Staff Software Engineer - OS, Robot Software

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.

The role

The Robot Software team is responsible for the software that runs on our internal fleet of vehicles to enable autonomous driving and collect data for training new driving models. You will join a motivated and talented team of engineers to deliver a reliable, stable and flexible software stack to support on-road experimentation by our model developers and scientists. Your work will enable these teams to iterate quickly and gather the data they need to improve our autonomous driving capabilities and support new product features, which is critical to the success of Wayve’s mission.

The OS team within Robot Software are the curators of Wayve's bespoke Linux distribution, which is installed across our ever-expanding development fleet. The team works closely with various groups across Wayve, including other parts of Robot Software, the hardware and supply chain teams, and our field engineering and reliability engineering teams. The team's responsibilities include developing and maintaining our Linux distribution using Yocto, creating and updating Linux kernel drivers for new hardware sensors and peripherals, and hardening our development fleet against all forms of cyber attack.

Key responsibilities:

Expertise in Linux: Own the creation and maintenance of Linux kernel and device drivers.

Collaborate with technical and business stakeholders : Work with Product, Project, and Engineering management to advise and build the right solution

Software Development: Build and deliver software in C++ with high quality and reliability. Create software which is observable and debuggable when running on a device 2000 km away and with limited connectivity.

Fault Tolerance and Diagnostics: Create robust, fault-tolerant software solutions with comprehensive system diagnostics to enable us to quickly and efficiently resolve any issues preventing our deployed fleet from operating at maximum capacity.

Drive a strong engineering culture: Lead by example as you demonstrate best practices for: testing, documentation, ease-of-use, technical (and non-technical) tooling, mentorship, and collaboration.

About you

In order to set you up for success as a Staff Software Engineer at Wayve, we’re looking for the following skills and experience.

Essential

Software Development Skills: Proficiency developing high-performance embedded Linux systems software in C and C++. Demonstrated ability to manage the complete software development lifecycle from ideation through delivery & optimization.

Linux Expertise: Familiarity with embedded Linux (kernel, device tree), build systems (Yocto), boot sequence, secured boot and user space application software development.

Debugging Skills: Ability to delve deep into performance issues, stack traces, core dumps, slow disk writes, high system load, memory bottlenecks, external device bottlenecks, and threading issues.

IPC Middleware Knowledge: Strong understanding IPC mechanisms and how to optimally use and configure IPC middleware for high data throughput robotics applications (e.g. with frameworks such as ROS).

Desirable

Experience with robotics or automotive frameworks such as Nvidia Jetson or Nvidia Drive.

Experience with embedded real time (RT) OS such as QNX.

This role is a full-time role based in Sunnyvale, CA (hybrid) and the reasonably estimated salary for this role ranges from $210,00 to $290,000 plus a competitive equity package. Actual compensation is based on the candidate's skills, qualifications, and experience.

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.