E-3 Visa Foundation Director Jobs
Foundation Director roles in the U.S. require demonstrating specialty occupation status, which means your degree field must align directly with foundation leadership, philanthropy management, or nonprofit administration. Australian professionals can secure E-3 visa sponsorship for these positions without entering a lottery, with two-year renewable status and no annual cap.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the world's most trusted driver. Since its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has focused on building the Waymo Driver—The World's Most Experienced Driver™—to improve access to mobility while saving thousands of lives now lost to traffic crashes. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo’s fully autonomous ride-hail service and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over ten million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving over 100 million miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 15+ U.S. states.
The mission of the Waymo AI Foundations team is to develop machine learning solutions addressing open problems in autonomous driving, towards the goal of safely operating Waymo vehicles in dozens of cities and under all driving conditions. As part of our work, we also initiate and foster collaborations with other research teams in Alphabet. AI Foundations areas that we are currently focusing on include reinforcement learning, learning from demonstration, generative modeling, Bayesian inference, hierarchical learning, and robust evaluation.
In this hybrid role, you will report to the Senior Director, AI Foundations.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
You will:
- Participate in Waymo’s Foundation World Model pre-training and post-training by owning the data recipe
- Invest in data best practices - best practices around clustering, filtering, de-duplication, long-tail data mining, memorization, etc. Also help lead a team of research engineers to build the data flywheel to enable the above from Waymo’s massive driving data
- Integrate emerging research from the broader community to do rigorous ablations and promising data research techniques. Focus on managing a team of scientists that would work on scaling ladders for pre-training, data mix optimizations and RL recipes (preferences) for post-training.
- Engage with the wider research community on best practices around data centric evaluation creation and refinement
- Partner with engineering and research teams across Waymo to share recipes, techniques, and post-training best practices to accelerate our collective know-how
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
You have:
- PhD or Masters in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or a similar technical field; with 5+ years of industry or post-doc research experience in Reinforcement Learning or Foundation Models
- Demonstration of original contributions to the field through high-impact publications (ArXiv, peer-reviewed conferences like NeurIPS/ICLR/CVPR), technical blog posts, or significant open-source contributions
- Experience leading teams of research scientists and engineers to deploy real world impact in AI - including showing real world impact. Ability to be hands-on when needed to adapt models as and when needed.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
We prefer:
- Extensive experience working with data and recipes for large scale foundation models
- PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or Robotics, with a research focus on Data centric AI, Reinforcement Learning, Foundation Models, or Multimodal learning
COMPENSATION
The expected base salary range for this full-time position across US locations is listed below. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors, including exact work location, experience, relevant training and education, and skill level. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the role location or, if the role can be performed remote, the specific salary range for your preferred location, during the hiring process.
- Salary Range: $349,000—$431,000 USD
Waymo employees are also eligible to participate in Waymo’s discretionary annual bonus program, equity incentive plan, and generous Company benefits program, subject to eligibility requirements.
LOCATION
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
JOB TYPE
FULL-TIME
WORK ARRANGEMENT
Hybrid
INTRODUCTION
Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the world's most trusted driver. Since its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has focused on building the Waymo Driver—The World's Most Experienced Driver™—to improve access to mobility while saving thousands of lives now lost to traffic crashes. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo’s fully autonomous ride-hail service and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over ten million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving over 100 million miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 15+ U.S. states.
The mission of the Waymo AI Foundations team is to develop machine learning solutions addressing open problems in autonomous driving, towards the goal of safely operating Waymo vehicles in dozens of cities and under all driving conditions. As part of our work, we also initiate and foster collaborations with other research teams in Alphabet. AI Foundations areas that we are currently focusing on include reinforcement learning, learning from demonstration, generative modeling, Bayesian inference, hierarchical learning, and robust evaluation.
In this hybrid role, you will report to the Senior Director, AI Foundations.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
You will:
- Participate in Waymo’s Foundation World Model pre-training and post-training by owning the data recipe
- Invest in data best practices - best practices around clustering, filtering, de-duplication, long-tail data mining, memorization, etc. Also help lead a team of research engineers to build the data flywheel to enable the above from Waymo’s massive driving data
- Integrate emerging research from the broader community to do rigorous ablations and promising data research techniques. Focus on managing a team of scientists that would work on scaling ladders for pre-training, data mix optimizations and RL recipes (preferences) for post-training.
- Engage with the wider research community on best practices around data centric evaluation creation and refinement
- Partner with engineering and research teams across Waymo to share recipes, techniques, and post-training best practices to accelerate our collective know-how
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
You have:
- PhD or Masters in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or a similar technical field; with 5+ years of industry or post-doc research experience in Reinforcement Learning or Foundation Models
- Demonstration of original contributions to the field through high-impact publications (ArXiv, peer-reviewed conferences like NeurIPS/ICLR/CVPR), technical blog posts, or significant open-source contributions
- Experience leading teams of research scientists and engineers to deploy real world impact in AI - including showing real world impact. Ability to be hands-on when needed to adapt models as and when needed.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
We prefer:
- Extensive experience working with data and recipes for large scale foundation models
- PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or Robotics, with a research focus on Data centric AI, Reinforcement Learning, Foundation Models, or Multimodal learning
COMPENSATION
The expected base salary range for this full-time position across US locations is listed below. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors, including exact work location, experience, relevant training and education, and skill level. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the role location or, if the role can be performed remote, the specific salary range for your preferred location, during the hiring process.
- Salary Range: $349,000—$431,000 USD
Waymo employees are also eligible to participate in Waymo’s discretionary annual bonus program, equity incentive plan, and generous Company benefits program, subject to eligibility requirements.
LOCATION
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
JOB TYPE
FULL-TIME
WORK ARRANGEMENT
Hybrid
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding E-3 Visa Sponsorship in Foundation Director
Align your degree to the role
Foundation Director positions must qualify as specialty occupations under E-3 visa rules. A degree in nonprofit management, public administration, or social policy maps more cleanly than a general arts degree. If your field differs, document how your coursework directly supports foundation leadership.
Target employers with prior LCA history
Search DOL's Foreign Labor Application Gateway for employers who have filed Labor Condition Applications for foundation or nonprofit director roles. Prior LCA filings signal an employer already understands the E-3 process and won't stall at the sponsorship conversation.
Find verified E-3 sponsoring employers on Migrate Mate
Use Migrate Mate to search Foundation Director roles filtered by E-3 visa sponsorship. The platform surfaces employers with active sponsorship history, so you're not cold-pitching organizations that have never navigated the process.
Request the LCA before resigning your current role
Your employer files the LCA with DOL before you apply at the consulate. DOL typically certifies LCAs within seven business days, but confirm this is initiated before you set an interview date or give notice to your current employer.
Use Migrate Mate's E-3 filing service for end-to-end support
Migrate Mate's E-3 filing service manages the LCA filing, visa application paperwork, and consulate preparation in one process. This matters for Foundation Director applicants whose specialty occupation framing requires precise documentation of degree-to-role alignment.
Prepare a detailed position description for the consulate
Consular officers assess whether Foundation Director duties genuinely require a specialized degree. Bring a written job description from your employer that specifies grant strategy, board governance, and donor development responsibilities, not just general management language.
E-3 Visa Foundation Director: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find Foundation Director jobs that offer E-3 visa sponsorship?
Use Migrate Mate to search Foundation Director roles filtered specifically for E-3 visa sponsorship. Most general job platforms don't distinguish between visa types, so you can't easily identify which employers are willing to file an LCA. Migrate Mate surfaces employers with verified sponsorship history, narrowing your search to organizations that have already navigated the E-3 process.
How much does it cost to get an E-3 visa?
Migrate Mate's E-3 filing service covers the entire process for $499, including the Labor Condition Application, visa document preparation, and consulate appointment guidance. Traditional immigration lawyers charge $2,000–$5,000+ for the same work. The E-3 has less paperwork than most work visas, so paying thousands for legal help is usually unnecessary.
Does a Foundation Director role qualify as a specialty occupation under the E-3 visa?
Yes, provided the position genuinely requires a bachelor's degree or higher in a specific related field, such as nonprofit management, public administration, philanthropy, or social policy. The role can't be framed as general management. USCIS and consular officers look for a direct, logical connection between the degree field and the core duties of the director position.
How does the E-3 visa compare to the H-1B for Foundation Director roles?
The E-3 is available only to Australian citizens and has no annual lottery, so you can apply any time of year once you have a job offer and a certified LCA. The H-1B visa is subject to an annual cap and lottery with a roughly 25% selection rate for most applicants. For Australians, the E-3 is a direct path that bypasses that uncertainty entirely.
Can I change Foundation Director employers while on an E-3 visa?
Yes, but you need a new LCA and new visa documentation for each employer change. The E-3 is employer-specific, so your status is tied to the sponsoring organization. If you're moving to a new foundation or nonprofit, your new employer must file a fresh LCA with DOL before you begin work, and you'll typically need to attend a new consulate appointment if your current visa stamp is about to expire.