Lead Principal Roboticist, Embodied AI & MEGA

EngineersOfAI; Sunnyvale, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 290,000; Full time

Job summary

Wayve is seeking a Principal Roboticist to build a foundational robotics program within the MEGA team. You will own research directions, architect hardware-software stacks, and push toward general, robust embodied intelligence across diverse robotic embodiments.

This is a high-impact, 0→1 role in a fast-paced lab environment. You will shape the research agenda, collaborate with researchers and ML engineers, and deliver publishable results translated into scalable robotic systems.

Qualifications

• Experience in robot manipulation and working with robot hardware.
• Experience leading robotics efforts and teams.
• Strong programming in C++ and Python; comfortable with robot software stacks (control, planning).

Responsibilities

• Build, integrate, and maintain robot hardware platforms for research.
• Develop robot software in C++ and Python, including ROS/ROS2-based systems.
• Create infrastructure for policy deployment, data collection, evaluation, and the robotics data flywheel.
• Run real-world robot experiments and define data collection pilots.
• Collaborate with research teams on robot policy development, model evaluation, and data strategy.
• Debug and troubleshoot robotic software, hardware, and policy failures.
• Build robust deployment, testing, and validation for robot systems.
• Help shape technical direction across robotics, ML, hardware, and experimentation.

Skills

Robot manipulation

Leadership

C++ programming

Python programming

Robot software systems (ROS/ROS2)

Machine Learning (concepts)

Education

PhD in robotics/computer science

Master’s degree with equivalent experience

Tools

ROS/ROS2

Job description

Wayve is seeking a Principal Roboticist to build a foundational robotics program within the MEGA team. You will own research directions, architect hardware-software stacks, and push toward general, robust embodied intelligence across diverse robotic embodiments.

This is a high-impact, 0→1 role in a fast-paced lab environment. You will shape the research agenda, collaborate with researchers and ML engineers, and deliver publishable results translated into scalable robotic systems.