Head of Program Management, AI Engineering

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About us   

Founded in 2017, Wayve is the leading developer of Embodied AI technology.  Our advanced AI software and foundation models enable vehicles to perceive, understand, and navigate any complex environment, enhancing the usability and safety of automated driving systems.

Our vision is to create autonomy that propels the world forward.  Our intelligent, mapless, and hardware-agnostic AI products are designed for automakers, accelerating the transition from assisted to automated driving. 

In our fast-paced environment big problems ignite us—we embrace uncertainty, leaning into complex challenges to unlock groundbreaking solutions. We aim high and stay humble in our pursuit of excellence, constantly learning and evolving as we pave the way for a smarter, safer future.

At Wayve, your contributions matter.  We value diversity, embrace new perspectives, and foster an inclusive work environment; we back each other to deliver impact.  

Make Wayve the experience that defines your career!  

Impact Expected

Wayve’s ambition to lead in Embodied AI hinges on our ability to translate breakthrough research into safe, scalable, high-performance autonomous driving systems. The AI Engineering division is where this translation happens - building the models, infrastructure, and safety-critical systems that power intelligent driving across real vehicles.

As Head of Program Management for AI Engineering, you will partner closely with the VP of AI Engineering to bring strategy to life through world-class execution. You’ll drive planning and delivery across a dynamic portfolio that includes cutting-edge model development, vehicle generalisation, scalable platform foundations, safety systems, and rapid prototyping.

In this role, you’ll build and lead the TPM function for AI Engineering, driving execution excellence, embedding delivery maturity, and scaling a program culture that supports both near-term product releases and the long-term vision of autonomy.

This is a pivotal leadership opportunity to shape how Wayve builds the core AI systems behind the world’s first AVs that learn from experience.

Examples include:

AI System Delivery Infrastructure

Establish and evolve planning and delivery frameworks across the AI Engineering org to support rapid but reliable execution.

Cross-Team Planning and Alignment

Build connective tissue across Research, Product, and AI Engineering to deliver coherent, sequenced, multi-team initiatives.

Team Enablement and TPM Function Buildout

Hire, coach, and scale a high-performing TPM team to amplify delivery across the division.

Safety, Quality, and Verification Initiatives

Drive initiatives focused on evaluation, traceability, release readiness, and safety-critical assurance across stack components.

Model Lifecycle Management

Shape how models are triaged, released, debugged, and deployed - including collaboration with Product, Safety, and Fleet.

What Success Looks Like

• Coordinated delivery of new autonomy capabilities across core engineering pillars
• Mature execution practices that support both velocity and quality
• A strong and respected TPM team that enables predictable delivery and decision-making
• Safety and quality initiatives embedded into engineering planning and review cycles
• Roadmaps, OKRs, and metrics consistently align with team goals and company priorities
• Engineering and cross-functional leadership experience greater confidence in timelines and execution clarity

Challenges They Will Own

AI Engineering operates across some of Wayve’s most technically complex and safety-critical domains. Initiatives often span machine learning model development, systems integration, infrastructure scaling, and compliance sensitivity - all with tight timelines and evolving requirements.

This leader will drive structure into complexity, maturity into speed, and clarity into ambiguity. They will help scale a division responsible for the heartbeat of our AI product development, while building a TPM team that becomes an indispensable delivery partner.

It’s a hands-on leadership role: this person will lead initiatives directly while standing up a team and raising the bar for execution across the org.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as strategic delivery partner to the VP of AI Engineering
• Build and manage the TPM function within AI Engineering
• Establish scalable planning, prioritisation, and governance practices
• Drive org-wide delivery alignment, OKRs, and quarterly planning
• Work cross-functionally with Product, Research, and Safety to ensure coordinated sequencing
• Champion metrics and dashboards to track delivery, velocity, and quality
• Represent AI Engineering in company-level reviews, risk forums, and strategic planning
• Lead high-impact initiatives across model development, release pipelines, infra scaling, and verification

What We’re Looking For (in our candidate)

Essential 

Technical Fluency & Systems Thinking

• Deep expertise in AI/ML research workflows, distributed training, and compute-heavy experimentation
• Ability to engage credibly with with engineers, researchers, and infrastructure teams
• Understanding of the full ML lifecycle: training, evaluation, deployment, observability
• Systems thinker - sees and designs for end-to-end interdependencies in complex technical environments
• Experience operating in safety-critical or real-world ML applications is highly valued

Execution & Delivery Excellence

• 8+ years leading complex technical programs, including people and process leadership
• Has shipped infrastructure, model, or platform work at scale
• Brings structure and maturity to execution while enabling high-velocity iteration
• Experienced in designing scalable delivery practices, rituals, and planning cadences
• Communicates delivery risk, progress, and outcomes with clarity and impact
• Brings a data-driven mindset - balances evidence, intuition, and constraints to make high-quality decisions
• Adapts delivery approach to the problem - balancing structure, flexibility, and executional rigour
• Instils a culture of ownership, clarity, and accountability - with meticulous attention to detail across plans, documentation, and comms

Cross-Functional Leadership and Influence

• Aligns diverse stakeholders - uniting product, engineering, research, operations, and leadership around shared priorities
• Operates with influence - respected for structure, clarity, and follow-through
• Trusted advisor to senior leaders and execs
• Hands-on and supportive leadership style - willing to go deep to unblock teams
• Demonstrates self-awareness and a growth mindset - open to feedback, embraces stretch, and accelerates others’ growth through support and fostering resilience

Strategic & Business Impact

• Links execution to strategic goals and measurable business outcomes
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity, shifting priorities, and technical uncertainty
• Prioritises the right problems, sequences with clarity, and builds for scale
• Obsessed with delivery confidence and product reliability

Startup Mindset

• Scrappy, resourceful, and focused on outcomes
• Brings order without adding unnecessary process
• Thrives in change - brings momentum and calm to fast-moving environments
• Passionate about enabling engineering teams to build game-changing AI systems

Desirable 

• Demonstrated people leadership - builds high-performing, resilient teams
• Background in AVs, robotics, safety systems, or large-scale ML deployment
• Degree in computer science, engineering, or equivalent field
• Familiarity with tooling that supports modern AI and program delivery (e.g. MLflow, W&B, Notion, Jira)
• Experience working with international or distributed teams - comfortable operating across time zones and cultures

• Power user of AI tooling - seeks leverage through automation and designs AI-augmented systems that collaborate with humans

We understand that everyone has a unique set of skills and experiences and that not everyone will meet all of the requirements listed above. If you’re passionate about self-driving cars and think you have what it takes to make a positive impact on the world, we encourage you to apply.

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.