Distinguished Software Architect

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 The Role

Wayve is building the next generation of embodied AI for autonomous driving. As we move from developing our core technology to deploying it across multiple vehicle platforms, OEM programmes and Robotaxi applications, the complexity of our software systems is growing significantly.

We’re looking for a Distinguished Software Architect to help define how our software architecture evolves through this next phase of scale.

This is a highly cross-functional individual contributor role operating at the intersection of AI, robotics and large-scale software systems. You’ll work across our onboard software, AI, simulation, training and inference, product engineering and Robotaxi teams, helping ensure that the systems we build today can scale across the products, hardware platforms and physical environments we need tomorrow.

You’ll work alongside some of Wayve’s most senior technical and engineering leaders on architectural decisions that cut across the entire technology stack, from AI models and compute through to the software running on physical vehicles.

🧠 Your day-to-day

You’ll operate across engineering organisations rather than within a single team, developing a deep understanding of how our AI, software and physical systems fit together and where architectural decisions in one area impact another.

You’ll work closely with senior engineers and engineering leaders to identify architectural challenges, shape technical direction and lead major changes that span multiple teams.

You’ll act as a trusted technical partner on some of our hardest engineering decisions, helping teams navigate trade-offs between immediate delivery needs and the long-term health and scalability of the overall system.

A significant part of the role will be leading through technical credibility and influence, creating alignment across teams and helping raise the bar for software design and engineering practices across Wayve.

🧩 What you’ll be working on

• Defining architectural direction across Wayve’s software ecosystem as we scale our AI Driver across an increasing number of vehicle platforms and products.

• Creating clear software boundaries, interfaces and abstractions across AI, compute and vehicle systems, allowing teams to develop quickly without introducing unnecessary fragmentation.

• Leading large architectural changes that span multiple engineering organisations.

• Improving how software is developed, integrated, tested and deployed across different hardware and vehicle platforms.

• Working across onboard software, computer vision, AI, simulation, training and inference, product engineering and Robotaxi systems.

• Helping shape the development platforms and engineering systems that underpin how Wayve builds and deploys physical AI at scale.

• Partnering with teams working with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to ensure our architecture can support different production environments, hardware configurations and integrations.

• Acting as a technical decision-maker and tiebreaker on complex architectural decisions.

• Helping establish a strong engineering and design culture for building large-scale, safety-critical AI and robotics systems.

🙌 You should apply if

• You’ve operated as a Principal, Distinguished or equivalent senior individual contributor and have shaped the architecture of large, complex software systems.

• You have a track record of leading significant technical or architectural change across multiple teams or engineering organisations.

• You’re an exceptional systems thinker who can understand a broad technical landscape while still going deep where necessary.

• You have experience building systems in computer vision, robotics, physical AI or another domain where sophisticated software and AI interact with the physical world.

• You understand the architectural challenges that emerge when AI models, software, compute and hardware need to operate together as a reliable production system.

• You’ve built or evolved software platforms that needed to operate reliably across significant scale and complexity.

• You’re comfortable making difficult technical trade-offs and can distinguish between what is right for an individual team and what is right for the broader system.

• You can influence senior engineers and engineering leaders through technical credibility rather than organisational authority.

• You care deeply about software design, engineering quality and creating systems that enable other engineers to move faster.

• You can enter unfamiliar technical domains, learn quickly and develop strong technical judgment.

• You combine architectural thinking with a strong bias towards execution and turning technical direction into real engineering change.

Experience in autonomous driving, robotics or automotive systems can be valuable, but isn’t essential. We’re particularly interested in people who have solved complex software architecture problems at significant scale and can bring that experience into a new technical domain.

🌱 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.

What’s in it for you:

💰 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.