Software Engineer - Drive-by-Wire, Robot Software

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

Wayve is building embodied AI that can drive any vehicle, anywhere. Within Robot Software, the Platform Integration team brings together the software and interfaces that enable our AI Driver to operate on new development platforms.

The team owns early vehicle software integration, drive-by-wire and the vehicle facing software drivers. We work across software, hardware, controls and operations to bring up new vehicle variants, improve their reliability and establish repeatable processes for validation and handover.

🧠 Your day-to-day

You’ll develop the software that connects our AI Driver to a vehicle’s steering, braking and propulsion systems. This combines embedded software development with hands-on work on benches and vehicles, understanding how each platform behaves and making sure its drive-by-wire interface operates safely and reliably.

• Develop and debug embedded software using MATLAB/Simulink, including flashing, configuration and calibration of vehicle controllers.

• Work with OEMs and drive-by-wire suppliers to understand vehicle interfaces, define requirements and resolve integration issues.

• Develop new drive-by-wire capabilities, including OTA updates, ADAS interfaces and HMI support.

• Test changes in simulation, on benches and in vehicles, and build automated testing suites to validate functionality and catch regressions.

• Investigate vehicle faults and unexpected behaviour using logs, telemetry and vehicle network traces.

• Work with colleagues across software, hardware and controls, and help technicians diagnose drive-by-wire issues.

🧩 What you’ll be working on:

• New vehicle bring-ups: Integrate steering, braking and propulsion interfaces, from initial bench testing through to vehicle validation and handover.

• Drive-by-wire software: Develop actuation logic, state machines, driver override handling and fault responses.

• ADAS and HMI interfaces: Support the vehicle interfaces needed for driver assistance features, driver inputs, status displays and alerts.

• OTA updates: Develop and validate support for remotely updating drive-by-wire software and configuration, including version checks and recovery behaviour.

• Vehicle characterisation: Measure actuator response, latency and operating limits, and work with controls engineers to establish the capabilities of each platform.

• Testing and validation: Build automated test suites and simulation and hardware-in-the-loop tests that verify requirements, exercise fault conditions and support software releases.

• Diagnostics and reliability: Build tools and monitoring that make faults easier to detect, reproduce and resolve.

🙌 You should apply if:

• You have experience developing embedded software for automotive or robotics systems, including MATLAB/Simulink.

• You’ve worked directly with embedded hardware or vehicle ECUs, including flashing, calibration and debugging.

• You understand automotive engineering, including vehicle actuation systems and the interaction between software, controllers and hardware.

• You understand CAN and CAN-FD, and have used tools such as CANoe or CANalyzer to analyse communication and diagnose issues.

• You have knowledge of functional safety and experience applying it to software design, fault handling and validation.

• You can define and document software and interface requirements, translate system and safety requirements into implementation, and maintain traceability through testing.

• You can investigate problems across software and hardware, using measurements and testing to support your conclusions.

Experience with drive-by-wire systems, ADAS interfaces, HMI integration, automotive Ethernet, OTA updates or hardware-in-the-loop testing would be useful. C/C++ or Python experience would also help you contribute to supporting software and tooling.

 

🌱 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, generalize 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:

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 recruiter screen — 25 mins

• Competency Interviews — technical domain (2 hours)

• Deep-dive technical interviews — technical domain and hiring-manager/team fit (2 hours)

• Final interview — Mission and values alignment (30 mins)

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.

 

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

💰 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.