Tech Lead Manager - ML Autonomy Performance

Before the detail, here's the challenge you'd help us solve. We build the embodied intelligence that moves real vehicles safely, and the ecosystem a billion machines will run on in the future. Very few people in AI can say this. Every role here, whatever the team, plugs into that. Here’s what this particular role covers. 🛠️ About our Driving Product Team The Driving team owns Wayve's core end-to-end driving model, which directly shapes how our vehicles behave on the road. We take the backbone models and build the driving heads on top, and ship them into vehicles. That makes us the team closest to production. Our work is central to Wayve's Robotaxi launches around the world, so it ties directly to our near-term commercial milestones. We iterate fast: we find the top issues we see on the road, find their root causes, and fix them through data, model and evaluation changes. We work closely with other teams to solve issues that span the model and the vehicle. 🧠 Your day-to-day • Lead a small team (up to five people) iterating on Robotaxi driving performance, balancing hands-on technical work with people leadership • Diagnose the highest-impact issues seen on the road, find their root causes and resolve them through data and model iteration • Own changes to data recipes, model architecture, evaluation and release readiness for the driving model • Partner with other teams to resolve cross-functional issues, including model and vehicle interface problems • Be one of the team's key hands-on developers, writing code and running experiments while setting the team's priorities 🧩 What you’ll be working on • The end-to-end driving model that powers Wayve's Robotaxi product as it launches around the world • Scaling driving performance across cities and vehicle platforms while hitting performance and compliance KPIs • Data-led iteration: using on-road and off-road evaluation to find the biggest performance gaps and close them • Working with specialists across the business to resolve model and vehicle interface issues • Growing and shaping a small, high-impact team as the Robotaxi programme scales 🙌 You should apply if Essential • You've managed engineers before and want to lead a team while staying deeply technical. This is a Tech Lead Manager role, not a pure management role • You're highly technical and hands-on: comfortable writing Python and doing model and data iteration yourself, not just directing others • You've delivered deployed, production ML models, or productionized ML at another company and improved a live system step by step over time • Your experience is focused on production rather than mainly on research or early-stage exploration Desirable • You've shipped and iterated on ML for robotics, autonomous vehicles or other embodied AI • You've worked on end-to-end driving models or large-scale model training 🌱 Not ticking every box? That’s totally okay! If you’re passionate about autonomy and keen to learn, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet every requirement. More about Wayve: 🚀 Wayve is building the leading AI platform for autonomous driving. We are pioneering an end to end AI approach that enables vehicles to learn directly from real world experience, developing the ability to adapt, generalise and improve at scale. Instead of relying on hand coded rules or pre mapped environments, our AI Driver learns to drive by understanding the world around it. The result is technology that navigates complex urban environments with intelligence, precision and natural flow, unlocking meaningful advances in both safety and efficiency. We believe autonomy represents a once in a generation transformation in how people and goods move, comparable to the shift from horses to cars, and from human driven vehicles to intelligent machines. Our ambition is to make autonomy universal. Wayve’s mapless and hardware agnostic AI platform integrates with global OEM partners, enabling continuous software evolution and unlocking advanced levels of automation from L2 plus through to L4 as our core AI model scales. In a race increasingly defined by intelligence and real world learning, Wayve is taking a distinct approach, building a generalisable driving intelligence that can power any vehicle, anywhere. By combining embodied AI with scalable deployment, we are creating technology that can be shaped to each OEM brand and driver experience, accelerating the transition to a safer, more intelligent future of mobility. How we work 💻- Locations & Flexible Working: Our main hubs are in London, Sunnyvale, Yokohama, Herzliya, Vancouver and Leonberg. We operate a hybrid working model that combines in-person collaboration in our dedicated office spaces with focused time working remotely. This gives our teams the connection and energy of working together, alongside the flexibility to do their best work in a way that fits their lives. 🔍 The Interview Process: Our process is clear and respectful of your time: • Initial call / recruiter screen (30 mins) • Competency Interviews [Programming and System Design; 2 hours total] • Deep-dive technical interviews [Technical Leadership, Hiring Manager meeting, Applied ML; 3 hours total] • Final interview: mission & values alignment [Head / VP meeting; 45 minutes]. We’ll always explain the format and work around your availability. What’s in it for you (Location dependant): 💰 Salaries benchmarked against the market annually 📈 Meaningful equity, sharing in the ownership and long term success of Wayve ✈️ Relocation support and visa sponsorship where applicable ✅ Hybrid working, core hours and the chance to work hands on in vehicle workshops and labs 📚 Learning and development budgets with support for training, conferences and growth 🩺 Comprehensive benefits including health insurance, dental, enhanced maternity and paternity leave, retirement or pension where applicable, access to therapists, wellbeing partnerships, team socials and more A quick, honest note before you apply. Wayve is not a mature, fully-structured place with the playbook already written. Much of how we work is still being written, and if you join, you’ll help write it. That suits people who want real ownership more than people who need a settled structure from day one. If that sounds like the kind of problem you want to spend your time on, we’d really like to hear from you. At Wayve we're committed to creating a diverse, fair and respectful culture that is inclusive of everyone based on their unique skills and perspectives, and regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding) or any other basis as protected by applicable law. For more information visit Careers at Wayve. https://wayve.ai/careers/ To learn more about what drives us, visit Values at Wayve https://wayve.ai/careers/ DISCLAIMER: We will not ask about marriage or pregnancy, care responsibilities or disabilities in any of our job adverts or interviews. However, we do look to capture information about care responsibilities, and disabilities among other diversity information as part of an optional DEI Monitoring form to help us identify areas of improvement in our hiring process and ensure that the process is inclusive and non-discriminatory. Compensation: $370,040 - $394,900