Staff Validation Systems Engineer

Wayve
Sunnyvale

Who this role is best for

Strong fit for systems engineers with hybrid work flexibility who can bridge validation and AI development, working in the autonomous vehicle domain.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with hybrid work experience and a background in AI validation for autonomous driving systems
    — “operate a hybrid working policy that combines time together in our offices
  • Individuals who have led validation strategies for L2+ driving features in real-world and simulated environments
    — “lead the development, execution, and reporting of validation for L2+ Driving Features
  • Professionals with a degree in Computer Science, Robotics, or related fields and strong Python skills
    — “Degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace, or a related field

Things to consider

  • The role requires in-office presence despite hybrid flexibility, with a focus on collaboration across teams
    — “collaborate closely with Product, Architecture, Data, Simulation
  • Compensation is highly variable based on qualifications and experience
    — “Actual compensation is based on the candidate's skills, qualifications

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience in defining test coverage requirements and building test suites
    — “Define test coverage requirements and build comprehensive test suites
  • Showcase ability to translate validation results into actionable insights for engineering teams
    — “Analyze test results and report findings to Release and Autonomy Engineering stakeholders
  • Emphasize experience with both simulated and physical testing environments for autonomous systems
    — “Experience with both simulated and physical testing environments for autonomous systems
  • Demonstrate proficiency in Python for implementing validation metrics and evaluation code
    — “Proficiency in Python to implement metrics and work with evaluation codebase
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

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

What success looks like

  • successful validation of autonomous vehicle features
  • implementation of comprehensive test strategies
Typical background
autonomous vehicle validationsoftware engineering

Skills & requirements

Required

Validation StrategyTest CoverageMetrics DevelopmentSimulation And EvaluationAutonomous Vehicle ValidationPythonData AnalysisEvidence-based Decision Making

Preferred

Machine LearningComputer VisionMotion PlanningData Science

Stack & domain

PythonAIMLComputer VisionMotion PlanningData ScienceCommunicationAnalyticalAutonomous DrivingRobotics

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

Wayve’s AI Validation Division builds trust in the Wayve AI Driver for our customers. As a Staff Validation Engineer, you will lead the development, execution, and reporting of validation for L2+ Driving Features. Collaborating with systems engineers and data scientists, you will leverage Wayve’s unique simulation and evaluation technology, and meet emerging AV industry standards as autonomy transitions to fully end-to-end learned models—helping bring the Wayve AI Driver to millions globally.

Key Responsibilities

Develop and implement a comprehensive validation strategy across test modalities to assess L2+ Driving Features that are part of the Wayve AI Driver product.

Define and implement general purpose metrics for validating on-road and simulated driving behavior.

Define test coverage requirements and build comprehensive test suites.

Develop acceptance criteria through collaboration with Product, Safety, and AV Engineering teams.

Analyze test results and report findings to Release and Autonomy Engineering stakeholders.

Identify data, simulation, and evaluation team dependencies to enable timely, scalable, and automated validation execution. 

Collaborate closely with Product, Architecture, Data, Simulation, and Autonomy leads to design and implement comprehensive yet efficient test strategies.

About you  

To succeed as a Validation Systems Engineer at Wayve, you’ll bring the following skills and experience:

Essential

Clear, concise communicator with excellent documentation skills.

Strong analytical skills with experience in evidence-based decision-making.

Hands-on experience evaluating and validating complex engineered systems — whether through simulated scenario development, real-world testing, or both.

Experience working in autonomy for driving, robotics, or related products.

Proficiency in Python to implement metrics and work with evaluation codebase.

Experience with both simulated and physical testing environments for autonomous systems.

Experience analyzing and reporting validation results.

Demonstrated ownership driving validation concepts from ideation to implementation in ambiguous, fast-paced environments.

Degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace, or a related field.

Desirable

Background in ML, Computer Vision, Motion Planning, or Data Science.

Experience working in autonomy for driving, robotics, or related products.

Experience with SOTIF and safety validation.

Skilled in evaluating and validating learned or adaptive behaviors.

Experience with modern AI tools and agentic workflows 

Experience analyzing large datasets with SQL

Deep understanding of driving behavior and how to measure driving performance.

This is a full-time role based in our office in Sunnyvale, CA. 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 $276,100-$303,000, plus a competitive equity package. Actual compensation is based on the candidate's skills, qualifications, and experience.

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 

For US candidates only, please visit E-Verify Notice and Participation and Right to Work

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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