Is Waymo a good place to work?

Mostly. Waymo's own operations staff are direct employees with full benefits, but most hands-on robotaxi jobs are with partners such as Transdev, whose autonomous vehicle operators rate it 2.5/5 on Glassdoor. You will probably not work for Waymo: most field jobs are with Transdev or another partner, under its pay, point rules and managers, and Waymo can hand a city's fleet work to a new partner, as it planned with Moove in Phoenix.

Yes. Waymo LLC, in Mountain View, California, is the Alphabet subsidiary that began as Google's self-driving project in 2009 (renamed in 2016), led by co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov. It raised $5.6 billion in October 2024 and $16 billion in February 2026 at a $126 billion valuation, then a $5 billion loan in October 2026. Alphabet said in April 2026 it passed 500,000 fully autonomous rides a week; it reached its 15th US city in September 2026.

Yes. The largest commercial robotaxi operator. Payouts: Hourly, often via staffing partners. Field crews are mostly partner staff: Transdev (over 1,000 operators on Waymo fleets), Moove (Phoenix, Miami), Avis (Dallas) and Lyft's Flexdrive (Nashville) employ them; each posting states its pay rate. Transdev lists at least 1 week of vacation, 5 sick days, 6 holidays. Waymo's own operations staff get full benefits.

Glassdoor 4.1/5 (298 reviews) · Blind (mostly engineers) 3.9/5 (241 reviews) · Indeed 3.1/5 (59 reviews) · Glassdoor (Transdev autonomous vehicle operators; Transdev staff, not all on Waymo work) 2.5/5 (63 reviews), as read in October 2026. Praised: A senior autonomous specialist at Transdev (Glassdoor, July 2024) called the job relaxed and working directly with Waymo on self-driving development a good experience, with good pay at the top of the band. Criticised: Transdev's autonomous vehicle operators rate it 2.5/5 on Glassdoor (63 reviews), 45% would recommend it; reviewers cite sudden policy changes, favoritism, high turnover and firings for rule breaks like touching a phone.

March 2023: Waymo cut 209 jobs, about 8% of its staff, in two rounds in January and March 2023; the March cuts were mostly engineering roles. In July 2023 it closed its Waymo Via trucking program, and most of that team moved to other roles. June 2025: Several Waymo cars were set on fire during the June 2025 Los Angeles protests. In February 2024 a crowd in San Francisco's Chinatown vandalized and burned one (no one was hurt), and in July 2024 Waymo sued two people over vandalism. Operator postings include recovering stranded cars in the field. February 2026: Waymo confirmed at a Senate hearing that some remote assistance is done from the Philippines. Its letter to Sen. Markey says about 70 agents are on duty at once, half in Arizona and Michigan (including the US-only Event Response Team) and half in two Philippine cities, through vendors. Markey called it a safety issue. September 2026: A Los Angeles federal jury found on Sept. 11 that Transdev Alternative Services retaliated against Daniel Stein, a former Waymo roadside assistant fired after using his phone to report that mandated GPS routing led him into a street takeover. It awarded about $10.26 million, $10 million of it punitive. We could not read whether Transdev will appeal.

Yes. Its public job board has 5 Waymo jobs open (checked 28 Oct 2026). Taking each week's closing count, Waymo moved from 8 open roles on 20 Sep 2026 to 5 by 25 Oct 2026; its high point was 9 on 11 Oct 2026.

A good fit: Drivers 21+ with 3+ years on public roads and a clean record in a Waymo city who can work overnights, weekends and overtime for a partner such as Transdev, or experienced AV quality analysts after salaried remote work. A poor fit: Anyone set on Waymo itself as the employer for field work, needing fixed daytime hours, or wanting long-term remote assist work: Waymo says assist requests per mile keep falling and staffing will change accordingly.