Principal Roboticist: Embodied AI & Generalist Robots

Wayve; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Wayve is seeking a Principal Roboticist to join the MEGA team at Wayve Labs in Sunnyvale. The role is a founding member position with 0→1 ownership and the opportunity to shape a new robotics program spanning hardware, software, and ML.

The ideal candidate has 5+ years in robotics, strong C++/Python skills, ROS/ROS2 experience, and a track record of research or engineering excellence. PhD preferred; Masters with equivalent experience welcomed.

Qualifications

• PhD preferred; Master's degree with equivalent experience welcome.
• 5+ years of relevant industry experience in robotics.
• Publications in top-tier conferences such as ICRA/CoRL/IROS are highly valued.

Responsibilities

• Build, integrate, and maintain robot hardware platforms for research and experimentation.
• Develop and maintain 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 that inform model development.
• 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, regression, and validation tests for robot systems.
• Help shape technical direction across robotics, ML, hardware, and experimentation.

Skills

Robotics leadership

C++

Python

Robot manipulation

Experiment design

Publications

Education

PhD

Master's degree

Tools

ROS/ROS2

Control software

Hardware integration

Job description

Wayve is seeking a Principal Roboticist to join the MEGA team at Wayve Labs in Sunnyvale. The role is a founding member position with 0→1 ownership and the opportunity to shape a new robotics program spanning hardware, software, and ML.

The ideal candidate has 5+ years in robotics, strong C++/Python skills, ROS/ROS2 experience, and a track record of research or engineering excellence. PhD preferred; Masters with equivalent experience welcomed.