Senior/Staff Data Scientist

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 Product Dependability Teams

Our Product Dependability team connects Wayve’s embodied AI technology with the demands of real-world automotive products. Working across systems engineering, safety, cybersecurity and data analysis, the team helps translate AI capabilities into dependable vehicle-level behavior and supports integration with our OEM partners.

As a Senior Data Scientist within this team, you’ll use data to understand how our driving models perform, where their limitations lie, and whether our evaluation methods reflect real-world customer needs. You’ll help define data collection and validation requirements, identify gaps or bias in datasets, and turn your findings into actionable recommendations for model development and product improvement.

You’ll collaborate closely with model developers, engineering, validation and product teams. This isn’t a model-building role—it’s an opportunity to influence what we develop, how we evaluate it, and the evidence we use to demonstrate dependable performance.⁠

🧠 Your day-to-day

• Analyze target markets to understand road infrastructure, weather, traffic density, local driving behaviors and regulatory requirements.

• Define ODD boundaries, edge conditions and potential failure triggers to inform data collection and system design.

• Map the driving competencies required in each region, quantifying their complexity and frequency using traffic data and real-world observations.

• Analyze model performance metrics and behavioral patterns to identify data gaps, edge-case risks and opportunities for improvement.

• Use historical data and statistical models to understand behaviors affecting reliability and Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF).

• Translate your findings into actionable data strategies, technical requirements and deployment recommendations with cross-functional partners.

🧩 What you’ll be working on

• ODD characterization: Build a detailed understanding of the environments our systems need to operate in, including geography, infrastructure, road types, weather and local traffic conditions.

• Behavioral competency mapping: Develop and maintain a taxonomy of capabilities such as merging, yielding, unprotected turns and pedestrian interactions, connecting each competency to the demands of its ODD.

• Scenario coverage and scaling: Create a framework to prioritize combinations of ODD conditions and behavioral competencies, optimizing data collection and identifying the minimum data slices needed to support safe, predictable performance in new regions.

• Model behavior analysis: Investigate model KPIs and driving patterns, working with safety and product teams to assess differences between current and required behavior and propose improvements.

• Reliability and data guidance: Identify data gaps and high-variance behaviors that affect MTBF, recommending additional data needed to support reliability targets in each ODD segment.

• Simulation and testing inputs: Contribute insights to scenario libraries, synthetic data generation and test case prioritization.

🙌 You should apply if

• You have 7+ years of experience in systems engineering, automotive data analysis, data science or a related field.

• You’re familiar with traffic regulations and human driving behaviors across multiple geographies.

• You’re proficient with data analysis tools such as Python, SQL, GIS and Jupyter, and comfortable working with large datasets through platforms such as Databricks.

• You can visualize and communicate ODD and scenario coverage metrics, turning complex analysis into clear, actionable insights.

• You work effectively across disciplines and can translate domain analysis into technical and product requirements.

• You thrive in an agile, fast-scaling environment and bring a strong execution mindset.

It would also be great if you bring:

• Experience analyzing or defining ODDs for autonomous driving or advanced driver assistance systems (AV/ADAS).

• A master’s degree or PhD in Physics, Statistics or Mathematics, with a specialization in traffic system modeling, autonomous driving deployment or urban mobility analysis.

🌱 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.

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:

This is a full-time role based in Sunnyvale, CA, with a hybrid working model.

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 min

• Hiring Manager Interviews 1 hour

• Deep-dive technical interviews 2 hours

• Final interview: mission & values alignment 30 min

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.

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.