Distinguished Engineer, Embedded Vehicle Software

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. DISTINGUISHED ENGINEER, VEHICLE SOFTWARE Sunnyvale, California, USA 🛠️ ABOUT OUR ENGINEERING TEAMS Wayve’s Vehicle Software organization builds the embedded software foundations that connect our AI Driver to production vehicle hardware. As a Distinguished Engineer in Vehicle Software, you’ll define the architecture and provide technical leadership for the next generation of Wayve’s vehicle software stack. You’ll work with advanced embedded compute platforms from NVIDIA, Qualcomm and other technology partners, shaping our operating-system and automotive-middleware roadmap to support state-of-the-art AI systems for autonomous driving. This is a highly senior technical leadership role centered on architecture, hands-on technical judgement and broad influence. You’ll work across internal engineering teams, global automotive manufacturers and silicon partners to turn complex requirements into scalable, production-ready systems. 🧠 YOUR DAY-TO-DAY You’ll establish the technical vision for Wayve’s embedded vehicle software and guide major architectural decisions affecting teams across the organization. You’ll remain close to the technology—reviewing designs, exploring critical technical problems and helping teams make sound decisions across operating systems, middleware, performance, reliability and hardware integration. You’ll also represent Wayve in strategic technical discussions with automotive manufacturers, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and other partners. Internally, you’ll mentor senior engineers, influence engineering leadership and help establish the development practices, tools and architectural principles needed to scale. 🧩 WHAT YOU’LL BE WORKING ON - Defining embedded software architectures for advanced autonomous-driving systems - Shaping the operating-system, middleware and hardware-abstraction roadmap for Wayve’s next-generation autonomy platform - Improving system architecture, performance, reliability and scalability - Evaluating and integrating advanced embedded compute platforms from NVIDIA, Qualcomm and other partners - Collaborating across Vehicle Software, AI, hardware, systems, safety and OEM programme teams - Working directly with automotive customers and external technology partners to deliver production-ready solutions - Representing Wayve in technical discussions with OEM software and hardware architects - Serving as Wayve’s senior technical representative in discussions with silicon partners - Advocating for best-in-class software-development processes, architecture practices and engineering tools - Mentoring senior engineers and helping shape the technical direction of the Vehicle Software organisation - Leading complex, cross-functional technical programmes spanning multiple teams and organisations 🙌 YOU SHOULD APPLY IF - You have at least 15 years of professional software-development experience - You are an expert in embedded systems applied to robotics, autonomous systems or similarly complex products - You have successfully delivered complex embedded systems into production at scale - You have strong software-development experience in one or more of C, C++, Python or Rust - You have professional experience with systems-performance analysis, optimisation and tuning - You have led or significantly influenced complex technical programmes involving approximately 100 or more engineers, including contributors outside your direct reporting structure - You can establish technical direction and influence senior engineering and business leadership - You are comfortable working directly with external stakeholders, including automotive manufacturers and technology partners - You can represent Wayve as the primary technical leader in discussions with OEM software, hardware and chipset architects - You can translate complex technical constraints into clear architectural decisions and bring multiple teams with you The following experience would be useful but is not required: - Automotive software or vehicle-platform development - NVIDIA Drive platforms, including Orin, DriveOS or DriveWorks - Automotive software frameworks such as AUTOSAR 🌱 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-m