Program Manager III, Community Manager, Geo Local Guides

A problem isn’t truly solved until it’s solved for all. That’s why Googlers build products that help create opportunities for everyone, whether down the street or across the globe. As a Program Manager at Google, you’ll lead complex, multi-disciplinary projects from start to finish — working with stakeholders to plan requirements, manage project schedules, identify risks, and communicate clearly with cross-functional partners across the company. Your projects will often span offices, time zones, and hemispheres. It's your job to coordinate the players and keep them up to date on progress and deadlines.

As the Community Manager for Local Guides, you will be the face and voice of Google Maps to our most dedicated global contributors. This is a high-impact role designed for a strategic, empathetic, and tech-savvy community builder. You will lead the content and engagement strategy for the Local Guides community, ensuring our most prolific members feel valued, heard, and empowered to improve Google Maps for everyone. You will bridge the gap between user needs and product goals, helping to inform and shape the ecosystem where millions of people share their local knowledge. We are looking for an experienced Community Manager for the Local Guides Community team, who will partner with the contributor marketing and events teams, UGC engineering or product teams and engage directly with the passionate Google Maps contributor communities online and offline.

The Geo team is focused on building the most accurate, comprehensive, and useful maps for our users, through products like Maps, Earth, Street View, Google Maps Platform, and more. Every month, more than a billion people rely on Maps services to explore the world and navigate their daily lives.

The Geo team also enables developers to use the power of Google Maps platforms to enhance their apps and websites. As they plot a course for the future of mapping, they are solving complex computer science problems, designing beautiful and intuitive product experiences, and improving our understanding of the real world.

Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $159000 - $231000 (USD) + 15% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the strategic owner of our external community forum - Local Guides Connect - overseeing day-to-day operations, moderation standards, growth opportunities and platform health.
• Manage relationships with external vendors and moderation partners to ensure high-quality support and engagement and on-time delivery of services.
• Identify, nurture, and build strong individual relationships with our most active community members, turning them into advocates for Google Maps.
  
• Develop and execute long-term, community-centric roadmaps and initiatives that grow and maintain a thriving community and ecosystem of Google Maps contributors in partnership with marketing, product, engineering, UX, data analytics. 
  
• Act as an internal advocate for the community, defining reusable processes to distill user feedback into actionable insights and surface for Product and Engineering teams.
  

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
  
• 5 years of experience in program or project management.
• Experience in online community building and management or customer advocacy for a global brand.
• Experience with scaling communities and managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects with the ability to influence others.

Preferred qualifications:

• 5 years of experience managing cross-functional or cross-team projects.
  
• Experience with scaling communities and managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects with the ability to influence others.
• Some technical proficiency with forum software (e.g., Discourse, Salesforce), CRM tools, and basic data analysis to track community health metrics.
  
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to navigate sensitive topics with empathy and clarity.