Technical Program Manager, Evaluation & Validation

Wayve; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Wayve in the United Kingdom is seeking a Technical Program Manager for Simulation, Evaluation & Validation. You will own end-to-end delivery across simulators, evaluation platforms, synthetic data pipelines, and critical-event processes to ensure the AI Driver is ready for road deployment.

You will collaborate with Autonomy, Science, Release, Product and Safety teams in a fast-moving, safety-focused environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years leading complex, multi-team programs.
• Strong technical background to converse with engineers and scientists.
• Ability to stay neutral under pressure in safety-critical settings.
• Proven project management across planning, risks, and delivery.

Responsibilities

• Drive end-to-end delivery of cross-team programs spanning simulation, evaluation, and validation.
• Sequence roadmaps across simulators, datasets, evaluation, and triage; manage risks and dependencies.
• Tie platform delivery to measurable outcomes like velocity, signal quality, and time-to-insight.
• Coordinate release-gating validation with Autonomy, Science, Release, Product, and Safety.
• Run planning, reviews, retros; communicate progress and risk to engineers and leaders.
• Champion continuous improvement of tooling, processes, and ways of working.

Skills

Bias for action

Cross-functional program management

Stakeholder communication

Data-driven decision making

Risk & dependency management

Technical fluency (simulation/ML)

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

As a Technical Program Manager in Simulation, Evaluation & Validation at Wayve, you'll drive delivery across the platforms and processes that prove the AI Driver is ready for the road - open and closed-loop simulation, the evaluation platform, synthetic data, critical-event pipelines, and behaviour validation. Your programs gate real on-road releases, so your impact is measured in release confidence, signal quality, and developer velocity.

Working with engineers and scientists across Autonomy, Science, Release, Product, and Safety, you'll bring structure to a complex, cross-cutting, safety-critical space in a fast-moving environment. A successful TPM is a force multiplier - helping teams move faster, more effectively, and with purpose.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive program delivery: Own end-to-end delivery of cross-team programs spanning simulation, evaluation, and validation.
• Sequence cross-cutting initiatives: Compose roadmaps across simulators, datasets, evaluation, and triage; manage dependencies, risks, and trade-offs, and accelerate early with clear options.
• Tie work to outcomes: Connect platform delivery to measurable outcomes - developer velocity, signal quality, cost per evaluation, time-to-insight, and validation credibility.
• Coordinate release-gating validation: Partner with Autonomy, Science, Release, Product, and Safety on acceptance criteria and the validation that gates releases.
• Run delivery rhythms: Run planning, reviews, and retros, and communicate progress and risk to engineers, partners, and senior leaders.
• Champion continuous improvement: Improve tooling, processes, and ways of working across the platforms.

About you

In order to set you up for success as a Technical Program Manager in Evaluation & Validation at Wayve, we're looking for the following skills and experience. (The first three are our must-haves.)

Essential

• Bias for action: 8+ years leading complex, multi-team programs (or a strong record at this level). You lead high-complexity work across teams and get things done.
• Technically strong: Credible with engineers and scientists across simulation, evaluation, ML, and validation; you reason about how data, simulator fidelity, and metric design propagate into release confidence, even though you won't write production code.
• Stays neutral and adapts under pressure: Effective in ambiguous, safety-critical environments; you flex your style and bring structure without slowing delivery.
• Strong project management: Skilled at planning, prioritising, and managing risk and dependencies across teams.
• Clear communicator & collaborator: You influence without authority across Autonomy, Science, Release, Product, and Safety.
• Data-driven: Comfortable defining and using metrics - signal quality, coverage, time-to-insight - to steer delivery and decisions.