Waymo

Autonomous car and technology developer
Last updated:
January 5, 2026
Company details
HQ
San Francisco, CA
HEADCOUNT
1000-2999
ORG TYPE
Startup
SECTOR
Transportation & Infrastructure
About the company
Waymo is an autonomous driving company that builds the Waymo Driver and operates commercial robotaxi services under Waymo One. Waymo focuses on deploying fully autonomous ride-hailing in selected cities while continuing to develop perception, planning, simulation, and fleet operations systems. Waymo sits within Alphabet and works across software, hardware, and operations to run real-world driverless fleets. Waymo also publishes regular updates on service expansion and safety and technology progress.
Locations and presence
Waymo is headquartered in Mountain View, with major U.S. presence tied to engineering hubs and fleet operations, and active rider service in places like the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta. Waymo also advertises a hybrid work model with some remote opportunities depending on role and team.
Palpable Score
68.8
/ 100
Waymo scores best on pay competitiveness and the presence of paid internships that look like real work rather than shadowing, with public materials describing intern projects and community programming. The biggest constraint is direct entry-level access into full-time roles, which is less visible than internships, plus mixed public signals on internship conversion timing and certainty during periods of organizational change.
Pillar 1: Early-career access

Score

14.7
/ 20
  • The company has multiple current “2026 Summer Intern” postings across technical domains (including BS/MS and PhD tracks), showing recurring student hiring rather than one-off intake.
  • Waymo states that the internship program is used to identify potential talent for full-time offers, making internships a meaningful entry route.
  • The company has limited visible bachelor’s new-grad full-time hiring compared with internships, with more “new grad” language appearing in advanced research roles, which narrows true first-job access.

Pillar 2: Hiring fairness and transparency

Score

11.8
/ 20
  • The company’s candidate reports commonly describe a structured sequence (recruiter screen, technical screen, then a multi-round onsite loop), which helps applicants anticipate what’s coming.
  • Waymo’s intern interview feedback describes a small number of rounds mixing coding and ML fundamentals with generally respectful interviewer behavior, which supports fairness for student candidates.
  • The company has intern reviews describing late clarity on conversion decisions, which creates avoidable uncertainty for candidates trying to plan competing offers and timelines.

Pillar 3: Learning and support

Score

14.8
/ 20
  • The company’s internship write-ups describe interns owning real work that connects to production or core R&D, rather than being limited to internal-only side projects.
  • Waymo highlights intern-focused programming such as mixers, lunches with executives, and group outings intended to build networks and context beyond a single team.
  • The company lists educational reimbursement and peer learning or coaching benefits, but Waymo does not publish a clear early-career onboarding or mentorship structure for full-time entry hires, so support consistency is hard to verify.

Pillar 4: Pay fairness and stability

Score

16.5
/ 20
  • The company’s internship listings show paid roles with published hourly pay (for example, USD $60–$70 per hour for a software engineering internship), reducing the risk of unpaid “experience” work.
  • Waymo’s compensation benchmarking shows very high total compensation at entry-level software engineer levels compared with typical market baselines, indicating strong pay competitiveness for early-career technical hires.
  • The company lists benefits that improve stability, including medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, retirement plans, and parental leave, alongside stated pay equity review practices.

Pillar 5: Early-career outcomes

Score

11.0
/ 20
  • The company positions internships as a pipeline to full-time offers, but public intern reviews include reports of rescinded return offers during layoffs, which adds real risk to internship-to-full-time outcomes.
  • Waymo has public employee profiles showing internship roles followed by full-time engineering roles at Waymo, suggesting some repeatable conversion and early progression.
  • The company has a large volume of employee reviews with broadly positive sentiment, but Waymo does not publish cohort outcomes such as internship conversion rates, promotion timelines, or early-career retention, which caps confidence on long-term outcomes.

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