Staff Robotics Engineer, 3D Sensing

Wayve • Sunnyvale, CA

3d • $276,100 - $293,750 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Robotics team is responsible for bridging the gap from our model to our vehicle platforms, in order to let the model focus on making driving decisions. We aim to provide high quality data to the model for making such decisions, whilst abstracting away platform-specific aspects. We combine specialisms across the robotics domain, blending strong theoretical foundations with solid engineering practice to span the spectrum from research to production.

Requirements

• Significant experience developing robotics or autonomous-driving systems involving LiDAR, cameras and 3D sensor data.
• Strong experience with target-based or targetless sensor calibration and registration, including LiDAR-to-camera alignment.
• Strong understanding of 3D geometry, state estimation and optimisation techniques, including nonlinear least-squares methods or factor graphs.
• Experience accounting for sensor timing and motion effects, such as time synchronisation, LiDAR sweep distortion, rolling-shutter cameras and motion compensation.
• Strong software-engineering skills in C++ and/or Python, with experience taking robotics algorithms from prototype through evaluation and production deployment.
• Experience defining evaluation methodologies, datasets and metrics for assessing calibration, registration and 3D sensing quality across real-world conditions.
• Demonstrated technical leadership, including setting technical direction, solving ambiguous cross-functional problems and mentoring other engineers.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with LiDAR odometry, SLAM or mapping systems, including LiDAR motion compensation and deskewing.
• Experience with metric-depth foundation models and their application to calibration, registration or 3D reconstruction.
• Familiarity with learned feature correspondences, cross-modal registration, Gaussian splatting or other emerging 3D representations.
• Experience handling dynamic scenes using object detection, motion segmentation or tracking methods.
• Practical experience with optimisation libraries such as GTSAM, Ceres Solver or g2o.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the technical architecture and roadmap for Wayve’s LiDAR and cross-sensor 3D sensing capabilities, aligned with product and vehicle-programme requirements.
• Lead the development of target-based and targetless LiDAR calibration and registration methods, including LiDAR-to-camera alignment using geometric and learned approaches.
• Develop robust temporal alignment and motion compensation methods using techniques such as LiDAR odometry, nonlinear least-squares optimisation and factor graphs.
• Establish evaluation methodologies and productionise reliable, scalable 3D sensing systems that operate across diverse vehicles, environments and sensor configurations.
• Work with engineering and research teams to deliver end-to-end 3D sensing capabilities, while providing technical leadership and mentorship to other engineers.

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 and the 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

What This Job Offers

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