Principal Product Validation Manager
The Principal Product Validation Manager at Wayve is a senior role responsible for overseeing the validation strategy of the company's automated driving products. This position focuses on developing comprehensive validation plans and creating OEM-facing validation evidence to ensure product requirements are met across both core projects and customer-specific applications. The role involves close collaboration with various teams, including Product, Systems Engineering, Validation, Safety, Process, Release, Application Engineering, and Program teams, to align scope, define goals, set priorities, and drive the generation of evidence supporting the release and deployment of Wayve’s products.
Key responsibilities include owning the product validation strategy for core and application projects, defining system-test processes across simulation-based validation, Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL), vehicle tests, and other relevant system-test instances. The role also involves translating product goals, functional requirements, customer requirements, and release questions into validation plans, acceptance criteria, and evidence expectations. Additionally, the manager will provide technical leadership for the execution of validation activities for specific internal and customer platforms and products, conduct and participate in regular customer workshops and weekly Verification & Validation meetings, and build and maintain OEM-facing validation artifacts, including validation strategy, validation plans, requirements-to-evidence traceability, KPI evaluation, ASPICE-relevant evidence, and release-readiness summaries.
The ideal candidate should have experience in owning or managing product validation for Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS), automated driving, and parking products. Direct hands-on experience leading and executing Validation & Verification of complex, software-centric automotive projects using Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), HIL, and Vehicle-in-the-Loop (VIL) is essential. A strong understanding of system-level integration, verification, and validation across simulation, HIL, and vehicle testing is required. The candidate should also have the ability to define KPIs, acceptance criteria, release gates, and evidence packages that support product, safety, technical, and customer decisions. Experience creating OEM-facing validation artifacts, including requirements traceability and ASPICE-relevant validation evidence, is also necessary. A strong automotive product-development background, including requirements, traceability, V-model delivery, release governance, and validation planning, is important. The ability to lead through influence in a matrix organization and create accountability across teams that do not report directly into the role is crucial. Clear communication with senior leaders and OEM stakeholders on validation tradeoffs, residual risks, and release confidence is also required.
Preferred qualifications include experience with L2+ hands-off, L3, or L4 automated driving systems, formal ASPICE, potential-analysis, safety case, SOTIF, ISO 26262, homologation, NCAP, GSR, or DCAS exposure, and experience with AI/ML-based driving systems, KPI pipelines, telemetry, or data-driven validation loops. Hands-on data analytics for validation and verification results and coverage, as well as knowledge of requirement specifications and management systems such as JAMA and JIRA, are also desirable.
This is a full-time role based in one of Wayve's EU offices or remotely. Wayve operates a hybrid working policy that combines time together in offices and workshops to fuel innovation, culture, relationships, and learning, with time spent working from home. The company operates core working hours, allowing employees to determine the schedule that works best for them and their team.