Distinguished Software Architect

Wayve • Sunnyvale, CA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Wayve is seeking a Distinguished Software Architect to help evolve its software architecture as its embodied AI technology expands across vehicle platforms, OEM programmes and Robotaxi applications. This cross-functional senior individual-contributor role operates at the intersection of AI, robotics and large-scale software systems, working across onboard software, AI, simulation, training and inference, product engineering and Robotaxi teams. The architect will help ensure systems can scale across products, hardware platforms and physical environments, and will partner with senior technical and engineering leaders on decisions across the technology stack, from AI models and compute to software running on vehicles.

The role develops architectural direction across engineering organisations, identifies challenges and leads major changes that span teams. It serves as a trusted technical partner on complex decisions, balancing immediate delivery needs with long-term system health and scalability. The architect will build alignment through technical credibility and influence, and help raise the bar for software design and engineering practices.

Wayve builds a mapless, hardware-agnostic AI platform for autonomous driving, designed to learn from real-world experience and scale across vehicles and OEM partners. The company uses a hybrid working model, combining in-person collaboration at its offices with remote work. This role offers substantial ownership in an organisation whose practices and structures are still developing.

Requirements

• Experience operating as a Principal, Distinguished or equivalent senior individual contributor and shaping the architecture of large, complex software systems.
• Track record of leading significant technical or architectural change across multiple teams or engineering organisations.
• Strong systems thinking, with the ability to understand a broad technical landscape and go deep where necessary.
• Experience building systems in computer vision, robotics, physical AI or another domain where sophisticated software and AI interact with the physical world.
• Understanding of architectural challenges when AI models, software, compute and hardware must work together as a reliable production system.
• Experience building or evolving software platforms that operate reliably at significant scale and complexity.
• Ability to make difficult technical trade-offs and distinguish team-level needs from what is best for the broader system.
• Ability to influence senior engineers and engineering leaders through technical credibility rather than organisational authority.
• Strong commitment to software design and engineering quality, and to creating systems that help other engineers move faster.
• Ability to learn unfamiliar technical domains quickly and develop strong technical judgment.
• Architectural thinking combined with a bias toward execution and turning technical direction into engineering change.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in autonomous driving, robotics or automotive systems; the posting states this is valuable but not essential.

Responsibilities

• Define architectural direction across Wayve’s software ecosystem as its AI Driver scales across more vehicle platforms and products.
• Create software boundaries, interfaces and abstractions across AI, compute and vehicle systems to support team autonomy while avoiding fragmentation.
• Lead large architectural changes that span multiple engineering organisations.
• Improve how software is developed, integrated, tested and deployed across hardware and vehicle platforms.
• Work across onboard software, computer vision, AI, simulation, training and inference, product engineering and Robotaxi systems.
• Help shape development platforms and engineering systems used to build and deploy physical AI at scale.
• Partner with teams working with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers so architecture supports varied production environments, hardware configurations and integrations.
• Act as a technical decision-maker and tiebreaker on complex architectural decisions.
• Help establish strong engineering and design practices for large-scale, safety-critical AI and robotics systems.
• Build alignment across teams and influence senior engineers and engineering leaders through technical credibility.

Benefits

• Market-benchmarked salaries, reviewed annually.
• Meaningful equity, sharing in Wayve’s ownership and long-term success.
• Relocation support and visa sponsorship where applicable.
• Hybrid working, core hours, and opportunities to work hands-on in vehicle workshops and labs.
• Learning and development budgets, with support for training, conferences and professional growth.
• Comprehensive benefits, including health insurance, dental coverage, enhanced maternity and paternity leave, retirement or pension where applicable, access to therapists, wellbeing partnerships and team socials.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed