Legal Counsel

Wayve; London (KY); Hybrid; USD 93,000 - 132,000; Full time

Job summary

Wayve in London is seeking a Legal Counsel (Commercial) to support a broad range of contracts and strategic commercial matters as the company scales globally.

You will work with cross-functional teams across product, privacy, engineering and fleet ops, drafting and negotiating agreements, advising on AI/data issues, and helping implement scalable processes while maintaining practical risk controls.

Qualifications

• Qualified solicitor in England and Wales.
• 2–4 years of post-qualification experience in a leading firm.
• Experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements.
• Able to communicate legal positions clearly to non-legal stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Draft, review and negotiate a broad range of commercial agreements, including supplier, software/SaaS, services and other contracts, through to bespoke OEM/Tier 1 agreements.
• Advise on IP, AI and data usage and navigate novel areas of law at the intersection of law and AI.
• Advise on employment matters for Wayve's global workforce with local counsel as needed.
• Support data protection and privacy matters related to Wayve's products and partnerships.
• Help build scalable processes, templates, playbooks, and governance for growth.
• Support international expansion and new product deployments from a commercial legal perspective.
• Educate the business on commercial risk and contracting best practices.

Skills

Commercial contract drafting

Negotiation with counterparties

Stakeholder management

Legal risk assessment

Autonomous work

Education

Solicitor qualification (England & Wales)

Job description

Before the detail, here's the challenge you'd help us solve.

We build the embodied intelligence that moves real vehicles safely, and the ecosystem a billion machines will run on in the future. Very few people in AI can say this. Every role here, whatever the team, plugs into that.

Here’s what this particular role covers.

The role:

Wayve is looking for a Legal Counsel (Commercial) based in London to support a broad range of commercial matters. The role will sit in Wayve’s Commercial Legal team, reporting to the Managing Counsel, and will play an important role as we scale globally and bring embodied AI technology into real-world deployment.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in fast-moving, technology-driven environments and enjoys working at the intersection of law, AI, product innovation, and operational scale. While experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or AI would be valuable, it is not essential. We are more interested in candidates with strong foundational commercial skills, sound judgement, and a proven ability to navigate complex legal landscapes in a fast-moving environment.

We are looking for a proactive, commercially minded self-starter who is comfortable operating independently on a variety of day-to-day commercial legal matters. This role will have significant exposure to cross-border and international matters and will work closely with commercial, procurement, engineering, product, privacy, and fleet ops teams as the company continues to expand.

Wayve’s Legal Team focuses on enabling the business to achieve its goals while appropriately identifying and managing legal risk. We are looking for someone who can clearly and confidently explain legal and commercial risks, exercise sound judgement in assessing those risks, and work collaboratively with stakeholders to find practical solutions. You should be comfortable operating in an environment where there is not always established precedent, and focused on helping the business find a path forward rather than simply identifying reasons why something cannot be done.

Key responsibilities:

This role will report to the Managing Counsel and support the wider Commercial Legal team on a range of legal and commercial matters, including:

• Drafting, reviewing and negotiating a broad range of commercial agreements, from day-to-day supplier, software/SaaS, services and other operational contracts, through to bespoke agreements with OEM customers and Tier 1 suppliers, often involving significant intellectual property, data, privacy and other technology-related issues.
• Advising on intellectual property, AI and data usage (including data used for AI development and training) and other general commercial matters, in partnership with other members of the Legal team and external counsel (where required). This includes advising on novel and emerging areas of law, particularly at the intersection of law and AI, and helping navigate complex questions where legal frameworks, precedent and market practice are still developing
• Advising the business’s People team on various employment and HR matters relating to Wayve’s global workforce (working with local counsel where specialist jurisdictional advice is required)
• Advising on data protection and privacy matters, including supporting the use and sharing of data in connection with Wayve's products, commercial relationships and AI development and training
• Helping to improve and develop scalable processes, templates, playbooks, and governance structures to support Wayve’s growth and contracting volume
• Supporting strategic initiatives, international expansion, and new product deployments from a commercial legal perspective
• Supporting Wayve’s operational teams, including Fleet Operations, in connection with the operation, testing and deployment of Wayve’s vehicle fleet across its international markets
• Educating and enabling the business on commercial risk, contracting best practices, and legal process matters, and supporting other members of the Legal Team

About you:

In order to set you up for success as a Legal Counsel (Commercial) at Wayve, we’re looking for the following skills and experience.

Essential

• Qualified solicitor in England and Wales
• Trained at a leading law firm with 2 to 4 years of relevant post-qualification experience (although we are open to candidates with more or less experience)
• Strong experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements, including procurement, supply chain, technology, and vendor contracts
• Comfortable negotiating directly with commercial counterparties and able to communicate legal positions clearly and pragmatically
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to distil complex legal issues and clearly explain legal and commercial risk to non-legal stakeholders
• Experience supporting strategic commercial transactions and working closely with business stakeholders in fast-moving, technology-driven environments
• Strong commercial judgement and an ability to assess legal risk in the context of broader business objectives, providing practical, solutions-oriented advice that enables the business to achieve its goals while appropriately managing risk
• Experience advising on employment-related matters affecting a global workforce, or a willingness to develop experience in this area, including navigating a fast-paced employment environment
• Ability to work autonomously on day-to-day matters, take initiative, exercise sound judgement on when to elevate, and operate effectively in a fast-paced and evolving environment
• Experience partnering cross-functionally with business stakeholders and an ability to communicate effectively with both legal and non-legal experts
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously and switch effectively between competing priorities
• Enthusiasm for getting stuck into a broad range of legal matters, including areas outside your existing experience, and comfort working through novel legal and commercial questions where there may be limited precedent or established market practice

Desirable

Experience in one or more of the following areas is a major plus:

• Commercial experience within the automotive, mobility, or broader technology sector, particularly at an OEM, Tier 1 supplier, or similarly complex engineering-led organization
• Experience supporting OEM, strategic partnership, or other large-scale B2B transactions involving hardware, software, data, or integrated technology solutions
• Exposure to AI, data or autonomous vehicle related legal issues
• Cross-border commercial advisory experience across the UK, US, Europe and Japan.
• Experience supporting commercial or employment matters in Germany, including familiarity with the German legal and regulatory environment and working with German stakeholders and local counsel.
• Experience helping to automate and scale legal processes, templates, or commercial legal functions

This is a full-time role based in our office in London. 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. Some international travel may be required.

A quick, honest note before you apply.

Wayve is not a mature, fully-structured place with the playbook already written. Much of how we work is still being written, and if you join, you’ll help write it. That suits people who want real ownership more than people who need a settled structure from day one.

If that sounds like the kind of problem you want to spend your time on, we’d really like to hear from you.