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 Fleet Operations Team
Our Fleet Operations Team is responsible for maintaining the safety, performance, and operational readiness of Wayve's autonomous vehicle fleet — from routine servicing and diagnostics to urgent repairs and vehicle readiness for high-visibility events. The team keeps our fleet in peak condition to support testing, demonstrations, and real-world deployment, working closely with engineering, drivers, and operations teams to keep autonomy moving forward, every single day.
🧠 Your day-to-day
The Fleet Service Manager is responsible for ensuring the seamless servicing, maintenance, and operational readiness of the autonomous vehicle fleet. Leading a team of Fleet Servicing & Maintenance Technicians, they oversee preventive and reactive maintenance, ensuring high fleet availability while adhering to strict safety and compliance standards. Their primary goal is to maximise vehicle uptime, optimise workshop operations, and drive efficiency in fleet servicing.
This role requires strong leadership, operational oversight, and close collaboration with Field Engineering Leads and Heads of Geo to align servicing efforts with business needs. While not a shift-based role, flexibility may be required to support urgent fleet servicing needs. As a critical player in a pioneering AV fleet servicing function, the Fleet Service Manager will drive best practices and innovation in next-generation vehicle maintenance.
🧩 What you'll be working on
Fleet Availability & Operational Efficiency – Ensure high vehicle uptime by optimising servicing/inspection schedules and minimising downtime.
Cost Control & Budget Management – Manage fleet maintenance costs, track expenditures, and implement cost-saving initiatives without impacting service quality.
Compliance, Safety & Regulatory Adherence – Ensure all servicing and maintenance operations comply with safety regulations, industry standards, and internal policies.
Fleet Upgrades & Deployment Coordination – Oversee mechanical and servicing-related upgrades while minimising operational disruptions.
Team Leadership & Workforce Management – Lead and develop Fleet Servicing & Maintenance Technicians, ensuring efficient servicing operations.
Data-Driven Decision Making & Reporting – Analyse fleet maintenance data to improve servicing schedules, reduce downtime, and enhance overall fleet performance.
Continuous Improvement & Best Practices – Drive efficiency improvements, implement best practices, and maintain industry-leading fleet servicing operations.
🙌 You should apply if
Essential:
You have proven experience as a Service Manager in a dealership, fleet management, or automotive servicing environment.
You have strong leadership ability — able to lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of Fleet Servicing & Maintenance Technicians.
You're skilled in scheduling, resource allocation, and workflow optimisation to ensure efficient servicing operations.
You have a deep understanding of industry safety regulations, risk management, and compliance within fleet servicing environments.
You communicate effectively with internal teams, leadership, and external partners to align maintenance operations with business needs.
You have a customer-centric, results-driven mindset, committed to high fleet availability and operational efficiency.
You're proficient in tracking maintenance KPIs, analysing fleet performance data, and driving continuous improvements.
You're experienced in refining servicing workflows, implementing best practices, and adopting new technologies to enhance efficiency.
Desirable:
Knowledge of ADAS technology and on-road testing requirements is highly advantageous.
L2 Automobile Mechanic certification.
Japanese language ability: JLPT N2 or above (fluent).
English language ability: Fluent.
Additional requirements:
This role is Monday to Friday, on-site at our office in Tokyo and Yokohama.
All applicants are required to disclose any second job as part of the application process.
All applications are subject to a health check before/after.
Employment is contingent on passing training, pre-employment checks and ongoing drug/alcohol testing, in accordance with our policy.
🌱 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.
🔍 The Interview Process:
Our process is clear and respectful of your time:
Initial call / recruiter screen (30 min, online)
Competency Interview (60 min, online)
Deep-dive Presentation (60 min, on-site/online) An exercise will be provided in advance.
Final interview: mission & values alignment (30 min, online)
We’ll always explain the format and work around your availability.
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
📚 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
🤝 Inclusive & Fair Recruitment
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, 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 protected by applicable law.
Wayve is committed to providing a fair and respectful recruitment process for all candidates, free from harassment and discrimination. The Company has zero tolerance for sexual harassment against job applicants or similar individuals.
All communications relating to recruitment activities are conducted through the Company's recruitment system or using an email address with the Company's domain. Employees do not use their personal email addresses or social media accounts for recruitment-related communications.
Employees do not engage in private communications unrelated to recruitment activities, invite applicants to private meals, request or seek a personal or romantic relationship, or otherwise initiate private contact with applicants.
Sexual remarks or conduct, physical contact, questions concerning sexual matters, and any other conduct constituting harassment are prohibited.
If you have any concerns, you can contact our consultation desk at peoplepartners@wayve.ai. All consultations are treated with strict confidentiality, your privacy will be protected, and no one will be subject to any disadvantageous treatment for raising a concern or cooperating with an inquiry.
If you require any accommodations during the interview process, let us know.
Learn more at Careers at Wayve and Values at Wayve.
DISCLAIMER: We won't ask about marriage, pregnancy, care responsibilities or disabilities in our job ads or interviews. We do collect this information via an optional DEI Monitoring form to help us identify and improve areas of our hiring process.
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.