Applied Scientist, Wayve Labs

Wayve
London, GB
On-siteVisa sponsorship

Who this role is best for

Best suited to mid-level applied scientists with expertise in embodied AI and a track record in machine learning research, working in London with a hybrid arrangement.

Best fit for

  • Researchers with publications in top-tier conferences and deep ML expertise.
    — “Track record of publications at top-tier conferences
  • Applied scientists passionate about long-term breakthroughs in autonomous driving.
    — “multi-year breakthroughs over incremental gains
  • Candidates with experience in reinforcement learning and spatial AI.
    — “Reinforcement learning (e.g., offline RL, RLHF, reward modeling)

Things to consider

  • Hybrid work policy requires office presence in London.
    — “operate a hybrid working policy
  • Role demands expertise in multiple advanced ML areas.
    — “Deep expertise in one or more core Embodied AI areas

How to stand out

  • Highlight contributions to open-source ML tools or infrastructure.
    — “Contributions to open-source ML tools or research infrastructure
  • Demonstrate experience with large-scale training frameworks.
    — “Familiarity with large-scale training (e.g., FSDP, DeepSpeed, JAX)
  • Showcase projects involving sim-to-real transfer or data-efficient learning.
    — “Experience with sim-to-real transfer or data-efficient learning
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · MediumAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · CompanyLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • develop world models and planners
  • advance reinforcement learning
  • enable cross-embodiment robotics
Typical background
3+ years of experience developing and deploying ML systemsPhD, Master’s degree, or equivalent experience in Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Robotics

Skills & requirements

Required

World ModelingPlannersReinforcement LearningReward ModelingGeometric Foundation Models

Preferred

Cross-embodiment RoboticsMultimodal LearningScaling LawsSim-to-real Transfer

Stack & domain

Machine LearningSimulationRoboticsReal-world DeploymentWorld ModelingPlannersReinforcement LearningReward ModelingGeometric Foundation Models3d Spatial UnderstandingLong Term MemoryScalable Decision-making SystemsCross-embodiment RoboticsMultimodal LearningVisionLanguageActive SensorsEmpirical ResearchScaling LawsGeneralisationSim-to-real TransferEvaluation FrameworksBenchmarksInnovationComplex ChallengesGroundbreaking SolutionsExcellenceLearningEvolvingInclusive Work EnvironmentDiversityNew PerspectivesImpactAutonomous DrivingAIMaplessHardware-agnosticAutomated Driving Systems

About the role

Original posting from Wayve

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

We’re looking for Applied Scientists to join Wayve Labs and help build the next generation of AI systems for autonomous driving. You’ll work at the intersection of machine learning, simulation, robotics, and real-world deployment, contributing to core innovations that push the boundaries of embodied AI.

Situated within Wayve, we are a high-conviction research team with the strategic patience and backing to prioritise multi-year breakthroughs over incremental gains. We are looking for highly motivated individuals with expertise and passion to push the frontier of embodied AI, including (but not limited to) the following areas:

World & Reward Modeling: Building realistic, diverse simulators that can predict the consequences and costs of actions.

Representation Learning & Spatial Intelligence: Advancing how machines truly understand and navigate dynamic, unstructured 3D environments, from detailed spatial understanding, to efficient long term memory.

Scalable Decision-Making Systems: Designing architectures, reasoning systems, and policy learning algorithms that operate over long contexts, and scale with data and compute.

Cross-Embodiment and Multimodal Learning: Advance embodied learning systems that can flexibly adapt to diverse robotic platforms and multimodal inputs, using vision, language, and active sensors.  

Key Responsibilities

Develop World Models and Planners (e.g., diffusion-based, autoregressive, or hybrid approaches) for realistic and consistent simulation

Advance Reinforcement Learning and Reward Modeling, building scalable and safe learning frameworks across real and synthetic data

Develop Geometric Foundation Models for 3D spatial understanding in dynamic, real-world environments.

Enable Cross-Embodiment Robotics, leveraging the power of multimodal foundation models to accelerate robotic learning on diverse platforms.

Conduct empirical research on Scaling laws, Generalisation, and Sim-to-real transfer

Define and evolve Evaluation Frameworks and Benchmarks for long-horizon prediction, scene fidelity, and driving performance

What You’ll Bring

Must-haves:

3+ years of experience developing and deploying ML systems in real-world or production settings

PhD, Master’s degree, or equivalent experience in Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Robotics, or a related field

Deep expertise in one or more core Embodied AI areas, such as:

Foundation models (e.g., transformers, MoE, large-scale training)

Generative world modeling (e.g., diffusion, autoregressive, hybrid approaches)

Reinforcement learning (e.g., offline RL, RLHF, reward modeling)

Spatial AI (e.g., SLAM/SfM, depth estimation, multi-view geometry with multimodal sensors)

Track record of publications at top-tier conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ICCV, CoRL)

Strong programming skills in Python, with experience using frameworks such as PyTorch

A data-centric mindset, with experience working on large-scale datasets and evaluation

Strong problem-solving ability and the ability to collaborate effectively in interdisciplinary teams

Nice-to-haves:

Experience in autonomous driving, robotics, or simulation systems

Familiarity with large-scale training (e.g., FSDP, DeepSpeed, JAX)

Experience with sim-to-real transfer or data-efficient learning

Contributions to open-source ML tools or research infrastructure

What we offer you 

Attractive compensation with salary and equity 

Immersion in a team of world-class researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs 

A unique position to shape the future of autonomy and tackle the biggest challenge of our time 

Bespoke learning and development opportunities 

Relocation support with visa sponsorship 

Flexible working hours - we trust you to do your job well, at times that suit you and your time 

Benefits such as an onsite chef, workplace nursery scheme, private health insurance, therapy, daily yoga, onsite bar, large social budgets, unlimited L&D requests, enhanced parental leave, and more!

This is a full-time role based in our office in London.  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.   

Wayve is committed to creating an inclusive interview experience. If you require any accommodations or adjustments to participate fully in our interview process, please let us know.

We understand that everyone has a unique set of skills and experiences and that not everyone will meet all of the requirements listed above. If you’re passionate about self-driving cars and think you have what it takes to make a positive impact on the world, we encourage you to apply.

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.

 

 

Source: Wayve careers

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