Staff ML Engineer, Gaia

Wayve; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 75,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Wayve is seeking a Staff ML Engineer for their video world model, Gaia. This full-time role in London involves leading the training of large-scale models and contributing to model architecture. The candidate should have strong engineering skills and relevant industry experience, ideally improving data/training pipelines.

Emphasizing a hybrid work model, Wayve values innovation and inclusion, encouraging applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply.

Qualifications

• In-depth experience training large-scale models is essential.
• Strong understanding of model architecture and training decisions.
• Relevant industry experience of typically 4-5+ years.

Responsibilities

• Lead large-scale training runs for video foundation models.
• Contribute to model architecture and training strategy.
• Improve world-model capabilities for synthetic scenario generation.

Skills

Training large-scale models

Understanding model architecture

Hands-on engineering skills with modern ML stacks (e.g., PyTorch)

Debugging and performance-minded development

Education

Advanced degree in a relevant field

Tools

PyTorch

Job description

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

Gaia is Wayve’s video world model: trained on large‑scale driving video, it predicts future frames from past context—functioning as a simulator that helps generate synthetic scenarios, including rare or safety‑critical events. As a Staff ML Engineer on Gaia, you’ll own and drive work on training and improving frontier‑scale models trained in‑house. This is a high‑impact role with the opportunity to tech‑lead a key area and help shape the next version of Gaia in a fast‑paced, results‑focused environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and execute large‑scale training runs for video (or adjacent) foundation models, from experimental design through production‑grade execution.
• Contribute to model architecture and training strategy, using first‑principles understanding rather than “off‑the‑shelf” application.
• Improve world‑model capabilities that enable synthetic scenario generation and downstream evaluation/training of the driving model.
• Partner closely with research, applications, simulation engineering, and cloud/infrastructure teams to deliver end‑to‑end impact.
• Provide technical leadership through mentorship, review, and setting high engineering/research standards (Senior/Staff scope).

About you

In order to set you up for success as a Staff ML Engineer (Gaia) at Wayve, we’re looking for the following skills and experience.

Essential

• In‑depth experience training large‑scale models (language, video, or other foundation models), including ownership of training at scale.
• Strong understanding of model architecture and the ability to contribute meaningfully to architectural/training decisions.
• Strong hands‑on engineering skills with modern ML stacks (e.g., PyTorch), including debugging and performance/reliability‑minded development.
• Relevant industry experience (typically 4–5+ years); advanced degrees are valued, but depth of applied experience is important.

Desirable

• Direct experience with world models, video generation, or long‑horizon prediction.
• Experience improving data/training pipelines and working across infrastructure constraints (distributed training, efficiency, reliability).
• Proven technical leadership (tech lead ownership, mentoring, setting direction across an area).

This is a full‑time role based in our office in London. Wayve operates 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.

Wayve is committed to creating an inclusive interview experience. If you require any accommodations or adjustments to participate fully in our interview process, please let us know.

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.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

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, 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, or any other basis as protected by applicable law.

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.