Legal Counsel

Job 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. The role: Wayve is looking for a Legal Counsel (Commercial) based in London to support a broad range of commercial matters. The role will sit in Wayve’s Commercial Legal team, reporting to the Managing Counsel, and will play an important role as we scale globally and bring embodied AI technology into real-world deployment. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in fast-moving, technology-driven environments and enjoys working at the intersection of law, AI, product innovation, and operational scale. While experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or AI would be valuable, it is not essential. We are more interested in candidates with strong foundational commercial skills, sound judgement, and a proven ability to navigate complex legal landscapes in a fast-moving environment. We are looking for a proactive, commercially minded self-starter who is comfortable operating independently on a variety of day-to-day commercial legal matters. This role will have significant exposure to cross-border and international matters and will work closely with commercial, procurement, engineering, product, privacy, and fleet ops teams as the company continues to expand. Wayve’s Legal Team focuses on enabling the business to achieve its goals while appropriately identifying and managing legal risk. We are looking for someone who can clearly and confidently explain legal and commercial risks, exercise sound judgement in assessing those risks, and work collaboratively with stakeholders to find practical solutions. You should be comfortable operating in an environment where there is not always established precedent, and focused on helping the business find a path forward rather than simply identifying reasons why something cannot be done. Key responsibilities: This role will report to the Managing Counsel and support the wider Commercial Legal team on a range of legal and commercial matters, including: - Drafting, reviewing and negotiating a broad range of commercial agreements, from day-to-day supplier, software/SaaS, services and other operational contracts, through to bespoke agreements with OEM customers and Tier 1 suppliers, often involving significant intellectual property, data, privacy and other technology-related issues. - Advising on intellectual property, AI and data usage (including data used for AI development and training) and other general commercial matters, in partnership with other members of the Legal team and external counsel (where required). This includes advising on novel and emerging areas of law, particularly at the intersection of law and AI, and helping navigate complex questions where legal frameworks, precedent and market practice are still developing - Advising the business’s People team on various employment and HR matters relating to Wayve’s global workforce (working with local counsel where specialist jurisdictional advice is required) - Advising on data protection and privacy matters, including supporting the use and sharing of data in connection with Wayve's products, commercial relationships and AI development and training - Helping to improve and develop scalable processes, templates, playbooks, and governance structures to support Wayve’s growth and contracting volume - Supporting strategic initiatives, international expansion, and new product deployments from a commercial legal perspective - Supporting Wayve’s operational teams, including Fleet Operations, in connection with the operation, testing and deployment of Wayve’s vehicle fleet across its international markets - Educating and enabling the business on commercial risk, contracting best practices, and legal process matters, and supporting other members of the Legal Team About you: In order to set you up for success as a Legal Counsel (Commercial) at Wayve, we’re looking for the following skills and experience. Essential - Qualified solicitor in England and Wales - Trained at a leading law firm with 2 to 4 years of relevant post-qualification experience (although we are open to candidates with more or less experience) - Strong experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements, including procurement, supply chain, technology, and vendor contracts - Comfortable negotiating directly with commercial counterparties and able to communicate legal positions clearly and pragmatically - Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to distil complex legal issues and clearly explain legal and commercial risk to non-legal stakeholders - Experience supporting strategic commercial transactions and working closely with business stakeholde