Senior / Staff Research Engineer, Generative AI Deployment

Waabi; Toronto; On-site; CAD 334,000 - 384,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation and equity

Health and Wellness benefits

Job summary

Waabi, a leader in Physical AI, seeks a Program Management Leader to own the robotaxi integration roadmap across engineering, operations, and external partners in Toronto. You will drive go-to-market strategy, situational planning, and KPI tracking to ensure safe, scalable rider experiences.

You will coordinate with Autonomy, Safety, and Commercial teams to translate strategy into executable roadmaps, establish robust program tracking, and report progress to executives.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in technical program management leading cross-functional programs.
• Direct experience in autonomous vehicles or safety-critical environments.
• Ability to build program structure: dependencies, risk, milestones, reporting.
• Strong technical fluency across hardware, software, autonomy/ML domains.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; executive-style updates.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the integrated robotaxi program plan across autonomy, hardware, safety, and operations.
• Own program-level risk management with data-backed options and clear ownerships.
• Drive launch and market-readiness planning for new markets and service areas.
• Partner with Autonomy, Safety, Commercial, and Operations to translate strategy into roadmaps.
• Build executive reporting on program status, risk, and path-to-green.
• Define and track KPIs for driverless readiness (ODD coverage, disengagements, system readiness).
• Establish scalable processes and tooling for robotaxi program tracking.
• Represent the robotaxi program in cross-company planning and align with trucking roadmap.

Skills

Technical program management

Cross-functional leadership

Autonomous vehicle domain knowledge

Jira/Asana experience

Executive reporting

Technical fluency (hardware/software)

Education

BS or MS in Engineering/CS

Tools

Jira

Asana

Job description

Waabi, founded by AI visionary Raquel Urtasun, is the leader in Physical AI. With a world-class team, we're unlocking the next era of autonomous transportation with technology that's powering commercial autonomous trucks and robotaxis. Waabi is backed by and partners with world leaders in AI, automotive, logistics, and deep tech.

With offices in Toronto, San Francisco, Dallas, and Pittsburgh, Waabi is growing quickly and looking for diverse, innovative and collaborative candidates who want to impact the world in a positive way. To learn more visit: www.waabi.ai

Waabi is bringing its proven autonomous driving technology from trucking to the robotaxi space, and we need a program management leader to drive the execution. You will own the roadmap for integrating the Waabi Driver into our commercial fleet, acting as the connective tissue between engineering, operations, and external partners. You will partake in shaping our go-to-market approach, drive partner strategy, and ensure we deliver a safe, scalable rider experience. If you thrive on turning complex technical milestones into seamless commercial launches, this is your chance to be an integral part of Waabi's next chapter.

You will...

• Define and maintain the integrated robotaxi program plan - key milestones, cross-team dependencies, and critical path - spanning autonomy, vehicle hardware, safety/V&V, fleet operations, and commercial launch readiness.
• Own program-level risk management. Surface issues early, bring data-backed options rather than just status updates, and ensure every dependency has a clear owner and ETA.
• Drive launch and market-readiness planning across vehicle readiness, ODD (operational design domain) coverage, safety validation sign-off, site and facility readiness, and regulatory or permitting requirements for new markets and service areas.
• Partner with Autonomy, Safety, Commercial, and Operations to translate top-down strategy into executable roadmaps, and hold teams accountable to the plan.
• Build and run executive reporting - concise, credible updates on program status, risk, and path-to-green for leadership.
• Define and track the KPIs that measure readiness for driverless operation, such as ODD coverage, disengagement rates, system readiness, and rider experience metrics.
• Establish scalable processes and tooling for robotaxi program tracking, ensuring a single source of truth as the program and fleet scale.
• Represent the robotaxi program in cross-company planning, ensuring it's properly sequenced against Waabi's trucking roadmap and shared platform investments.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of technical program management experience, with a track record leading complex, cross-functional technical programs from ambiguity to delivery.
• Direct experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or another safety-critical, deeply cross-functional environment spanning hardware, software, and safety.
• Demonstrated ability to build program structure from scratch - dependency maps, risk registers, executive reporting, milestone tracking - in a fast-moving, early-stage environment.
• Strong technical fluency across hardware, software, and autonomy/ML domains - able to ask the right questions and spot a false dependency without being a domain expert in any one area.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; comfortable writing a crisp one-pager for an executive audience and facilitating a working-level technical review in the same week.
• Proven cross-functional leadership without formal authority - you drive alignment and hold teams accountable through influence, not org-chart position.
• Hands-on experience with program tracking tools such as Jira, Asana, or other Project Management.
• BS or MS in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field, or equivalent experience.

Bonus/Nice to Have:

• Proven history executing driverless commercial rollouts, operational domain expansions, or initial market deployments for robotic transport platforms.
• Working knowledge of system safety assurance, ODD boundaries, and integrating safety sign-off gates into target deployment schedules.
• Track record establishing or scaling continuous fleet management, remote command facilities, or real-time operations centers.
• Prior collaboration with policy, legal, and public affairs stakeholders to secure local operating authorizations and permits.
• Hands-on application of modern AI solutions to streamline operational tracking, eliminate manual administrative friction, and speed up critical decisions.

Perks/Benefits:

• Competitive compensation and equity awards.
• Health and Wellness benefits e

The US yearly salary range for this role is: $235,000 - $270,000 USD in addition to competitive perks & benefits. Waabi US Inc.'s yearly salary ranges are determined based on several factors in accordance with the Company's compensation practices. Note: The Company provides additional compensation for employees in this role, including equity incentive awards and an annual performance bonus.