Director, Technical Program Management - Driver Out - Wayve

OpenTalent; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 260,000 - 380,000; Full time

Job summary

Wayve is seeking a Director of Technical Program Management for Driver Out in Sunnyvale, CA. You will own the multi-year program to operationalise Wayve's autonomy tech from driver-in to driver-out, overseeing safety, systems, and delivery foundations.

You will lead the TPM organization, partner with OEMs and partners, and drive risk, milestones, and readiness across multiple workstreams. The role demands strategic influence, program governance, and the ability to turn complex safety-critical

Responsibilities

• Own the Driver Out program end-to-end: Define and drive the multi-year plan and milestones - from the first driver-out demonstration to public-road product integration and minimal scaling - from concept to operation.
• Lead the program org: Build, coach, and grow the TPM team across the program; set the operating model and hold workstream leads to account.
• Drive the critical path: Turn a complex set of "must be true" conditions into a sequenced plan; own dependencies, risk, and trade-offs across every workstream.
• Own the safety-critical spine: Bring the safety case, behaviour validation, functional safety (ISO 26262), SOTIF (ISO 21448), cybersecurity, and the Safety Management System together into a credible, signed-off argument for driver-out.
• Partner across the company and externally: Align engineering, science, safety, product, and operations - and external partners (OEMs, Uber) - on scope, sequencing, and readiness.
• Establish scalable practices: Governance, milestone and launch-readiness reviews, KPIs and dashboards, escalations, and risk-budget management.
• Represent Driver Out at the top: Report progress, risk, and readiness to the executive team, and steer the biggest calls.

Job description

The role

As Director of Technical Program Management for Driver Out at Wayve, you'll own the multi-year program that takes Wayve's autonomy technology and operationalises it - from our first eyes-off, driver-out demonstration through to a productised, scaled service on public roads. Driver Out is the underlying technology program behind Wayve's robotaxi ambitions: where the robotaxi pilots prove the product in different markets, you own the safety, systems, and delivery foundations that make driver-out real.

You'll lead an org-wide effort spanning driving-model performance and safety, behaviour validation, the safety case, system architecture, functional safety and V&V, vehicle hardware and software, remote assistance, and operations - turning a complex web of "must be true" conditions into a sequenced, credible plan. You'll partner with engineering, science, safety, product, and operations leaders (and external partners such as OEMs and Uber), and build and lead the TPM team beneath the program. Your impact is measured in how safely and predictably Wayve moves from driver-in to driver-out. A successful leader here is a force multiplier - creating clarity across a huge, ambiguous, safety-critical program.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the Driver Out program end-to-end: Define and drive the multi-year plan and milestones - from the first driver-out demonstration to public-road product integration and minimal scaling - from concept to operation.
• Lead the program org: Build, coach, and grow the TPM team across the program; set the operating model and hold workstream leads to account.
• Drive the critical path: Turn a complex set of "must be true" conditions into a sequenced plan; own dependencies, risk, and trade-offs across every workstream.
• Own the safety-critical spine: Bring the safety case, behaviour validation, functional safety (ISO 26262), SOTIF (ISO 21448), cybersecurity, and the Safety Management System together into a credible, signed-off argument for driver-out.
• Partner across the company and externally: Align engineering, science, safety, product, and operations - and external partners (OEMs, Uber) - on scope, sequencing, and readiness.
• Establish scalable practices: Governance, milestone and launch-readiness reviews, KPIs and dashboards, escalations, and risk-budget management.
• Represent Driver Out at the top: Report progress, risk, and readiness to the executive team, and steer the biggest calls.

About you

In order to set you up for success as Director of Technical Program Management for Driver Out at Wayve, we’re looking for the following skills and experience.

Essential