Legal Counsel

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 Legal Team

Wayve’s Legal Team enables the business to achieve its goals while appropriately identifying and managing legal risk. This role sits within our Commercial Legal team, reports to the Managing Counsel, and will play an important role as Wayve scales globally and brings embodied AI technology into real-world deployment.

Based in London, you’ll work closely with commercial, procurement, engineering, product, privacy, People and Fleet Operations teams on a broad range of commercial and cross-border matters. You’ll have significant ownership and autonomy, helping stakeholders understand legal and commercial risks and finding practical paths forward in areas where precedent and market practice may still be developing.

🧠 Your day-to-day

You’ll independently manage a broad range of day-to-day commercial legal matters while partnering closely with colleagues across the business. You’ll draft and negotiate agreements, advise on IP, AI, data, privacy and employment matters, and support strategic initiatives, international expansion and new product deployments.

This is an opportunity for a commercially minded lawyer who enjoys working at the intersection of law, AI, product innovation and operational scale. You’ll need to be comfortable exercising judgement in a fast-moving environment, clearly communicating risk and helping the business find solutions rather than simply identifying obstacles.

🧩 What you’ll be working on:

• Drafting, reviewing and negotiating a broad range of commercial agreements, from supplier, software/SaaS, services and other operational contracts through to bespoke agreements with OEM customers and Tier 1 suppliers involving significant IP, data, privacy and other technology-related issues.

• Advising on intellectual property, AI and data usage, including data used for AI development and training, alongside other members of the Legal team and external counsel where required.

• Working through novel and emerging legal questions at the intersection of law and AI, including areas where legal frameworks, precedent and market practice are still developing.

• Advising the People team on employment and HR matters relating to Wayve’s global workforce, working with local counsel where specialist jurisdictional advice is required.

• Advising on data protection and privacy, including the use and sharing of data in connection with Wayve’s products, commercial relationships, and AI development and training.

• Supporting strategic initiatives, international expansion and new product deployments from a commercial legal perspective.

• Supporting Fleet Operations and other operational teams in connection with the operation, testing and deployment of Wayve’s vehicle fleet across international markets.

• Building and improving scalable legal processes, templates, playbooks and governance structures to support Wayve’s growth and increasing contracting volume.

• Educating and enabling stakeholders on commercial risk, contracting best practices and legal processes, while supporting other members of the Legal team.
  

🙌 You should apply if:

• You are a qualified solicitor in England and Wales.

• You trained at a leading law firm and have approximately 2–4 years of relevant post-qualification experience, although we are open to candidates with more or less experience.

• You have strong experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements, including procurement, supply chain, technology and vendor contracts.

• You are comfortable negotiating directly with commercial counterparties and can communicate legal positions clearly and pragmatically.

• You have excellent communication and stakeholder management skills and can distil complex legal issues into clear explanations of legal and commercial risk for non-legal stakeholders.

• You have experience supporting strategic commercial transactions and working closely with business stakeholders in fast-moving, technology-driven environments.

• You exercise strong commercial judgement, assessing legal risk in the context of broader business objectives and providing practical, solutions-oriented advice.

• You have experience advising on employment matters affecting a global workforce, or are willing to develop experience in this area, including navigating a fast-paced employment environment.

• You can operate autonomously on day-to-day matters, take initiative and exercise sound judgement about when to escalate.

• You have experience partnering cross-functionally and can communicate effectively with both legal and non-legal experts.

• You have strong organisational and prioritisation skills and can manage multiple workstreams and competing priorities.

• You’re enthusiastic about getting stuck into a broad range of legal matters, including areas outside your existing experience, and are comfortable tackling novel questions where precedent may be limited.

• Experience within automotive, mobility or the broader technology sector is a major plus, particularly at an OEM, Tier 1 supplier or similarly complex engineering-led organisation.

• Experience supporting OEM, strategic partnership or other large-scale B2B transactions involving hardware, software, data or integrated technology solutions is a plus.

• Exposure to AI, data or autonomous vehicle-related legal issues is a plus.

• Cross-border commercial advisory experience across the UK, US, Europe and Japan is a plus.

• Experience supporting commercial or employment matters in Germany, including familiarity with the German legal and regulatory environment and working with German stakeholders and local counsel, is a plus.

• Experience helping automate and scale legal processes, templates or commercial legal functions is a plus.

Experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics or AI would be valuable, but it is not essential. We are most interested in strong foundational commercial skills, sound judgement and a proven ability to navigate complex legal landscapes in a fast-moving environment.

🌱 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:

This is a full-time role based in our London office. 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.

Some international travel may be required.

🔍 The Interview Process:

Our process is clear and respectful of your time:

• Initial call / recruiter screen (30 mins)

• Competency interviews (Hiring Manager Interview and team interview) (90 mins)

• Deep-dive interviews (Presentation) (60 mins)

• Final interview (30 mins)

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

What’s in it for you:

💰 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.