I work at Google, and can confirm that the process for open source contributions (as long as you're okay with assigning copyright for the work to Google) isn't

I work at Google, and can confirm that the process for open source contributions (as long as you're okay with assigning copyright for the work to Google) isn't particularly onerous in most cases. You just have to verify that the project has a valid open source license, and send in a copy of your first three commits.