Data Science Manager

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 Wayve is seeking a Data Science Manager to lead our Applied Methods Data Science team, based in the UK. The team acts as a trusted partner to the Autonomy organisation, turning experimental and observational analysis of real and simulated driving into the evaluations and insights that help engineering teams rapidly progress towards customer commitments. In this role, you will broaden the team’s impact, accelerate delivery, and scale its capability through both additional headcount and technology—helping advance Wayve’s leadership in end-to-end AI for autonomous mobility. 🧠 Your day-to-day You’ll lead a team of data scientists and work closely with stakeholders across Autonomy to balance customer needs, technical rigour, and delivery. You’ll set direction, support your team’s growth, and build the relationships needed to keep the team close to its customers and ahead of future support needs. 🧩 What you’ll be working on: Set and align priorities with stakeholders across Autonomy, maintaining provisional three-, six-, and 12-month roadmaps that balance customer demand with team capacity. Work with technical leads and senior engineers to review technical proposals and designs, maintaining a high bar for statistical rigour and evaluation fidelity. Monitor delivery status and cadence, surface schedule risks early, and manage trade-offs with customers. Grow the team by hiring and onboarding data scientists, while investing in tooling and automation that enable the team to scale beyond headcount alone. Guide career-growth conversations, matching business needs with development opportunities and building progression pathways. Build cross-functional relationships that keep the team close to its customers and anticipate where support will be needed. 🙌 You should apply if: You have three or more years’ experience managing a team of five or more individual contributors. You have a track record of growing and maintaining high-performing teams. You have a strong data science foundation, including experience applying causal-inference methods in experimental or observational settings. You have built strong working relationships with cross-functional stakeholders and customers, translating their needs into clear team priorities. You have experience setting technical direction and reviewing designs and proposals from senior engineers. You are comfortable planning and communicating roadmaps, and managing delivery and expectations with demanding customers. You are comfortable working asynchronously across time zones with cross-functional partners. You are deeply curious about building something new and excited to he