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Wayve is building an AI platform for autonomous driving using end-to-end learning from real-world experience. The company is pioneering a mapless, hardware-agnostic approach that enables vehicles to adapt and improve at scale, targeting L2+ through L4 automation across global OEM partners.
As Technical Program Manager for Robotaxi, you will own the complete lifecycle of robotaxi programs in Japan, from vehicle and fleet readiness through launch and in-market scaling. Based in Yokohama, you will be the only TPM on the ground, serving as a critical bridge between Wayve's global R&D operations and local delivery execution.
Your responsibilities include:
- Owning robotaxi program lifecycle, improving delivery through structured execution and coordination across multiple teams
- Tracking and managing dependencies, risks, and trade-offs across autonomy, vehicle, operations, and safety domains; escalating early with clear options
- Keeping engineering, fleet operations, safety, and local partner teams aligned across time zones and geographies
- Providing hands-on program support for robotaxi launch and in-market operations in Yokohama
- Supporting local vehicle hardware and software programs as needed
- Running planning sessions, stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives to maintain predictable multi-team delivery
- Communicating progress and risk to engineers, partners, and senior leaders with tailored messaging for each audience
- Improving tooling, processes, and ways of working; sharing patterns across the TPM organization
You will work across autonomy, vehicle software, hardware, operations, safety, and local partners in a fast-moving, ambiguous, safety-critical environment. The role requires hands-on involvement with vehicles and operations in Japan.
Wayve operates hybrid working with main hubs in London, Sunnyvale, Yokohama, Herzliya, Vancouver, and Leonberg. The company offers relocation support, visa sponsorship, learning and development budgets, comprehensive benefits including health insurance, dental, enhanced parental leave, retirement/pension, and access to wellbeing services.
REQUIREMENTS:
Essential:
- 5+ years leading complex, multi-team programs (or strong record at this level); demonstrated ability to lead high-complexity work across teams and deliver results
- Technical strength across software and hardware; credible with engineers in autonomy, vehicle software, and vehicle hardware; ability to reason about how the AI Driver runs as a robotaxi service on real vehicles and support vehicle hardware/software programs without writing production code
- Effectiveness in ambiguous, safety-critical environments; ability to flex style and bring structure without slowing delivery
- Strong project management skills: planning, prioritization, risk and dependency management across teams
- Exceptional communication and collaboration; ability to keep distributed teams aligned across time zones through clear, proactive, written communication; influence without authority across all stakeholders
- Cross-cultural competence and hands-on approach; comfortable working across geographies and cultures, hands-on with vehicles and operations in Japan; Japanese language skills a plus
- Generalist flexibility; as the only TPM in-country, comfortable extending beyond robotaxi to support vehicle hardware and software programs
- Data-driven approach; comfortable defining and using metrics to steer delivery and decisions
- Growth mindset; open to feedback and continuous improvement
- Systems thinking; ability to reason about how complex system parts fit together and how changes ripple across areas
- Product mindset; focus on outcomes and impact for end users; prioritization by impact and defining success metrics, not just activity tracking
Desirable:
- Robotaxi, autonomous vehicle operations, fleet, mobility, ride-hailing, or automotive experience; experience launching or scaling a service in market
- Exposure to ML, autonomy, or compute-heavy/safety-critical domains; experience working across global and local teams
- Japanese language skills and/or based in or willing to relocate to Yokohama/Tokyo
- Engineering or computer science degree, or prior experience working as an engineer
