Software Engineer, Simulation

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 Simulation Teams

Simulation 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

Requirements

• 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.
• 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 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.

Benefits

• 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.