Senior/Staff ML engineer on Wayve's Core Model Safety team (AV Core) in Sunnyvale, leading learned emergency manoeuvre prediction and collision detection for autonomous vehicles — training and deploying end-to-end AV models with Python and PyTorch on large-scale fleet data, from research through evaluation to deployment evidence.
Compensation
$311.9K–$389.4K / yr
Location
Sunnyvale, California USA
Work setup
Hybrid
Seniority
Staff
Employment
Not specified
Experience
Not specified
Category
Ml / AI
Posted
Skills
ai
automation
cpp
cuda
distributed-training
machine-learning
python
pytorch
Must have
Strong track record of ML engineering, including pathfinding in ambiguous problems from scoping and evals to establishing direction
Hands-on experience with ML systems deployed in the real world
Proficiency in Python and PyTorch with strong software engineering practices and hands-on experience building reliable ML training and evaluation systems
Excellent experimental judgement: turning ambiguous behavioral problems into falsifiable hypotheses, useful metrics, disciplined ablations, and clear technical decisions
Senior-level ownership and collaboration: lead a substantial technical area, work across research and engineering, communicate clearly in writing and verbally
Nice to have
Prior experience in autonomous vehicles or robotics with hands-on deployment and closed-loop validation on physical systems
Experience in 3D scene understanding and representation learning for geometric and semantic perception, large-scale semantic enrichments
Experience mining, generating, or evaluating rare events using simulation and fleet or heterogeneous real-world data
Experience with transformer-based and multimodal architectures, including vision-language models (VLM), vision-language-action models (VLA), or equivalent
Proficiency in C++, CUDA, distributed training, or performance optimization for production machine learning systems
Full description
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 Engineering Team
The Core Model Safety team builds foundational capabilities for assisted and automated driving - collision avoidance, model understanding, and robustness under failure. You'll work in a focused, high-impact senior team with strong ownership, access to large-scale training and fleet data, and close partners in research, simulation, evaluation, and applied engineering.
🧠 Your day-to-day
As a Senior/Staff Machine Learning Engineer in Wayve's AV Core organization, you will lead the technical direction and delivery of learned emergency manoeuvre prediction and collision detection models. Emergency manoeuvres are rare, high-consequence events that place unusual demands on data, modelling, and validation. You'll take the programme from problem definition through modelling, evaluation, integration, and evidence for deployment.
🧩 What you’ll be working on
Drive Core Model Safety roadmap themes, owning the full lifecycle from research to offline/online experiments to technology transfer.
Train and deploy end-to-end AV 2.0 models for emergency manoeuvre prediction and collision detection on our global fleet, using large-scale, diverse data to validate capabilities and improve generalisation across vehicles, markets, and driving conditions.
Collaborate on online occupancy models for geometric and semantic perception.
Build high-value open-loop and closed-loop evaluations for core capabilities and representation learning.
Align priorities and learn from the organisation — with AV Core, Evaluation, and Product Engineering on roadmaps and failure modes; from fleet, simulation, and product feedback; and through mentoring others on the team.
Maintain awareness of the wider business context — division and company priorities, near-term product programmes, and how Core Model Safety work enables them.
🙌 You should apply ifEssential
You have a strong track record of ML engineering, including pathfinding in ambiguous problems — from scoping and evals to establishing a direction (and knowledge transfer) for others to build on.
You have hands-on experience with ML systems deployed in the real world.
You're proficient in Python and PyTorch, with strong software engineering practices and hands-on experience building reliable machine learning training and evaluation systems.
You have excellent experimental judgement: able to turn an ambiguous behavioral problem into falsifiable hypotheses, useful metrics, disciplined ablations, and clear technical decisions.
You bring senior-level ownership and collaboration: able to lead a substantial technical area, work across research and engineering boundaries, and bring others along through clear written and verbal communication.
Desirable
Prior experience in autonomous vehicles or robotics with hands-on deployment and closed-loop validation on physical systems.
Experience in 3D scene understanding and representation learning for geometric and semantic perception, large-scale semantic enrichments.
Experience mining, generating, or evaluating rare events using simulation and fleet or heterogeneous real-world data.
Experience with transformer-based and multimodal architectures, including vision-language models (VLM), vision-language-action models (VLA), or equivalent.
Proficiency in C++, CUDA, distributed training, or performance optimization for production machine learning systems.
🌱 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 [hiring manager interview and applied ML interview; 2 hours total]
Final interview: mission & values alignment [Director or VP interview; 45 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.