Regional Fleet Readiness Manager - Central

Waymo • Chicago, IL

9d

About The Position

Waymo is seeking a Regional Fleet Readiness Manager to lead fleet readiness, performance, and scalability across multiple Central Region markets. The role owns the path from platform readiness to supply-demand equilibrium, ensuring fleet health supports service availability. It combines technical and operational leadership, internal team mentorship, and oversight of external partners.

The manager will lead the scaling of new electric vehicle platforms, oversee field integration and technical readiness, and provide technical direction to Diagnostic Technicians across multiple sites. The role connects Hardware and Electrical Engineering with Field Operations, turning technical issues into standard work and driving root-cause analysis. It also oversees vendor service-level performance and workforce readiness, promotes automation and tooling to improve depot throughput, reports fleet health to global leadership, and partners with Supply Management on component lifecycle and parts availability.

The position reports to the Head of Market Operations - Central Region. Travel is required 25% of the time. The expected base salary range is $130,000–$160,000 USD. Employees are also eligible for a discretionary annual bonus program, an equity incentive plan, and company benefits, subject to eligibility requirements.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Business, Operations, Fleet or Logistics, or Automotive and Fleet Technology.
• At least 7 years of industry experience in large-scale commercial operations, logistics, or hardware manufacturing.
• At least 3 years of experience specifically focused on Electric Vehicle platforms.
• At least 5 years overseeing regional fleet and maintenance workflows, including repair-order performance, fleet productivity and availability, and overall operational effectiveness.
• Demonstrated experience taking a vehicle platform or complex hardware product from the NPI phase through stable, commercial-scale field deployment.
• Proven track record monitoring fleet performance KPIs, including vehicle turnaround time, downtime percentages, per-unit maintenance cost, and regional asset utilization.
• Proven ability to manage complex service-level agreements and drive vendor accountability through data-driven performance audits.
• Advanced ability to interpret telemetry data, diagnostic codes, dashboards, and fleet metrics to identify operational gaps, mitigate market-level risks, and optimize fleet health.
• Experience managing multiple high-stakes technical projects simultaneously in a high-velocity environment.
• Ability to audit vendor Standard Work and safety certifications.

Nice To Haves

• Direct experience with autonomous vehicle ecosystems, particularly integrating compute and sensing suites with EV powertrains.
• Experience implementing or refining formal operating systems, such as the Waymo Operating System or Lean Manufacturing, to reduce operational drag.
• Advanced knowledge of EV safety standards and ability to design or manage safe workspaces for high-voltage e-battery service.
• Skill navigating organizational restructuring and leading teams through the changing environment of a scaling startup.
• Ability to build and manage relationships, engage in person, and foster cross-functional communication and alignment.
• Analytical and critical thinking, problem-solving, risk assessment and management, and long-term planning and prioritization skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategic scaling of new EV platforms across multiple Central Region markets, with oversight of field integration, high-voltage stabilization, sensor-health protocols, fleet uptime, and platform maturity.
• Provide dotted-line leadership, technical oversight, daily prioritization, and technical mentorship to a multi-site team of Diagnostic Technicians.
• Serve as the primary liaison between Hardware/Electrical Engineering and Field Operations, translating systemic technical failures into actionable Standard Work and driving Root Cause Analysis.
• Manage complex service-level agreements and ensure third-party partners are appropriately staffed and technically trained for multi-platform EV operations.
• Audit vendor Standard Work and safety certifications.
• Champion deployment of automated systems and advanced tooling to maximize depot throughput.
• Provide executive-ready reporting on fleet health and maturity to Global Leadership.
• Partner with Supply Management to oversee critical component lifecycles and just-in-time part availability for mission-critical EV hardware.
• Monitor fleet performance KPIs, including vehicle turnaround time, downtime percentages, per-unit maintenance cost, and regional asset utilization.
• Manage multiple high-stakes technical projects, such as retrofits and software-defined hardware updates.
• Travel 25% of the time.

Benefits

• Discretionary annual bonus program
• Equity incentive plan
• Company benefits program

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager