Release Manager - AI Models

Before the detail, here's the challenge you'd help us solve.

We build the embodied intelligence that moves real vehicles safely, and the ecosystem a billion machines will run on in the future. Very few people in AI can say this. Every role here, whatever the team, plugs into that.

Here’s what this particular role covers.

🛠️ About our Engineering Teams

Our engineering teams bring together ML engineering, evaluation and data science, software platform, testing, and product to turn breakthrough autonomous-driving technology into reliable products. Model releases connect these disciplines, taking AI models from early hypotheses through training, evaluation, and on-road testing to deployment across our vehicle fleet.

As our Release Manager — AI Models, you’ll help ensure that a core part of our technology — the AI model — is released reliably, on time, and to the standard required for production. You’ll bring structure and disciplined release practices to the fast-paced, non-deterministic world of ML, building the processes and systems that support clarity, stability, and business goals.

🧠 Your day-to-day

• Own the model release cycle, maintaining a steady and predictable cadence while adapting to changing business priorities.

• Coordinate across ML engineering, evaluation and data science, software platform, testing, and product to keep releases moving and resolve dependencies.

• Run the gates that promote models from hypothesis → training → evaluation → validation → deployment, making clear what is ready to ship and what needs more work.

• Drive investigations into regressions and integration issues, coordinate rollback or roll-forward decisions, and follow through on technical debt and corrective actions.

• Be the central point of contact for model-release status, risks, and timelines, giving engineers and leadership the right level of detail.

• Run post-release reviews and turn lessons learned into practical improvements across teams.
  

🧩 What you’ll be working on:

• Release gates and promotion criteria: Define and justify what it takes for a model to progress, balancing performance gains, reproducibility, product requirements, safety, and compatibility with the onboard software stack and vehicle platform.

• A release process that works for ML: Build frameworks that connect model development, evaluation, the Wayve onboard stack, and product needs — applying strong release-engineering practices while recognising where hypothesis-driven, non-deterministic systems need a different approach.

• Bottleneck identification and improvement: Find constraints in the release lifecycle, implement dashboards and KPIs to make them visible, and proactively escalate gaps.

• Tooling and automation: Partner with ML platform and integration teams to shape end-to-end automated release tooling. Define requirements that improve developer experience, release efficiency, and stakeholder communication.

• Reliable, stable deployments: Strengthen how teams handle model versions, integration issues, regressions, and recovery so that releases deliver value reliably.
  

🙌 You should apply if:

• You have 5+ years of experience in release management, software engineering, or a related field.

• You understand the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and release management practices, including testing strategy, system integration, branching, and versioning.

• You have a conceptual understanding of ML fundamentals: what training data is, the difference between training and inference, what a model version or checkpoint represents, and why model validation is probabilistic rather than simply pass/fail.

• You have experience with CI/CD pipelines and automation tools such as GitHub, Buildkite, and CLI tools.

• You’re skilled at managing releases in complex, fast-moving systems and comfortable adapting processes and tooling as requirements, architecture, and timelines change.

• You bring strong problem-solving and decision-making skills, including when release trade-offs depend on limited or ambiguous data.

• You communicate clearly with engineers and leadership, helping people understand priorities, risks, and decisions.

• You’re pragmatic, methodical, and system-minded. You bring strong release-engineering instincts and are keen to develop the judgment to know where ML systems require a different approach.

It’s a bonus if you also bring:

• Experience in AI/ML, autonomous vehicles, or robotics.

• Familiarity with MLOps methodologies and tooling.

• Experience with ML evaluation practices and tooling, especially for physical systems — including simulation, model leaderboards, and statistically powered experiments such as A/B or shadow-mode testing.

• Awareness of model hardware and software dependencies.

• A BSc or equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.

🌱 Not ticking every box? That’s totally okay! If you’re passionate about autonomy and keen to learn, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet every requirement.

More about Wayve:

🚀 Wayve is building the leading AI platform for autonomous driving. We are pioneering an end-to-end AI approach that enables vehicles to learn directly from real-world experience, developing the ability to adapt, generalise and improve at scale. Instead of relying on hand-coded rules or pre-mapped environments, our AI Driver learns to drive by understanding the world around it. The result is technology that navigates complex urban environments with intelligence, precision and natural flow, unlocking meaningful advances in both safety and efficiency. We believe autonomy represents a once-in-a-generation transformation in how people and goods move, comparable to the shift from horses to cars, and from human-driven vehicles to intelligent machines.

Our ambition is to make autonomy universal. Wayve’s mapless and hardware-agnostic AI platform integrates with global OEM partners, enabling continuous software evolution and unlocking advanced levels of automation from L2 plus through to L4 as our core AI model scales. In a race increasingly defined by intelligence and real-world learning, Wayve is taking a distinct approach, building a generalisable driving intelligence that can power any vehicle, anywhere. By combining embodied AI with scalable deployment, we are creating technology that can be shaped to each OEM brand and driver experience, accelerating the transition to a safer, more intelligent future of mobility.

How we work 💻 — Locations & Flexible Working:

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

Our main hubs are in London, Sunnyvale, Yokohama, Herzliya, Vancouver and Leonberg. We operate a hybrid working model that combines in-person collaboration in our dedicated office spaces with focused time working remotely. This gives our teams the connection and energy of working together, alongside the flexibility to do their best work in a way that fits their lives.

🔍 The Interview Process:

Our process is clear and respectful of your time:

• Initial call / recruiter screen (30 mins)

• Competency Interviews (Release Management & Cross Functional Collaboration)

• Deep-dive technical interviews (Technical Assessment and Case Study)

• Final interview: mission & values alignment

We’ll always explain the format and work around your availability.

What’s in it for you (Location dependent):

• 💰 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

A quick, honest note before you apply.

Wayve is not a mature, fully-structured place with the playbook already written. Much of how we work is still being written, and if you join, you’ll help write it. That suits people who want real ownership more than people who need a settled structure from day one.

If that sounds like the kind of problem you want to spend your time on, we’d really like to hear from you.

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.