Product Counsel, Dbw

The Waymo Policy and Government Affairs team has a front seat in this exciting moment in the evolution of autonomous driving technology, transportation and tech policy. Successful navigation of the policy landscape is critically important to deploying and scaling our business. Our team works directly with policymakers and third party groups at the national, state and local levels to help advance transportation policy, educate on the safety benefits of the technology, and advance consumer awareness and acceptance. Internally, our efforts support the innovative work of engineering, product, strategy, and partnerships teams, and we work closely with highly-skilled legal and safety experts.

In this Hybrid role you will report to the Managing Counsel, Safety, Security & Operational Integrity.

You will:

• Provide proactive product counseling to safety, product, engineering, operations, and security teams. 
• Deeply understand Waymo’s product, operations, and roadmaps, and provide business-focused advice to enable Waymo’s domestic and international growth.
• Advise on product and operational legal risk, including safety and security matters, across multiple jurisdictions and liability regimes (domestic and international).
• Advise on interactions with partners, vendors, and suppliers on matters posing legal risk, including investigations.
• Advise on approaches to inbound inquiries, internal and external communications, and proposed safety-related research publications. 
• Participate as a member of the legal incident response team.

You have:

• Law degree (LLB, LLM, or JD), plus at least 5 years of prior litigation and/or product counseling experience with a law firm or in-house legal department.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to explain complex legal concepts succinctly and pragmatically.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to partner effectively at all levels of the company and cross-functionally, including with executives and technical staff.
• Deep understanding of the product life-cycle, vehicle/fleet operations, and litigation/judicial process.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail; ability to manage a significant workload with competing deadlines in a fast-paced environment. 
• Proficiency and comfort navigating ambiguity and developing effective, business-oriented solutions to managing legal risk; enthusiasm for winning together as a team and working collaboratively with legal and non-legal stakeholders.

We prefer:

• Experience working with automotive or emerging technology companies, or with complex hardware, software, and interrelated technologies.
• Product counseling experience, including for products or operations spanning multiple domestic or international jurisdictions and product liability regimes. 
• Cybersecurity, data security, and/or security counseling experience.
• Operations and fleet experience.
• Experience counseling across a range of subject matters relevant to regulated industries, emerging technologies, or AI.
• Experience providing legal advice on crisis management or internal investigations.
• Experience defending multi-party tort litigation, investigations, or trials.
• Experience responding to governmental requests for information, and/or other torts, commercial, employment, or IP litigation experience.

Travel Requirements:

• Travel to San Francisco Bay Area (Mountain View) several times throughout the year for major team meetings and company events.