wayve - Technical Director, Safety Case

• You’ll provide independent challenge and advice while enabling Engineering and Product teams to own and deliver the safety evidence required for their systems. You’ll move between top-level safety strategy and detailed technical evidence, identifying gaps and weak assumptions early enough to influence product decisions. • You’ll work across Product, Systems Engineering, AI/ML, Validation, Vehicle Engineering, Software, Hardware and Operational Safety to ensure requirements, architectures, validation plans and release criteria remain aligned with the safety case. You’ll also provide senior leadership and safety governance forums with an independent, evidence-based view of whether the safety argument is sufficiently strong to support release and deployment decisions. • 🧩 What you’ll be working on: • Owning the safety case strategy and architecture for Wayve’s robotaxi and OEM ADAS products. • Defining top-level safety claims, argumentation, evidence structures and traceability from safety requirements through validation and deployment decisions. • Developing safety arguments appropriate for AI-enabled autonomous driving, incorporating functional safety, SOTIF, AI safety, cybersecurity, validation, operational safety and post-deployment monitoring. • Evolving reusable safety case approaches as Wayve’s products, vehicle platforms and evidence base mature. • Partnering with Product, Systems Engineering, AI/ML, Validation, Vehicle Engineering, Software, Hardware and Operational Safety to define safety requirements and evidence expectations. • Identifying gaps, assumptions and weaknesses in the safety argument early and driving their resolution with accountable teams. • Ensuring product requirements, architecture, validation plans and release criteria remain aligned with the safety case. • Supporting technical and programme leaders in making proportionate, evidence-based safety decisions. • Providing independent technical challenge of safety cases and supporting evidence. • Assessing whether safety arguments are coherent, complete, evidence-backed and sufficient to support release or deployment. • Highlighting material gaps, uncertainties, dependencies, residual risks and safety red lines, and providing clear recommendations to safety governance forums and senior leadership. • Building a common understanding of safety case principles across Wayve and coaching Engineering and Product leaders on structured safety argumentation, evidence quality and traceability. • Representing the safety case perspective in internal governance, customer and technical discussions. • Contributing to Wayve’s broader safety strategy and assurance capability. • Success in this role means establishing a clear and credible safety case architecture for Wayve’s first robotaxi and OEM ADAS products. Engineering and Product teams will understand the safety claims they support and the evidence they own, while gaps and weak assumptions will be identified early enough to influence product decisions. Wayve’s safety argument for AI-enabled autonomous driving will be technically rigorous, scalable and capable of standing up to scrutiny from customers, regulators and independent assessors. • 🙌 You should apply if: • You have deep experience developing or owning safety cases for complex safety-critical systems, ideally within autonomous vehicles, ADAS, robotics, aerospace, defence or another software-intensive domain. • You have a strong systems engineering background spanning requirements, architecture, verification, validation and safety assurance. • You have demonstrated the ability to translate complex technical evidence into structured safety claims and arguments. • You have a strong understanding of autonomous driving and AI/ML safety, including model performance, data, uncertainty and the limitations of conventional verification approaches. • You have experience partnering with AI/ML, Engineering, Systems and Product teams on safety-critical products. • You have strong knowledge of relevant standards, including ISO 26262, ISO 21448, ISO/PAS 8800 and ISO 3450x. • You have excellent technical communication and stakeholder-management skills. • You’re an architect and systems thinker who can move comfortably between top-level safety strategy and detailed technical evidence. • You’re pragmatic and able to distinguish between what is essential to a safety argument and what is merely desirable. • You’re intellectually rigorous, curious and comfortable challenging assumptions, including established industry practices where they do not adequately address AI-enabled autonomous driving. • You can operate independently of Engineering and Product without becoming detached from them, providing credible challenge, direction and oversight while helping teams succeed. • You’re comfortable operating with uncertainty and can make clear recommendations based on the strength of the available evidence. • You’re open to challenge and willing to change your position when better evidence emerges. • You can clearly articulate where a safety red line exists, why it matters and what evidence or mitigation would be required to move it. • Safety case experience with L2+/L3 ADAS or L4 ADS products is a plus. • Experience with GSN or equivalent structured assurance methods is a plus. • Safety evidence experience for end-to-end or foundation-model-based autonomous driving is a plus. • Experience working with OEMs, regulators, assessors or independent safety reviewers is a plus. • Familiarity with operational and post-deployment safety monitoring is a plus. • 🌱 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.