Data Scientist, Robotaxi Performance and Capability

Data Scientist, Robotaxi Performance and Capability – Remote or Hybrid, USA

Location: Sunnyvale, California, United States, or Remote within the United States
Work Arrangement: Hybrid in Sunnyvale or fully remote within the United States
Employment Type: Full-time
Salary: $209,700–$280,000 annually, plus equity

Job Description

About the Engineering Teams

How do we know when an AI Driver is ready for a fully driverless Robotaxi service? Our Product Architecture and Safety team brings together data, systems thinking, and engineering expertise to help answer that question.

Working closely with Model Development, Behavioural Validation, Safety, and Robotaxi Engineering, you’ll turn real-world driving, validation, and operational data into evidence of what the Wayve AI Driver can do today—and what needs to improve next. Your work will help shape development priorities and measure progress towards a safe, reliable, and scalable driverless service.

Your Day-to-Day Responsibilities

You’ll take ownership of hands-on analysis, from exploring complex datasets in Python and SQL to sharing findings that guide product and engineering decisions.

• Investigate driving behaviours and operational events to understand where, why, and how often the system falls short of driverless service expectations.

• Build practical metrics, performance baselines, and dashboards to track progress across model, software, and product releases.

• Apply statistical methods to assess rare events, quantify uncertainty, and distinguish meaningful improvements from noise.

• Work with teams across Wayve to turn findings into development priorities, targeted validation, and better data collection.

• Contribute to product readiness reviews with clear evidence of progress, remaining limitations, and the confidence behind your conclusions.

What You’ll Be Working On

• Understanding Driverless Readiness: Assess real-world driving and validation data to identify performance gaps, quantify their operational impact, and track whether they are closing.

• Separating Performance Gaps from Missing Capabilities: Identify where better model performance can help and where additional system or product capabilities are needed.

• Measuring the Complete Robotaxi Experience: Define metrics for remote assistance, passenger pickup and drop-off, passenger interactions, vehicle readiness, and recovery from operational disruptions.

• Evaluating Service Reliability: Measure intervention demand, mission completion, recovery time, and vehicle availability to understand what it takes to deliver a dependable driverless service.

• Exploring Challenging Scenarios: Investigate safety-critical interventions, unnecessary stops, stuck scenarios, and manoeuvre execution across different roads and operating conditions.

Qualifications

You should apply if you have:

• At least three years of relevant experience in data science, automotive data analysis, or a related field, with deeper experience for senior-level opportunities.

• Hands-on experience with Python, SQL, statistical analysis, and tools for exploring and visualising large datasets.

• The ability to turn an ambiguous real-world problem into measurable questions, useful KPIs, and a practical analytical approach.

• Experience analysing complex systems, uncovering performance limitations, and translating findings into product or engineering improvements.

• Understanding of statistical confidence, rare-event analysis, performance distributions, and trends.

• The ability to work independently with incomplete data, make reasonable assumptions, and refine your approach as new evidence emerges.

• Clear communication skills, including the ability to explain findings and their limitations to engineering, product, and leadership stakeholders.

Experience in autonomous driving, ADAS, robotics, mobility services, or another complex physical system would be valuable. Familiarity with vehicle dynamics, driving behaviour, safety-critical events, or operational reliability would also help.

A relevant master’s degree or PhD in Physics, Statistics, or Mathematics is preferred, particularly with a focus on traffic systems, autonomous driving deployment, or urban mobility.

Wayve encourages applicants who are passionate about autonomy and willing to learn, even if they do not meet every listed requirement.

About Wayve

Wayve is building an AI platform for autonomous driving. The company is pioneering an end-to-end AI approach that enables vehicles to learn directly from real-world experience, developing the ability to adapt, generalise, and improve at scale.

Rather than relying on hand-coded rules or pre-mapped environments, Wayve’s AI Driver learns to drive by understanding the world around it. The technology is designed to navigate complex urban environments with intelligence, precision, and natural flow, advancing safety and efficiency.

Wayve’s ambition is to make autonomy universal. Its mapless and hardware-agnostic AI platform integrates with global original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners, enabling continuous software evolution and supporting advanced automation from Level 2+ through Level 4.

By combining embodied AI with scalable deployment, Wayve aims to create driving intelligence that can power different vehicles and adapt to individual OEM brands and driver experiences.

Locations and Flexible Working

This position is available on a hybrid basis in Sunnyvale or remotely within the United States.

Wayve’s main hubs are located in:

London, United Kingdom
Sunnyvale, California, United States
Yokohama, Japan
Herzliya, Israel
Vancouver, Canada
Leonberg, Germany

Wayve operates a hybrid working model that combines in-person collaboration in dedicated office spaces with focused remote work.

Interview Process

1. Initial Call / Recruiter Screen: 30 minutes.

2. Competency Interview: 60-minute hiring manager interview.

3. Technical Interviews: Two hours total, covering programming and statistical analysis.

4. Final Interview: 30 minutes.

Wayve states that it will explain the interview format and accommodate candidate availability.

Compensation and Benefits

• Salary benchmarked against the market annually.

• Meaningful equity participation.

• Relocation support and visa sponsorship where applicable.

• Flexible working arrangements appropriate to the role and location.

• Learning and development budgets, including training and conference support.

• Comprehensive benefits, including health insurance and dental coverage.

• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave.

• Retirement or pension benefits, depending on location.

• Access to therapists and wellbeing partnerships.

• Team social events.

Benefits are location-dependent.

Company Culture

Wayve describes itself as a growing company where many processes and structures are still being developed. Employees are expected to take ownership and contribute to shaping how the company operates.

The company is committed to creating a diverse, fair, respectful, and inclusive workplace. Its equal opportunity statement covers protected characteristics under applicable law.

Wayve also states that it will not ask candidates about marriage, pregnancy, care responsibilities, or disabilities during job advertisements or interviews. Optional diversity, equity, and inclusion monitoring information may be collected to help evaluate and improve its hiring process.