Senior Technical Program Manager

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 Program Management Team

Wayve’s Program Management team turns complex technical goals into coordinated delivery. Working closely with engineering, research and product teams, we align priorities, manage dependencies and bring clarity to ambiguous challenges. We combine technical depth with cross-functional leadership to help teams move faster, more effectively and with purpose—focusing on meaningful outcomes rather than process for its own sake.

We hire TPMs across several areas, including AV engineering (robotics, perception, parking and ADAS), vehicle platforms (hardware, vehicle software and architecture), simulation, evaluation and validation, robotaxi, AI infrastructure and data. We’ll explore the best fit for your experience and interests through the interview process.

Your day-to-day

Partner with engineering and cross-functional teams to translate ambiguous goals into clear plans, priorities and commitments.

Coordinate work across teams, manage dependencies and keep people aligned around shared goals, helping teams make decisions and resolve blockers quickly.

Anticipate delivery risks, develop mitigation plans and adapt as priorities change, protecting timelines and quality.

Keep stakeholders informed through clear, timely communication, surfacing risks early, managing expectations and driving decisions on scope and resources.

Lead retrospectives and encourage feedback, turning lessons learned into practical improvements in how teams collaborate and deliver.

What you’ll be working on:

Owning complex, multi-team technical programmes end-to-end, bringing structured execution and coordination to keep delivery predictable in a fast-moving environment.

Improving delivery efficiency by identifying bottlenecks, streamlining workflows and strengthening tooling and resource allocation.

Connecting programme delivery to Wayve’s strategic priorities, making thoughtful scope and resource decisions that maximise impact.

Building and improving delivery practices that strengthen team effectiveness, reduce risk and support better outcomes as our engineering organisation evolves.

You should apply if:

You have 5+ years of experience leading complex, multi-team software or technology programmes in fast-paced or early-stage environments. You take ownership, act decisively and get things done.

You’re technically strong and comfortable working with engineers, reasoning about modern software, machine learning and robotics stacks, even if you don’t write code.

You think in systems, understanding how the parts of a complex technical system fit together and how changes in one area affect others.

You’re skilled at planning, prioritisation and managing risks and dependencies, and can adapt your approach as requirements and circumstances change.

You stay objective under pressure, navigate competing perspectives and adjust your style to keep teams aligned through ambiguity. You remain calm and find creative solutions to difficult problems.

You communicate complex ideas simply, listen carefully and surface risks early. You bring people together, influence without formal authority and help create a positive team culture.

You’re product-minded and keep the bigger picture in view, prioritising by impact, understanding the people your programmes serve and defining success through outcomes rather than activity.

You’re open to feedback and continuously look for ways to improve your own approach, team dynamics and delivery outcomes.

Ideally, you bring 8+ years of experience specifically as a Technical Program Manager.

An engineering or computer science degree, or experience working as an engineer, alongside strong proficiency in Jira or similar tooling, would be a plus.

Experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, perception, vehicle hardware, embedded software, machine learning, simulation, evaluation or other safety-critical or compute-heavy domains would also be valuable.

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.

Conditions

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 minutes)

Competency Interviews (TPM process, Cross-functional; 1 hour 45 minutes total)

Deep-dive technical interviews (Program Design; 1 hour total)

Final interview : mission & values alignment (30 minutes).

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

Benefits

• Salaries benchmarked against the market annually
• 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.