Principal Engineer, Data & Compute
About The Position
At Wayve, we teach machines to drive by training end-to-end neural networks that learn from large volumes of real-world data, not by coding rules. This requires significant data infrastructure and compute orchestration, with workloads spanning thousands of GPUs, petabytes of driving data, and training and inference clusters in several regions. The AI Infrastructure team builds the compute and storage systems that support our model development lifecycle. As a Principal Engineer, you will design and guide the evolution of our core compute and storage systems, working across AI, systems, and cloud infrastructure. Your role will involve speeding up AI research, enabling fast model deployment, and ensuring the platform meets the company's growing demands. You will also advise leadership on compute investment and mentor engineers through architectural coaching and technical deep dives.
Requirements
- 10+ years designing and building large-scale distributed systems.
- At least 4 years focused on GPU-based cloud infrastructure.
- Experience enabling large-scale AI training, inference, or computer vision workloads in GPU clusters.
- In-depth understanding of petabyte-scale data architecture, including storage federation, high-throughput access, and data locality for AI workloads.
- Track record of defining and communicating architectural strategy, balancing long-term vision with delivery needs.
- Mentorship skills with a history of developing engineers and influencing technical direction across teams.
- An advanced degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent industry experience.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with multi-cloud orchestration, particularly in latency- or cost-sensitive training and inference pipelines.
- Familiarity with systems like Ray, Kubernetes, Airflow, or Flyte.
- Fluency in AI/ML job scheduling, model lifecycle management, and infrastructure-as-code.
- Background supporting safety-critical or real-time inference use cases (e.g., robotics, autonomous vehicles, aerospace).
- An interest in building infrastructure as a product that provides research and product teams with performance and simplicity.
Responsibilities
- Design and guide the evolution of core compute and storage systems.
- Work across AI, systems, and cloud infrastructure to speed up AI research and enable fast model deployment.
- Advise leadership on compute investment.
- Coach engineers on architecture and lead technical deep dives.
- Define and evolve Wayve's global compute strategy, orchestrating training and inference workloads across thousands of GPUs and multiple data centers for throughput, resiliency, and cost efficiency.
- Design systems for fast, reliable access to petabyte-scale sensor and simulation data across geographies, preparing Wayve for exabyte scale.
- Build foundations for large-scale AI workloads to run across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
- Help leadership align compute investment and architecture with company strategy, growth plans, and performance goals.
- Mentor engineers on architecture, lead technical deep dives, and build a culture of operational and engineering excellence.
Benefits
- Salaries benchmarked against the market annually
- Meaningful equity, sharing in the ownership and long term success of Wayve
- Relocation support and visa sponsorship where applicable
- Hybrid working, core hours
- Chance to work hands-on in vehicle workshops and labs
- Learning and development budgets with support for training, conferences and growth
- Comprehensive benefits including health insurance, dental, enhanced maternity and paternity leave, retirement or pension where applicable, access to therapists, wellbeing partnerships, team socials and more
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
