Google Research is redesigning its internal team-matching process for incoming Research Scientists. Today, candidates have unstructured conversations with hiring managers and HR, leading to slow decisions, inconsistent candidate experience, and poor alignment between researcher interests and team needs. You are asked to lead a 10-week pilot for a more personalized matching workflow using Google Forms, Google Calendar, and a lightweight dashboard in Google Sheets.
The pilot covers 60 incoming Research Scientist candidates across 8 teams in Google DeepMind and Google Research. The working team includes 1 program manager (you), 2 recruiting partners, 6 research leads, 1 people operations partner, and 2 software engineers supporting lightweight tooling. Leadership wants the pilot ready before the next hiring cycle starts.
Recruiting wants faster placement decisions and fewer candidate drop-offs. Research leads want stronger technical fit and do not want extra interview overhead. People Operations wants fairness, consistency, and clear documentation. The Director of Research wants a pilot that can scale globally if successful.
You have 10 weeks, a budget of $75,000, and no approval for additional headcount. Engineers can spend only 30% of their time on this project. Candidate data must remain internal and comply with Google's privacy and hiring policies. The pilot must support 60 candidates, 8 teams, and at least 120 structured conversations.