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 Application Engineering Team(s)
We’re seeking an exceptional Control Engineer to join our Germany-based team within the Application Engineering org, focused on localising and advancing Wayve’s autonomous driving technology for the German market. This is a unique opportunity to play a hands-on role in shaping our AV capabilities in Germany from the ground up.
🧠 Your day-to-day
We’re seeking an exceptional Control Engineer to join our Germany-based Application Engineering team, focused on localising and advancing Wayve’s autonomous driving technology for the German market. You’ll play a pivotal role in integrating, validating, and optimising our MPC-based trajectory controller and AI software stack on new vehicle platforms ensuring safe, reliable, and high-performance driving in diverse real-world conditions.
This is a unique opportunity to work at the intersection of controls, systems integration, and applied machine learning, helping expand our AV capabilities across new operational domains while collaborating closely with robotics, ML, and vehicle engineering experts.
🧩 What you’ll be working on
Integrate and validate Wayve’s AI software stack and MPC-based trajectory controller on customer hardware and vehicle platforms.
Maintain and enhance the controller (coupled with ML-driven trajectory generation) to improve performance, stability, and reliability across different vehicles and environments.
Establish and advance control and integration methods for ML-coupled systems, ensuring robustness and scalability across operational domains.
Test and optimise system behaviour in challenging driving scenarios — from highways to urban settings and adverse weather conditions.
Develop and refine simulation and evaluation pipelines to guarantee real-world optimality and control quality.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams (Verification, Release, OEM partners) to diagnose and resolve integration and performance issues.
🙌 You should apply if
Essential
Strong theoretical knowledge of control theory, optimisation, model-predictive control, state estimation and numerical methods.
Practical experience in developing and tuning control systems for physical systems, both in simulation and in the real world.
Experience productionising and scaling systems including real-time controllers and monitoring their performance at scale.
Strong C++ and Python.
Desirable
🌱 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 Interview, 60mins & Robotics Domain, 60mins]
Deep-dive technical interviews [Robotics System Design, 60mins]
Final interview: [Mission & Values alignment, 30mins].
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.