Staff Validation Systems Engineer

Icehouseventures; Sunnyvale (CA); Hybrid; USD 276,000 - 303,000; Full time

Job summary

Wayve in Sunnyvale, CA, is seeking a Staff Validation Engineer to lead validation for L2+ Driving Features within the Wayve AI Driver. You will shape validation strategy, metrics, and test coverage across simulated and real-world environments, collaborating across product and engineering teams to ensure robust, end-to-end validation.

The role requires hands-on validation experience in autonomy, strong Python skills, and the ability to translate complex results into actionable guidance.

Qualifications

• Clear, concise communicator with excellent documentation skills.
• Strong analytical skills with evidence-based decision-making.
• Hands-on experience evaluating and validating complex engineered systems—via simulation or real-world testing.
• Experience in autonomy for driving, robotics, or related products.
• Proficiency in Python to implement metrics and evaluation code.
• Experience with simulated and physical testing environments for autonomous systems.
• Demonstrated ownership driving validation concepts from ideation to implementation.

Responsibilities

• Develop a comprehensive validation strategy across test modalities to assess L2+ Driving Features within the Wayve AI Driver.
• Define and implement general purpose metrics for validating on-road and simulated driving behavior.
• Define test coverage requirements and build comprehensive test suites.
• Develop acceptance criteria through collaboration with Product, Safety, and AV Engineering teams.
• Analyze test results and report findings to Release and Autonomy Engineering stakeholders.
• Identify data, simulation, and evaluation team dependencies to enable timely, scalable validation execution.
• Collaborate closely with Product, Architecture, Data, Simulation, and Autonomy leads to design and implement comprehensive yet efficient test strategies.

Skills

Communication skills

Analytical skills

Validation experience

Autonomy/Robotics domain

Python

Simulated and real testing

Documentation/Writing

Education

Bachelor or higher in Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace, or related field

Tools

SQL

Job description

About us

Founded in 2017, Wayve is the leading developer of Embodied AI technology. Our advanced AI software and foundation models enable vehicles to perceive, understand, and navigate any complex environment, enhancing the usability and safety of automated driving systems.

Our vision is to create autonomy that propels the world forward. Our intelligent, mapless, and hardware‑agnostic AI products are designed for automakers, accelerating the transition from assisted to automated driving.

In our fast‑paced environment big problems ignite us—we embrace uncertainty, leaning into complex challenges to unlock groundbreaking solutions. We aim high and stay humble in our pursuit of excellence, constantly learning and evolving as we pave the way for a smarter, safer future.

At Wayve, your contributions matter. We value diversity, embrace new perspectives, and foster an inclusive work environment; we back each other to deliver impact.

Make Wayve the experience that defines your career!

The role

Wayve’s AI Validation Division builds trust in the Wayve AI Driver for our customers. As a Staff Validation Engineer, you will lead the development, execution, and reporting of validation for L2+ Driving Features. Collaborating with systems engineers and data scientists, you will leverage Wayve’s unique simulation and evaluation technology, and meet emerging AV industry standards as autonomy transitions to fully end‑to‑end learned models—helping bring the Wayve AI Driver to millions globally.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and implement a comprehensive validation strategy across test modalities to assess L2+ Driving Features that are part of the Wayve AI Driver product.
• Define and implement general purpose metrics for validating on‑road and simulated driving behavior.
• Define test coverage requirements and build comprehensive test suites.
• Develop acceptance criteria through collaboration with Product, Safety, and AV Engineering teams.
• Analyze test results and report findings to Release and Autonomy Engineering stakeholders.
• Identify data, simulation, and evaluation team dependencies to enable timely, scalable, and automated validation execution.
• Collaborate closely with Product, Architecture, Data, Simulation, and Autonomy leads to design and implement comprehensive yet efficient test strategies.

About you

To succeed as a Validation Systems Engineer at Wayve, you’ll bring the following skills and experience:

Essential

• Clear, concise communicator with excellent documentation skills.
• Strong analytical skills with experience in evidence‑based decision‑making.
• Hands‑on experience evaluating and validating complex engineered systems — whether through simulated scenario development, real‑world testing, or both.
• Experience working in autonomy for driving, robotics, or related products.
• Proficiency in Python to implement metrics and work with evaluation codebase.
• Experience with both simulated and physical testing environments for autonomous systems.
• Experience analyzing and reporting validation results.
• Demonstrated ownership driving validation concepts from ideation to implementation in ambiguous, fast‑paced environments.
• Degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace, or a related field.

Desirable

• Background in ML, Computer Vision, Motion Planning, or Data Science.
• Experience working in autonomy for driving, robotics, or related products.
• Experience with SOTIF and safety validation.
• Skilled in evaluating and validating learned or adaptive behaviors.
• Experience with modern AI tools and agentic workflows
• Experience analyzing large datasets with SQL
• Deep understanding of driving behavior and how to measure driving performance.

This is a full‑time role based in our office in Sunnyvale, CA. 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. The reasonably estimated salary for this role ranges from $276,100-$303,000, plus a competitive equity package. Actual compensation is based on the candidate's skills, qualifications, and experience.

Wayve is committed to creating an inclusive interview experience. If you require any accommodations or adjustments to participate fully in our interview process, please let us know.

We understand that everyone has a unique set of skills and experiences and that not everyone will meet all of the requirements listed above.

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.

For US candidates only, please visit E-Verify Notice and Participation and Right to Work.

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.