirements into actionable guidance for technical and non-technical teams.
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g., Law, Information Systems, Business, or equivalent practical experience).
• 5 years of experience in compliance, policy, risk management, investigation, auditing, legal, or consulting, preferably with a strong focus on data privacy.
• Solid understanding of US and EU privacy laws and frameworks (e.g., CCPA/CPRA, BIPA, TDPSA, GDPR).
• Experience developing and enforcing policies for products and services.

We prefer:

• Advanced degree in Law, Business, Privacy, Compliance or a related field.
• Experience in compliance program management principles, risk assessment methodologies, and internal control frameworks within the AV industry.
• Demonstrated experience managing Data Subject Rights (DSR) requests under global privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA/CPRA).
• Proven ability to conduct Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs/DPIAs) and identify/mitigate privacy risks in complex data environments.
• Experience in bringing structure and clarity to ambiguous situations, enabling the ability to analyze fragmented information, identify key attributes, and develop balanced recommendations and effective solutions with problem-solving capabilities.
• Solid understanding of global privacy laws and frameworks (e.g., GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, LGPD, UK GDPR).

Travel: 

• Occasional travel may be needed