Senior Data Scientist
Wayve · London; Sunnyvale ·
- Work mode
- Hybrid
- Seniority
- Senior
- Employment
- Full time
- Category
- Data science
Senior Data Scientist on Wayve's Model Integration & Release team, analyzing simulation and on-road evaluation data to strengthen how autonomous driving models are measured and promoted in a weekly release cadence. Core work involves statistical experimentation (A/B testing) and analysis of large ML evaluation datasets using Python and SQL.
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!
The role
Wayve ships a new driving model baseline every week. The Model Integration & Release team runs simulation and on-road testing to decide whether candidates are ready to promote — and there is a significant opportunity to get more from the data we already collect. As our release process matures, the next step is building a deeper analytical layer: strengthening how we measure performance, turning on-road findings into better simulation tests, and aligning what we measure with what operators experience in the vehicle.
This is a senior, high-impact role on the Model Integration & Release team. You'll own that analytical layer — turning evaluation outputs into findings that improve both our models and how we measure them. You'll work across simulation, on-road experiment data, and our internal evaluation tooling, partnering with Validation, Data Science, and Product. You'll have the autonomy and scope to improve how we evaluate — from identifying gaps in our measurement approach through to implementing changes that make our release decisions more confident and our feedback loops faster.
Key Responsibilities
- Shape how we learn from evaluation data — define what “going deeper” means in practice, and build the habits, tooling, and workflows that make it part of how we release models
- Improve how we measure driving performance — identify blind spots, inconsistencies, and gaps in our simulation and offline metrics; drive improvements to our evaluation methods, suites, and scoring logic
- Close the loop between on-road testing and offline evaluation — investigate what happens on-vehicle during release testing, determine whether our offline tests should have caught it, and turn those findings into concrete improvements to coverage and measurement
- Perform day-to-day experiment analysis and apply statistical rigor to evaluation data to provide confident, data-driven promotion recommendations for new driving models
- Expand what “good” means beyond intervention rates — develop and apply a richer view of model quality using the behavioural and operational signals we already collect
- Partner with Data Science and Validation on how we define, implement, and maintain evaluation methods and ground truth
- Support partner-facing quality investigations — help quantify and track issues raised through OEM QA workflows so they can be addressed within our release process
- Turn investigations into durable improvements — document findings and recommendations in a way the team can act on within a weekly release cadence, and follow through so the same class of issue doesn’t recur
About you
In order to set you up for success as a Senior Data Scientist at Wayve, we’re looking for the following skills and experience.
Essential
- Strong analytical and investigative skills — you’re comfortable going from a vague “something looks off” to a clear, evidence-backed conclusion
- Hands-on experience working with ML evaluation data, driving performance metrics, or complex test results at scale, including statistical methods for A/B testing and experimentation (e.g., confidence intervals, distributions, and sampling)
- Proficiency in Python or SQL; comfortable querying and analysing large datasets
- Ability to operate with autonomy in a fast-moving environment — you can set your own priorities within a broader goal, and know when to fix something yourself vs. when to escalate or partner
- Clear written communication — you turn messy investigations into concise, actionable recommendations for technical and non-technical audiences
- Genuine curiosity about why a model behaves the way it does, and whether we’re measuring the right things
Desirable
- Experience in autonomous driving, robotics, or safety-critical ML systems
- Familiarity with simulation-based testing, on-road experiment analysis, or statistical methods for comparing model behaviour
- Experience working across product, safety, and engineering teams to define what “good” looks like
- Exposure to OEM or partner validation workflows
- Experience improving evaluation infrastructure or measurement methodology
This is a full-time role based in our office in either in London/UK or Sunnyvale/US. At Wayve we want the best of all worlds so we operate a hybrid working policy that combines time together in our offices and workshops to fuel innovation, culture, relationships and learning, and time spent working from home.
Wayve is committed to creating an inclusive interview experience. If you require any accommodations or adjustments to participate fully in our interview process, please let us know.
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.
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
For US candidates only, please visit E-Verify Notice and Participation and Right to Work
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.