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 Simulation TeamsSimulation is a mission-critical part of how we build Wayve's driving intelligence. It lets teams evaluate changes faster, investigate failures and build confidence in the driving stack before it reaches the road.
Wayve's end-to-end driving stack creates a distinctive simulation challenge. There are no intermediate stages where simulated signals can be injected, so simulation has to be end to end too: reproducing the behaviour of a learned driving system across sensor data, model inference, routing, control and vehicle dynamics. Our simulator needs to be realistic enough to give meaningful signal, reproducible enough for teams to trust the results, and descriptive enough to explain the differences between simulated and on-road behaviour.
You'll join the Core Simulation team. Our open-loop and closed-loop workflows share one codebase, with different components configured depending on the use case. You'll start with the team focused on high-scale open-loop evaluation, while contributing to shared components that also underpin GAIA-powered closed-loop simulation, where generative world models are integrated with the driving stack. Your role is to enable and productionise these capabilities, not primarily to train the models.
Your day-to-day- Work hands-on in our shared, modern C++ and Python simulation codebase
- Implement scoped features and integrate driving-stack components, simulated robot systems and new vehicle-platform capabilities
- Support and test different simulation configurations, with an initial focus on high-scale open-loop evaluation
- Investigate differences between on-road and simulated execution, tracing issues across component interfaces, data flows, timing and configuration
- Improve automated testing, observability, reproducibility, reliability and developer tooling
- Profile simulator workloads and contribute performance and scalability improvements
- Collaborate with Simulation, Robotics, Autonomy, Evaluation, Platform and Data teams to clarify requirements and resolve integration issues
What you'll be working on- Developing and maintaining production-quality components in Wayve's simulation system using modern C++ and Python
- Integrating driving-stack components, simulated robot systems and new vehicle platforms into the shared simulation environment
- Making sure components interact correctly across the simulation workflows they support
- Finding the root cause of on-road vs. simulation differences across data, inference and simulated components
- Making simulation more reproducible, reliable and debuggable, and faster, so we can run ever larger evaluation workloads efficiently
- Contributing to technical designs and helping evolve the quality and maintainability of the codebase
You should apply if- You have professional experience developing, delivering and maintaining production software in a collaborative engineering environment
- You have strong software development skills in C++ and Python, with depth in at least one and the ability to work effectively in the other (equal expertise in both isn't required)
- You have experience integrating and debugging components in a complex software system, reasoning across interfaces, data flows, timing and failure modes
- You have relevant experience in simulation (robotics or AV), ideally at the integration level, or in another complex systems domain with clearly transferable challenges
- You have experience integrating and working with ML components (e.g. PyTorch models, CUDA, QNN)
- You have strong software engineering fundamentals: testing, maintainability, code review, observability and pragmatic design
- You understand software performance issues and use profiling or measurement to guide improvements
- You use GenAI development tools (coding assistants or agents) to boost productivity, while carefully reviewing, testing and validating their output
- You communicate and collaborate well, deliver scoped work independently and raise blockers early
Nice to have:
- Experience with middleware or integrating components across complex software systems
- Experience with sensor data such as camera, radar, lidar or GNSS, including modelling uncertainty or noise
- Experience with performance profiling, observability or debugging distributed systems
- Familiarity with large-scale batch processing, cloud infrastructure or GPU-based workloads
- Exposure to world models, NeRF, Gaussian splatting or learned graphics
Not ticking every box? That's totally okay! If you're passionate about autonomy and keen to learn, we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every requirement.
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:Our process is clear and respectful of your time:
- Initial call / recruiter screen (30 mins)
- Competency Interviews :Programming and hiring manager interview; 2 hours total
- Deep-dive technical interviews : Programming, systems & domain-specific interviews; 3 hours total
- Final interview: Mission & values alignment (45 mins).
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.
If that sounds like the kind of problem you want to spend your time on, we'd really like to hear from you.
