Director, Application Engineering - US

Wayve · Detroit; Sunnyvale

  • Senior
  • Full-time
  • $490,000 – $600,000
  • Posted 2026-08-24
  • Confirmed live on 25 September 2026

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Job description

About us

Founded in 2017, Wayve is the leading developer of Embodied AI technology. Our advanced AI software and foundation models enable vehicles to perceive, understand, and navigate any complex environment, enhancing the usability and safety of automated driving systems.

Our vision is to create autonomy that propels the world forward. Our intelligent, mapless, and hardware-agnostic AI products are designed for automakers, accelerating the transition from assisted to automated driving.

In our fast-paced environment big problems ignite us—we embrace uncertainty, leaning into complex challenges to unlock groundbreaking solutions. We aim high and stay humble in our pursuit of excellence, constantly learning and evolving as we pave the way for a smarter, safer future.

At Wayve, your contributions matter. We value diversity, embrace new perspectives, and foster an inclusive work environment; we back each other to deliver impact.

Make Wayve the experience that defines your career!

The role

Wayve is entering an exciting stage of its journey as we take our AI Driver from breakthrough technology into production vehicles at global scale.

As Director of Application Software, US, you will lead the engineering organisation responsible for bringing Wayve’s core AI and autonomous driving technology into customer vehicles. Sitting at the intersection of our AI and autonomy teams, vehicle engineering, and automotive partners, your team will help turn advances in our core technology into safe, reliable, production-ready driving capabilities.

This is a highly collaborative technical leadership role with the opportunity to shape how Wayve approaches application engineering as we grow. You will build and develop our US organisation, establish strong partnerships with our core engineering teams and customers, and create approaches that allow us to deploy our technology efficiently across different vehicles, platforms, and markets.

We are looking for someone who combines an understanding of autonomous driving and machine learning with strong vehicle systems knowledge. You will not need to be the specialist in every part of the technology stack. You will be supported by experienced technical leaders across application software, integration, AI, and infrastructure. What matters is having the technical judgement to connect these areas, ask the right questions, make thoughtful trade-offs, and create an environment where great engineering teams can succeed.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and grow our US Application Software organisation, creating an inclusive, collaborative environment where engineers and technical leaders can do their best work.

• Own how Wayve’s core AI and autonomous driving technology is applied to customer vehicle programmes, from technical definition through integration, validation, release, and production.

• Guide the development and delivery of new ADAS and autonomous driving capabilities across machine learning, autonomy, vehicle systems, and application software.

• Create a strong technical bridge between Wayve’s core engineering teams and our OEM customers, ensuring customer and vehicle requirements are understood and reflected in engineering priorities.

• Provide technical and architectural leadership across autonomous driving, ML-enabled systems, embedded software, vehicle integration, and deployment.

• Partner closely with AI, autonomy, product, safety, validation, release, and systems engineering teams to solve complex technical challenges and deliver high-quality customer outcomes.

• Turn learning from individual customer programmes into reusable components, engineering practices, and integration approaches that can accelerate future deployments.

• Build trusted relationships with senior engineering stakeholders at our automotive partners and represent Wayve in technical discussions, architecture reviews, and programme planning.

• Develop senior engineers and engineering managers, creating clear ownership while empowering technical leaders throughout the organisation.

• Bring insights from customer deployments back into Wayve’s core technology and product teams, helping shape the evolution of our architecture and global deployment strategy.

About you

We’re looking for an engineering leader who is excited by the challenge of bringing AI-powered autonomous driving technology into the real world.

You may have built your career within autonomous driving, ADAS, automotive AI, an OEM, or another environment where complex software and ML-enabled systems meet the physical world. We recognise that great candidates can come from different backgrounds, and we don’t expect one person to have worked on every part of the technology stack.

Essential:

• Significant engineering and leadership experience within autonomous driving, ADAS, automotive AI, or related vehicle technologies.

• Strong understanding of autonomous driving and machine learning, including how ML-enabled driving capabi

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