Principal Software Architect

About our Product Architecture and Safety Teams Our Product Architecture and Safety teams connect Wayve’s core AI Driver with the vehicle platforms that bring autonomous driving technology to customers. Working across Engineering, Product, Safety, Validation, and customer programs, we define how our software integrates with OEM and Tier 1 systems to support safe, reliable deployment while maintaining a consistent core architecture.

🧠 Your day-to-day As a Principal Software Architect, you will lead the technical architecture for integrating Wayve’s autonomous driving technology with automotive OEM vehicle platforms. Working at the boundary between our core AI Driver and external vehicle systems, you will translate product ambitions and customer needs into clear interfaces, requirements, and technical decisions.

Your work spans high-level architecture and implementation details, covering sensors, middleware, ECU constraints, timing, diagnostics, safety assumptions, data logging, and validation. You will bring structure to ambiguous problems, guide architecture across teams, own key decisions across customer programs, and align engineering, product, safety, validation, program, and commercial leaders.

🧩 What you’ll be working on

• Defining integration architecture: Shape how Wayve software interfaces with OEM and Tier 1 systems, balancing customer needs with core architecture reusability.

• Making ownership explicit: Turn discussions into clear interface contracts, ownership boundaries (Wayve, partner, joint, or out of scope), assumptions, and dependencies.

• Translating needs into requirements: Partner with Product and Engineering to develop actionable specifications and establish consistent decomposition, allocation, traceability, and change control.

• Owning architecture decisions: Lead architecture reviews, maintain decision records, and make the final technical call within your scope when consensus cannot be reached.

• Planning for delivery: Assess feasibility, integration complexity, gaps, and risks, identifying dependencies and partner deliverables for program planning.

• Building verifiable solutions: Work with Safety and Validation teams to define safety assumptions, integration test requirements, and compliance evidence.

• Representing Wayve with partners: Lead technical discussions with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers using clear interface specs, integration guides, diagrams, and decision records.

• Leading across teams: Coordinate architects and engineers, resolve conflicts early, and mentor senior staff to build a shared architecture culture.

🙌 You should apply if

• You have 12+ years of experience in ADAS, autonomous driving, embedded software, or vehicle systems at the software-vehicle interface, including architecture ownership for a complete product or multiple programs.

• You can define clear product boundaries, ownership models, and interface contracts between internal software and external vehicle systems.

• You understand vehicle electronics and embedded software constraints, including ECU integration, real-time execution, timing, diagnostics, and production environments.

• You are familiar with automotive protocols and E/E architectures like CAN, FlexRay, Automotive Ethernet, SOME/IP, or AUTOSAR.

• You have worked with OEMs or Tier 1 suppliers and can navigate their requirements, standards, and integration constraints.

• You have established requirements processes across teams, translating ambiguous needs into traceable, verifiable specifications.

• You move confidently between system-level architecture and implementation details under uncertainty.

• You have led architecture across teams, influenced senior stakeholders without direct authority, and enjoy mentoring others through clear specs and diagrams.

More about Wayve Wayve is building the leading AI platform for autonomous driving. Pioneering an end-to-end AI approach, our mapless and hardware-agnostic AI Driver learns directly from real-world experience rather than relying on hand-coded rules or pre-mapped environments. Integrating with global OEM partners, we unlock automation from L2+ to L4, building generalizable driving intelligence that powers any vehicle, anywhere.

💻 Locations & Flexible Working Our main hubs are in London, Sunnyvale, Yokohama, Herzliya, Vancouver, and Leonberg. We operate a hybrid working model combining in-person collaboration with remote flexibility.

🔍 The Interview Process

• Initial call / recruiter screen

• Hiring Manager interview

• Deep-dive technical interviews

• Final interview: mission & values alignment

What’s in it for you (Location dependent)

• 💰 Annually benchmarked salaries and meaningful equity

• ✈️ Relocation support and visa sponsorship where applicable

• ✅ Hybrid working, core hours, and hands-on access to vehicle workshops and labs

• 📚 Learning and development budgets for training and conferences

• 🩺 Comprehensive health, dental, enhanced parental leave, pension/retirement, and wellbeing benefits