Uber APM Program

Overview

The Uber Associate Product Manager (APM) program is a two-year rotational program designed to develop future product leaders at Uber. APMs complete three rotations on different product teams, spending approximately 8 months in each rotation.

The program provides exposure to Uber's diverse product lines. One rotation might focus on the Rider team improving the Uber app experience, another on the Driver team building features for driver efficiency, and another in newer businesses like Uber Eats or "New Verticals" including grocery delivery and freight.

Uber APMs start with an immersive two-week bootcamp covering Uber's business, product development processes, and tooling. You'll engage in case studies of past Uber products, meet with executives, and bond with your fellow APM cohort. After bootcamp, you join a product team and take ownership of projects under manager guidance.

A hallmark of the Uber APM program is the global research trip to 4 unique cities around the world. The goal is to gain on-the-ground insights into local market needs and how Uber's products work in different regions. You might travel to cities in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Africa to observe riders and drivers, visit Uber Greenlight Hubs, and meet local operations teams.

Uber's business varies significantly by country. Payment methods, traffic patterns, and cultural norms in ridesharing differ widely. These firsthand experiences broaden APM perspective and generate ideas for product improvements.

Throughout the program, continuous mentorship is provided. Uber pairs each APM with seasoned product leaders as mentors. A program management team oversees your development and ensures each rotation provides distinct learning. Regular cohort meetings include workshops on PM skills like roadmapping and SQL.

Uber's program is known for giving APMs significant responsibility and ownership. Uber operates a metrics-driven, experiment-heavy product culture. APMs run A/B tests that affect millions of trips and craft features to optimize marketplace balance between driver supply and rider demand. The learning curve is steep: you'll quickly familiarize yourself with dynamic pricing algorithms, geospatial data considerations, and safety features. This challenge drives APM growth into strong PMs.

At the end of two years, Uber APMs graduate and are placed as Product Managers within the company, usually at a PM II level. Many continue working on one of their rotation teams or pursue new openings in the company. Uber has a track record of APM alumni advancing to leadership roles or founding companies.

Eligibility and International Candidates

Uber's APM program targets new college graduates with strong technical backgrounds. Uber states the program is for those "soon to graduate from a bachelor's or master's program in Computer Science or an equivalent technical field."

This means Uber heavily prefers candidates with computer science, engineering, or similar degrees. A foundation in software or data is useful because Uber's product challenges often involve algorithms like routing and matching, plus data analysis.

If you have a non-technical degree but possess technical experience through self-taught coding, a CS minor, or hackathon wins, you might still try, but the technical bar is high.

Uber typically requires candidates to graduate and start working full-time by the summer the program starts. For the 2025 cohort, you'd need to finish school by spring or early summer 2025. Uber also requires candidates to have minimal work experience. The program is for entry-level candidates, not those who've been PMs elsewhere.

Other qualities sought: Uber looks for proactive, innovative individuals passionate about their mission of making transportation as reliable as running water. Ideal candidates demonstrate strong analytical skills and collaboration, as APMs work with many stakeholders.

International candidates: Uber, being a global company, hires and sponsors international candidates for the APM program. The program is based in San Francisco, and possibly other hubs like Seattle or New York for some rotations, so U.S. work authorization is required for the U.S. program.

Uber has historically sponsored H-1B visas for new grad hires, including APMs. If you're an international student in the U.S., you would apply normally. If accepted, Uber would likely use OPT for the first year.

Uber sometimes runs APM programs in other countries. They had a separate APM program in Amsterdam's EU office one year, but the program is primarily U.S.-based. If you are international and not in the U.S. education system, consider applying if you can work in the U.S. via visa, or see if Uber has new grad PM roles in your region.

When to apply: Uber's APM application tends to open in late summer. In recent cycles, applications opened in mid-August. For the 2021 intake, they opened August 14, 2020. In the 2025 cycle, Uber opened their applications for around a week in late September 2025.

Monitor in August and September on Uber's careers page. Uber APM historically had one cycle per year, with cohorts usually starting around August or September of the following year.

Company Culture

Uber's culture for product managers is deeply influenced by the company's history and industry: fast-paced, data-driven, and operations-heavy. Uber famously went through periods of aggressive growth and "hustle" culture. In recent years, they've moderated that approach, focusing on collaboration and empathy, but the PM role at Uber remains intense and impactful.

As an Uber APM, the culture is highly metrics and experimentation oriented. Every feature or product change you propose will be backed by data. Uber has massive amounts of real-time data—GPS, trips, fares—and PMs constantly analyze funnels, conversion rates, and utilization rates.

You'll likely learn analytics tools and perhaps write SQL to pull data. Experimentation is key: A/B testing or incremental rollout with control groups is standard practice. Testing a new pickup experience in one city versus a control city exemplifies Uber's "build, test, learn, iterate" ethos.

Uber's product culture is closely tied to operations and marketplace dynamics. Unlike purely digital products, Uber's products interact with the physical world: drivers, cars, restaurants, couriers. PMs often collaborate with operations teams in various cities. The culture encourages PMs to understand on-the-ground operations. During rotations, you may do driver ride-alongs or shadow customer support reps for context.

Collaboration: Product Managers at Uber work closely with engineers, designers, data scientists, city operations managers, legal teams for regulatory issues, and marketing. The culture expects PMs to be strong leaders and communicators who align stakeholders. As an APM, you're learning to lead without formal authority. Uber supports this through mentors and expects teams to be open to APM contributions.

The environment can be demanding. You'll drive initiatives with significant revenue or safety implications, so attention to detail and thorough analysis are critical.

Uber in the Travis Kalanick era had a reputation for internal aggression. Today, with Dara Khosrowshahi as CEO, the culture has shifted toward accountability and doing the right thing. Values include "We do the right thing," "Build with heart," and "One Uber," emphasizing teamwork.

As an APM, you'll see a culture that still rewards entrepreneurial action. If you have a great idea and evidence, you can rally support. However, they also emphasize ethics and safety, especially in features related to rider/driver safety and data privacy.

Community: Uber's APM program, being small, fosters a tight community. You'll likely share an office area with your cohort or regularly meet up. Senior product leaders often take personal interest in APMs. The Chief Product Officer or other executives may host roundtables.

Uber's mission is "making movement easier for everyone." The culture has a missionary zeal: you might hear references to changing cities, reducing DUIs by offering alternatives, and empowering flexible work for drivers. As an APM, connecting with that mission can be motivational.

Hiring Process & Interview

Application and Screening

Online Application: Apply on Uber's career site when the program opens. This may involve a resume, basic questions, and sometimes transcripts. Ensure your resume highlights technical skills, leadership, and product experience.

Resume Screen: Recruiting team and program managers review candidates for baseline qualifications: technical background and strong projects.

Take-Home Assignment

This is a significant and unique part of Uber's process. Candidates receive a product prompt assignment to complete within about a week.

Examples of prompts:

• Propose a new feature to improve the Uber Eats experience for couriers
• Design a solution to reduce cancellations in Uber rides

Candidates typically create a slide deck covering:

• Problem definition
• Solution overview with mockups
• MVP scope
• Metrics and rollout plan
• Risks and trade-offs

Tips: Follow instructions, be user-centric, include assumptions/data, demonstrate Uber-specific awareness, and keep slides clear.

First-Round Interviews

Typically two 45-minute interviews:

• Product Design: e.g., "How would you improve Uber for drivers?"
• Execution/Strategy: e.g., "UberPool usage is down 10% week over week in city X, what do you do?"

Interviews may include product estimation, metrics analysis, and short behavioral portions.

Virtual Onsite (Final Round)

A half-day consisting of 4 interviews, approximately 45 minutes each:

• PM Case Interviews: Product design or strategy, potentially with senior PMs
• Cross-Functional Interview: With a designer or data scientist, assessing collaboration
• Behavioral/Leadership Interview: Teamwork, decision-making, conflict resolution
• Technical/Analytical Interview: With an engineer, testing technical understanding and ability to reason about systems

Key Competencies Evaluated:

• Technical acumen: APIs, GPS, system basics
• Uber product knowledge
• Metric-driven mindset

Timeline and Offers

The hiring process takes approximately 2 months. Applications typically open in late summer, interviews follow through early fall, and offers are extended by October.

Compensation:

• Base salary: $126K–$155K in San Francisco
• Equity (RSUs) and benefits included
• Uber supports visa sponsorship for eligible candidates

Tip: The best product managers stay organized. Once you submit your application you'll still need to track it. Use this job application tracker from Simplify to help! Here's the Link