Senior Data Scientist

Location

Sunnyvale, California, USA

Employment Type

Full time

Compensation

• $209.7K – $240K

About the Position

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.

Responsibilities

As a Senior Data Scientist on the Model Integration & Release team, you will own this analytical layer. You will turn evaluation outputs into findings that improve both our models and how we measure them, working across simulation, on-road experiment data, and internal evaluation tooling. You will partner with Validation, Data Science, and Product to improve how we evaluate and make release decisions more confident.

Daily Tasks

• Lead analysis of model and autonomous-vehicle performance data, translating complex signals from simulations, offline evaluation, and on-road testing into clear recommendations for engineering teams.
• Investigate performance issues, apply statistical rigor to evaluation data, and identify where our metrics, test coverage, or scoring logic could be improved.
• Work autonomously in a fast-moving weekly release cadence, prioritizing analysis work, partnering across teams, and turning investigations into durable improvements.

Projects

• Shape how we learn from evaluation data by defining what deeper analysis means in practice and building the habits, tooling, and workflows that support it.
• Improve how we measure driving performance by identifying blind spots, inconsistencies, and gaps in simulation and offline metrics.
• Investigate on-road release-test findings, determine whether offline tests should have caught them, and improve evaluation coverage and measurement.
• Perform experiment analysis and apply statistical methods to provide confident, data-driven promotion recommendations for new driving models.
• Expand what “good” means beyond intervention rates, using the behavioral and operational signals we already collect.
• Partner with Data Science and Validation on how evaluation methods and ground truth are defined, implemented, and maintained.
• Support partner-facing quality investigations by quantifying and tracking issues raised through OEM QA workflows.
• 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 does not recur.

Requirements

You should apply if:

• You have strong analytical and investigative skills and can move from a vague “something looks off” to a clear, evidence-backed conclusion.
• You have hands-on experience working with ML evaluation data, driving-performance metrics, or complex test results at scale.
• You have experience applying statistical methods for A/B testing and experimentation, including confidence intervals, distributions, and sampling.
• You are proficient in Python or SQL and comfortable querying and analyzing large datasets.
• You can operate with autonomy in a fast-moving environment: setting priorities within a broader goal and knowing when to solve an issue directly versus when to escalate or partner.
• You communicate clearly in writing and can turn messy investigations into concise, actionable recommendations for technical and non-technical audiences.
• You are genuinely curious about why a model behaves as it does and whether we are measuring the right things.

Nice to Have

Experience in autonomous driving, robotics, safety-critical ML systems, simulation-based testing, on-road experiment analysis, OEM or partner validation workflows, or improving evaluation infrastructure and measurement methodology would be beneficial.

About the Company

🚀 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 generalizable 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.

We Offer

💰 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

The Interview Process

• Initial call / recruiter screen (30 mins)
• Competency interviews (Hiring Manager interview and SQL or Python programming interview) 45/60 min
• Deep-dive technical interviews (Causal Inference Case Study and Metrics Design) 60/60 min
• Final leadership interview (30 mins)

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

Diversity and Inclusion

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.

Compensation Range: $209.7K - $240K