Senior Technical Program Manager - AV Engineering

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 Program Management Team

Wayve’s Program Management team turns complex technical goals into coordinated delivery. Working closely with engineering, research, product, safety, evaluation and release teams, we align priorities, manage dependencies and bring clarity to ambiguous challenges. We combine technical depth with cross-functional leadership to help teams move faster, more effectively and with purpose—focusing on meaningful outcomes rather than process for its own sake.

As a Technical Program Manager in AV Engineering, you’ll lead the programmes that get Wayve’s AI Driver working on real vehicles. Depending on the team you join, you may support our wider Robotics organisation—across areas such as vehicle generalisation, controls and calibration—to bring the autonomy stack to a growing range of vehicle platforms and enable flagship customer programmes. Alternatively, you may lead perception, parking, ADAS or driving-feature programmes from research through to on-vehicle delivery.

🧠 Your day-to-day

• Partner with engineering and product leads to translate ambitious technical goals into clear, integrated plans, priorities and delivery milestones.

• Coordinate across software, hardware, robotics, machine learning, data, product, evaluation and release teams, keeping teams aligned around shared outcomes.

• Identify cross-stack dependencies, technical risks and sequencing constraints early—particularly across software and hardware boundaries—and drive mitigation plans and timely decisions.

• Run the planning, stand-ups, programme reviews and retrospectives needed to keep complex, multi-team delivery predictable without creating unnecessary process.

• Communicate progress, risks, trade-offs and decisions clearly to engineers, partners and senior leaders, tailoring the level of detail to each audience.

• Work closely with technical teams during critical vehicle-platform, customer-programme and feature milestones, providing hands-on programme leadership where it is most needed.

🧩 What you’ll be working on:

• Owning AV Engineering programmes end-to-end, from vehicle-platform bring-up and autonomy-stack integration through to perception, parking, ADAS and driving-feature delivery.

• Supporting vehicle generalisation, controls and calibration programmes that enable the AI Driver to operate across an expanding range of vehicle platforms.

• Leading feature programmes from cutting-edge research through implementation, evaluation, release and on-vehicle deployment.

• Connecting technical delivery with evaluation results and product outcomes, using metrics such as signal quality, coverage and time-to-insight to assess progress and guide decisions.

• Supporting key customer and platform programmes by coordinating scope, readiness, dependencies and delivery across internal teams and external partners.

• Improving programme tooling, delivery processes and ways of working, and sharing successful approaches across the wider Program Management organisation.

🙌 You should apply if:

• You have 5+ years of experience leading complex, multi-team software, robotics or technology programmes, or a strong track record operating at this level. You take ownership, act decisively and get things done.

• You’re technically strong and can work credibly with engineers across software, hardware, machine learning and data. You understand how autonomy systems and their features come together on real vehicles, even if you don’t write production code.

• You have strong programme-management skills, including planning, prioritisation and managing complex risks, dependencies and trade-offs across teams.

• You think in systems, understanding how changes in one part of the autonomy stack, vehicle platform or delivery plan affect other teams and downstream outcomes.

• You stay objective and adaptable in ambiguous, fast-moving and safety-critical environments, bringing structure and clarity without slowing teams down.

• You communicate clearly, listen carefully and influence effectively without relying on formal authority, bringing people together around shared goals and decisions.

• You’re comfortable defining and using technical and delivery metrics to understand progress, surface gaps and steer programme decisions.

• You’re product-minded and focus on the people and outcomes your programmes serve, prioritising by impact and defining what good looks like rather than simply tracking activity.

• You’re open to feedback and continuously look for ways to improve your own approach, team effectiveness and programme outcomes.

• Experience in robotics, automotive systems, perception, ADAS, vehicle platforms or hardware-software integration would be particularly valuable.

• Exposure to machine learning, autonomy or other compute-heavy or safety-critical domains would also be a plus.

• An engineering or computer science degree, or previous experience working as an engineer, would be valuable.

🌱 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 Interview (TPM Screen; 45 mins)

• Deep-dive technical interview (Technical & Partnership; 1 hour)

• Programme Design or Presentation interview (format confirmed during the process; approximately 1–2 hours)

• Final / Closing interview (30 mins)

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. To learn more about what drives us, visit Values at Wayve

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.