Head of Operational Safety

Wayve; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company in London is seeking a Head of Operational Safety to lead global safety operations. This high-visibility role involves oversight of safety standards across various locations and ensuring incident response protocols are in place. Ideal candidates will have a strong background in safety leadership within complex environments and the ability to guide teams through crises. The role promotes a hybrid working model, offering flexibility for work-life balance.

Benefits

Hybrid working policy

Inclusive workplace

Career impact opportunities

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading safety-critical operations in a fast-moving environment.
• Demonstrated ability to design best practice global incident response protocols.
• Strong working knowledge of safety legislation and incident reporting frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the global safety framework for Fleet Operations.
• Oversee Operational Safety Managers across multiple countries.
• Define and embed scalable safety governance practices.

Skills

Leadership in safety-critical operations

Designing global incident response protocols

Stakeholder management

Knowledge of safety legislation

Crisis leadership

Education

Formal qualifications in occupational safety

Tools

Root cause analysis tools

Job description

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.

About us

Founded in 2017, Wayve is the leading developer of Embodied AI technology. Our advanced AI software and foundation models enable vehicles to perceive, understand, and navigate any complex environment, enhancing the usability and safety of automated driving systems.

Our vision is to create autonomy that propels the world forward. Our intelligent, mapless, and hardware-agnostic AI products are designed for automakers, accelerating the transition from assisted to automated driving. In our fast-paced environment big problems ignite us—we embrace uncertainty, leaning into complex challenges to unlock groundbreaking solutions. We aim high and stay humble in our pursuit of excellence, constantly learning and evolving as we pave the way for a smarter, safer future.

At Wayve, your contributions matter. We value diversity, embrace new perspectives, and foster an inclusive work environment; we back each other to deliver impact.

Make Wayve the experience that defines your career!

The role

The Head of Operational Safety is responsible for leading and developing the global safety framework that underpins all Fleet Operations and incident response at Wayve. This role oversees our Operational Safety Managers across the UK, US, Germany, and Japan — ensuring that all on-road testing is delivered with world-class safety standards, consistent processes, and rapid response capability.

You’ll define and embed scalable safety governance practices, lead incident response and resolution, and ensure that every vehicle, site, and operator is aligned to our zero-incident ambition. This is a high-trust, high-visibility role that combines strategic risk leadership with operational discipline.

About You

To thrive in this role, you’ll bring a clear head under pressure, a high standard of operational rigor, and the ability to lead both calmly and decisively across global teams.

• Proven experience leading safety-critical operations in a fast-moving, high-complexity environment (e.g. transport, logistics, AV or aviation preferred).
• Demonstrated ability to design best practice global incident response protocols, and manage adherence to protocols.
• Experience designing and building organizational structures which promote a world-class safety culture and efficient incident response mechanism.
• Experience investigating incidents, managing escalation and coordinating an appropriate response at a senior level.
• Experience developing and embedding safety policies, risk controls, and audit mechanisms at scale, ideally across more than one jurisdiction.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills — including the ability to lead in tense, high-stakes situations.
• Able to guide others through crisis and ambiguity with clarity and authority.
• Strong working knowledge of safety legislation, incident reporting frameworks, and duty of care practices.
• Comfortable working across cultures and geographies, with a proactive, hands-on leadership style.
• Prior experience in designing and overseeing safety policies and incident response in autonomous vehicles.
• Formal qualifications in occupational safety, risk management, or crisis leadership.
• Familiarity with root cause analysis tools (e.g. 5 Whys, Fishbone/Ishikawa, fault tree analysis).
• Experience in contributing to safety case documentation or regulatory engagement.
• Capability to grow and mentor a multi-regional safety team.

We understand that everyone has a unique set of skills and experiences and that not everyone will meet all of the requirements listed above. If you’re passionate about self-driving cars and think you have what it takes to make a positive impact on the world, we encourage you to apply.

This is a full-time role based in our offices in London or Sunnyvale, CA. At Wayve we want the best of all worlds so we operate a hybrid working policy that combines time together in our offices and workshops to fuel innovation, culture, relationships and learning, and time spent working from home. We operate core working hours so you can determine the schedule that works best for you and your team.

We understand that everyone has a unique set of skills and experiences and that not everyone will meet all of the requirements listed above. If you’re passionate about self-driving cars and think you have what it takes to make a positive impact on the world, we encourage you to apply.

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.

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