Director, Application Engineering, US

As Director of Application Software, US, you will lead and grow the US engineering organisation responsible for bringing Wayve's core AI and autonomous driving technology into production vehicles, building a strong technical bridge between Wayve's core engineering teams and OEM customers. You will lead the engineering organisation responsible for applying Wayve's AI Driver to customer vehicle programmes, from technical definition through integration, validation, release and production. This is a highly collaborative technical leadership role.

Responsibilities

Lead and grow the US Application Software organisation, developing senior engineers, technical leaders and engineering managers; Own how Wayve's core AI and autonomous driving technology is applied to customer vehicle programmes, from technical definition through integration, validation, release and production; Guide the development and delivery of new ADAS and autonomous driving capabilities across machine learning, autonomy, vehicle systems and application software; Create a strong technical bridge between Wayve's core engineering teams and OEM customers, ensuring vehicle and customer requirements are reflected in engineering priorities; Provide technical and architectural leadership across autonomous driving, ML-enabled systems, embedded software, vehicle integration and deployment; Partner closely with AI, autonomy, product, safety, validation, release and systems engineering teams to solve complex technical challenges and deliver high-quality customer outcomes; Turn learning from individual customer programmes into reusable components, engineering practices and integration approaches; Build trusted relationships with senior engineering stakeholders at automotive partners and represent Wayve in technical discussions, architecture reviews and programme planning; Bring insights from customer deployments back into Wayve's core technology and product teams, helping shape architecture and global deployment strategy

Requirements

Significant engineering and leadership experience within autonomous driving, ADAS, automotive AI or related vehicle technologies; Strong understanding of autonomous driving and machine learning, including how ML-enabled driving capabilities are developed, integrated, validated and deployed in vehicles; Experience taking new driving features, behaviours or capabilities from development towards production, with meaningful technical ownership across the autonomy or ML and vehicle integration lifecycle; Experience delivering complex software or AI-enabled systems within production automotive programmes, with understanding of vehicle systems, embedded platforms and integration constraints; Experience building and leading multidisciplinary engineering teams and developing senior engineers, technical leaders and engineering managers; Strong technical judgement across AI, autonomy and vehicle systems, with the ability to make effective architectural and engineering trade-offs across disciplines; Ability to build trusted relationships with OEM customers and senior technical partners while representing engineering priorities clearly and credibly

Nice to have

Experience with end-to-end learned driving systems; Automotive embedded environments such as C++, Linux, QNX or Adaptive AUTOSAR; Automotive safety and security frameworks such as ISO 26262, ISO/SAE 21434, UN R155/156 or A-SPICE; Passion for autonomy and eagerness to learn

Benefits

Salaries benchmarked against the market annually; Meaningful equity; 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