Senior Embedded Software Test Engineer, Onboard Test Automation

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.

🛠️ About our Engineering Teams

As a Senior Embedded Software Engineer on the Onboard Test Automation Team at Wayve, you will play a key role in validating onboard software systems before they reach full-vehicle testing. You’ll work across a range of embedded compute platforms and operating systems to ensure software is reliable, integrated, and ready for real-world deployment. This is a high-impact role where your work directly improves software quality and enables faster iteration across multiple teams. You’ll help scale testing by building automated tests and empowering developers to validate their work earlier in the development cycle.

🧠 Your day-to-day

• Design, develop, and execute automated tests for onboard software subsystems (OS, middleware, sensors, and integration points)

• Validate software behavior on embedded hardware platforms within hardware-in-the-loop environments

• Collaborate with software engineers to identify test gaps and build coverage for new and existing features

• Debug and triage system-level issues across software and hardware boundaries

• Enable developer self-service testing by contributing to CI pipelines and reusable test frameworks

• Support expansion of test coverage by leveraging existing validation tests and shifting them earlier in the development cycle

🧩 What you’ll be working on

• Automated integration and system-level testing for embedded Linux or QNX software.

• Hardware-in-the-loop validation across multiple compute platforms.

• Reliability checks for sensor pipelines, middleware, timing, latency, data integrity, and dropped messages.

• Observability that makes intermittent failures easier to reproduce and diagnose.

• Earlier validation of software changes to reduce risk during full-vehicle testing.

• Test frameworks that improve developer velocity and confidence across Robot Software.

🙌 You should apply if

• You have experience testing embedded software systems, ideally on Linux or QNX.

• You can develop automated tests in Python, C++, or a similar language.

• You have hands-on experience with embedded hardware and hardware/software interactions.

• You can debug complex system-level problems using logs, metrics, and controlled experiments.

• You understand automation, integration testing, and system validation principles.

• You are comfortable collaborating across software, hardware, and infrastructure teams.

Experience with HiL environments, sensor or data pipelines, CI/CD systems such as Buildkite, robotics, autonomous systems, or real-time software would be valuable.

🌱 Not ticking every box? That’s totally okay! If you’re passionate about autonomy and keen to learn, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet every requirement.

More about Wayve:

🚀 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, generalise 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 generalisable 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.

How we work 💻- Locations & Flexible Working:

Our main hubs are in London, Sunnyvale, Yokohama, Herzliya, Vancouver and Leonberg. We operate a hybrid working model that combines in-person collaboration in our dedicated office spaces with focused time working remotely. This gives our teams the connection and energy of working together, alongside the flexibility to do their best work in a way that fits their lives.

🔍 The Interview Process:

Our process is clear and respectful of your time:

• Initial recruiter screen — 25 minutes

• Competency interviews — programming and hiring-manager interviews (2 hours total)

• Deep-dive interviews — HiL/domain experience, programming, and validation architecture; (3 hours total)

• Final interview — mission and values alignment (30-45 minutes)

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

What’s in it for you (Location dependant):

💰 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

A quick, honest note before you apply.

Wayve is not a mature, fully-structured place with the playbook already written. Much of how we work is still being written, and if you join, you’ll help write it. That suits people who want real ownership more than people who need a settled structure from day one.

If that sounds like the kind of problem you want to spend your time on, we’d really like to hear from you.

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.