Director AI Integration and Applications

About the company

Wayve is a UK self-driving technology startup that develops end-to-end neural network driving software for assisted and fully automated driving.

About this role

THE ROLE  As Director of AI Integration & Application, you will lead the integration of our AI stack into production automotive platforms and programs. Your primary focus will be to ensure seamless embedding, adaptation, and validation of our end-to-end AI model on customer systems, working across embedded software layers, AI deployment workflows, and OEM integration processes. This is a strategic and execution-oriented leadership role. It requires strong embedded software and automotive integration expertise, as well as practical knowledge of AI model training, distillation, and tuning. Success in this role will not only deliver production programs but will also define templates and frameworks for scalable global adoption. Your work will directly influence how our product evolves to meet the complexity of diverse regional needs while aligning with a unified global architecture and deployment strategy. Key Responsibilities: - Own the end-to-end software integration of our AI stack into customer vehicle platforms, ensuring delivery readiness from development to production. - Capture best practices, performance insights, and technical solutions from regional deployments to inform and influence global product development strategy. - Serve as the technical integration lead for OEM production programs, aligning system capabilities with platform constraints, safety requirements, and functional targets. - Guide the adaptation, tuning, and validation of our end-to-end AI models for specific OEM environments—including dataset preparation, model distillation, and performance calibration. - Translate regional or program-specific integrations into reusable application-layer components and playbooks that can be applied globally. - Act as the connective tissue between application software, AI research, system integration, product management, safety, and release engineering. - Contribute to the evolution of our global deployment strategy by feeding insights from program work and collaborate into upstream architectural and operational improvements. - Build and lead a high-performance team focused on embedded AI application software and system-level integration. - Represent the company in technical discussions with OEMs and Tier 1s, supporting early-stage integration assessments, roadmap alignment, and field performance reviews. ABOUT YOU   In order to set you up for success as an Engineering Director at Wayve, we’re looking for the following skills and experience.   Essential: - 10+ years of experience in embedded software engineering or AI systems integration, with 5+ years in technical leadership roles. - Proven track record of integrating complex software or AI systems into production automotive platforms. - Proficiency in embedded development with C++, Python, and real-time OS environments (Linux, QNX, Adaptive AUTOSAR). - Deep familiarity with end-to-end AI workflows including training, distillation, tuning, and deployment in embedded environments. - Experience interfacing with automotive data pipelines, perception or planning models, and validation tooling. - Strong system thinking and problem-solving skills; ability to lead multidisciplinary initiatives and balance technical depth with delivery focus. - Excellent communication skills for cross-functional collaboration and customer-facing engagements. Desirable: - Experience in delivering AI-enabled or perception-based systems in production automotive programs. - Knowledge of ISO 26262, ISO/SAE 21434, UN R155/156, and other standards relevant to safety and security in automotive software. - Experience working with customers across multiple regions and templating integration solutions for broader reuse. - Background in creating architectural feedback loops from program execution into product evolution. This is a full-time role based in Detroit or Sunnyvale, CA (hybrid). 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 $295,500 to $350,000, plus a competitive equity package. Actual compensation is based on the candidate's skills, qualifications, and experience.