Principal Engineer, Model Development Platform

Wayve; Sunnyvale (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Relocation support

Hybrid working

Learning budget

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

Wayve is seeking a Principal Engineer to own the end-to-end architecture of the Model Development Platform, ensuring reliability, scalability and coherence across web apps, distributed compute and ML ops.

You'll partner with leadership to set the technical vision, mentor engineers, and drive platform capabilities that speed up model development and fleet learning while balancing innovation with operational simplicity. Hybrid work in multiple hubs globally.

Qualifications

• Senior-level experience in designing distributed systems and ML infrastructure.
• Proven ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams and set technical direction.
• Experience with modern web frameworks and deployment tooling.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end platform architecture for reliability and scalability.
• Lead across front-end UIs, distributed training and scheduling systems.
• Mentor engineers and drive architectural reviews.
• Balance innovation with operational simplicity while solving hard problems.
• Collaborate with product, research and operations on roadmaps.

Skills

Distributed systems

ML/AI infrastructure

Full-stack web apps

Leadership

Mentoring engineers

Staff/Principal experience

Tools

Spark

Ray

Kubernetes

Airflow

MLflow

React

Flask

FastAPI

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.

About Our Engineering Teams

The Model Development Platform team builds the infrastructure and tooling behind Wayve's AI model lifecycle, from data ingestion and training to experiment scheduling and on-road testing. Our work spans AI research, large-scale distributed systems and robotic operations, and lets researchers and engineers iterate fast and deploy autonomous driving models safely.

Your day-to-day

As Principal Engineer, you'll own the end-to-end architecture of the platform and keep it reliable, scalable and coherent. You'll partner with the Head of Model Dev Platform to set and execute the technical vision, aligning infrastructure and tooling with company goals. You'll lead by example, going deep across web applications, distributed compute, ML Ops, data pipelines and optimisation algorithms, and through architecture and mentorship you'll help teams build platform capabilities that measurably speed up model development and fleet learning.

What You'll Be Working On

• System architecture and reliability: designing and evolving the platform's architecture for reliability, observability and scalability, setting performance, latency and availability targets, and driving the engineering standards to meet them
• Cross-domain technical leadership: unifying the platform across front-end UIs, distributed training, Spark data pipelines and optimisation-based experiment scheduling, so systems work together cleanly
• Hands‑on problem solving: taking on the hardest problems across subteams, leading architectural reviews and proposing pragmatic solutions that balance innovation with operational simplicity
• Experimentation and scheduling systems: building systems that optimise how models are tested in simulation and on-road, using techniques like linear programming and heuristic optimisation to balance hardware, safety and research priorities while improving throughput and turnaround
• Data and compute infrastructure: architecting pipelines that ingest, transform and enrich petabytes of fleet sensor data, and driving efficient compute use across GPU, CPU, cloud and edge for prototyping and large‑scale training
• Strategic collaboration: working with Product, Research and Operations to align architecture with user needs, and co‑owning the platform's long‑term roadmap

You should apply if

• You have 10+ years designing and building large-scale distributed systems, ML/AI infrastructure, full-stack web applications or developer platforms, including at least 3 years as a staff or principal-level engineer
• You have designed systems spanning web platforms, ML pipelines and large-scale compute orchestration (e.g. Spark, Ray, Kubernetes, Airflow, MLflow)
• You have driven platform reliability improvements, defined SLAs/SLOs, and built self‑healing, observable systems that run at "four nines" availability or better
• You understand distributed computing, workflow orchestration, data modelling and API design in depth, and can write and review production-quality code
• You communicate well across functions and can guide engineers, managers and researchers toward a unified technical direction
• You have mentored engineers across levels and built a culture of engineering excellence

Nice To Have

• Experience applying algorithmic or mathematical optimisation (e.g. linear programming, graph algorithms) to operational or scheduling problems
• Familiarity with end-to-end model lifecycle tooling, from data ingestion and training CI to model artifact tracking and evaluation workflows
• Prior exposure to autonomous systems, robotics or other safety‑critical domains
• Experience with modern web frameworks (e.g. React, Flask, FastAPI) and how they integrate with backend systems
• Understanding of data privacy, compliance and secure handling practices for large‑scale sensor data

More About Wayve

Wayve is building the leading AI platform for autonomous driving. We are pioneering an end to end AI approach that enables vehicles to learn directly from real world experience, developing the ability to adapt, generalise and improve at scale. Instead of relying on hand coded rules or pre mapped environments, our AI Driver learns to drive by understanding the world around it. The result is technology that navigates complex urban environments with intelligence, precision and natural flow, unlocking meaningful advances in both safety and efficiency. We believe autonomy represents a once in a generation transformation in how people and goods move, comparable to the shift from horses to cars, and from human driven vehicles to intelligent machines.

Our ambition is to make autonomy universal. Wayve’s mapless and hardware agnostic AI platform integrates with global OEM partners, enabling continuous software evolution and unlocking advanced levels of automation from L2 plus through to L4 as our core AI model scales. In a race increasingly defined by intelligence and real world learning, Wayve is taking a distinct approach, building a generalisable driving intelligence that can power any vehicle, anywhere. By combining embodied AI with scalable deployment, we are creating technology that can be shaped to each OEM brand and driver experience, accelerating the transition to a safer, more intelligent future of mobility.

How we work - Locations & Flexible Working

Our main hubs are in London, Sunnyvale, Yokohama, Herzliya, Vancouver and Leonberg. We operate a hybrid working model that combines in-person collaboration in our dedicated office spaces with focused time working remotely. This gives our teams the connection and energy of working together, alongside the flexibility to do their best work in a way that fits their lives.

The Interview Process

• Initial call / recruiter screen
• HM meeting
• Deep-dive technical interviews [programming, system design & domain-specific interviews; 4 hours total]
• Final interview: mission & values alignment

We’ll always explain the format and work around your availability.

What’s in it for you (Location dependant)

• Salaries benchmarked against the market annually
• Meaningful equity, sharing in the ownership and long term success of Wayve
• Relocation support and visa sponsorship where applicable
• Hybrid working, core hours and the chance to work hands on in vehicle workshops and labs
• Learning and development budgets with support for training, conferences and growth
• Comprehensive benefits including health insurance, dental, enhanced maternity and paternity leave, retirement or pension where applicable, access to therapists, wellbeing partnerships, team socials and more

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.

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, and 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 (including breastfeeding) or any other basis as protected by applicable law.

For more information visit Careers at Wayve. To learn more about what drives us, visit Values at Wayve

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.