Technical Program Manager, Data Operations

About Us

Founded in 2017, Wayve is the leading developer of Embodied AI technology. Our advanced AI software and foundation models enable vehicles to perceive, understand, and navigate any complex environment, enhancing the usability and safety of automated driving systems. Our vision is to create autonomy that propels the world forward. Our intelligent, mapless, and hardware‑agnostic AI products are designed for automakers, accelerating the transition from assisted to automated driving. In our fast‑paced environment big problems ignite us—we embrace uncertainty, leaning into complex challenges to unlock groundbreaking solutions. We aim high and stay humble in our pursuit of excellence, constantly learning and evolving as we pave the way for a smarter, safer future. At Wayve, your contributions matter. We value diversity, embrace new perspectives, and foster an inclusive work environment; we back each other to deliver impact.

The role

As a Technical Program Manager in Data Operations at Wayve, you'll be the delivery engine behind our data and annotation operations – turning a high‑variance pipeline of requests into predictable, high‑quality delivery. You'll own requests end‑to‑end – intake, definition, estimation, scheduling, execution, and QA – working across data science, ML, engineering, and our external annotation suppliers. This is high‑judgment coordination, not ticket administration: your impact is measured by how reliably data work lands and how effectively you create clarity and unblock progress across many stakeholders. A successful TPM is a force multiplier – helping teams move faster, more effectively, and with purpose.

Key Responsibilities

• Intake & stakeholder alignment: Understand each ask, confirm it's complete, align on the goal and success criteria, and identify missing inputs before work starts.
• Estimation: Coordinate estimation with engineering and data science / ML, facilitate trade‑offs, and push back on unrealistic asks.
• Scheduling & setup: Structure and sequence tickets, and coordinate external suppliers to set annotation work up for success.
• Execution, comms & issue management: Keep work moving with clear status updates, risk and issue tracking, blocker removal, a visible "path to green," and well‑aligned escalations across internal teams and partners.
• Enable self‑serve users: onboard, support, and troubleshoot Wayve's internal self‑serve users across the whole annotation tool chain.
• Supplier coordination: Own day‑to‑day coordination with external annotation suppliers – onboarding, label guides, task launch, QA, and delivery tracking.
• Continuous improvement: Improve intake, ticketing, and reporting (including automation) – while owning the judgment, negotiation, and unblocking that can't be automated.

About you

Essential

• Bias for action: ~3+ years in program, delivery, or operations coordination (TPM, project / program coordinator, or similar). You get things done and deliver reliably within a defined scope.
• Strong stakeholder management and comfort with ambiguity: you create clarity from underspecified asks and stay neutral and constructive when priorities compete.
• Technically fluent enough to coordinate: comfortable working with engineers and data science / ML and reasoning about data and pipelines, even though you won't write production code.
• Brings structure without slowing things down: proactive risk and issue management; escalates early with clear options.
• Clear, frequent communicator: you keep many parties aligned with timely, tailored updates.
• Collaborative: you influence without authority and build trust across teams and suppliers.
• Growth mindset: open to feedback and always improving how the work gets done.
• Systems thinking: You reason about how the parts of a complex system fit together, and how a change in one area ripples into others.
• Product‑minded: You focus on outcomes and the people your programs serve – prioritising by impact and defining what good looks like, not just tracking activity.

Desirable

• Experience in data operations, annotation / labelling workflows, or external vendor / supplier management.
• Comfortable with Jira (or similar) and with workflow automation.
• Exposure to ML / data pipelines, autonomy, or robotics.

Work Location & Policy

This is a full‑time role based in our office in London or Leonberg. Wayve operates a hybrid working policy that combines time together in our offices and workshops to fuel innovation, culture, relationships and learning, with time spent working from home.

Inclusive Interview Experience

Wayve is committed to creating an inclusive interview experience. If you require any accommodations or adjustments to participate fully in our interview process, please let us know.

Equal Opportunity Employer

We understand that everyone has a unique set of skills and experiences and that not everyone will meet all of the requirements listed above. If you’re passionate about self‑driving cars and think you have what it takes to make a positive impact on the world, we encourage you to apply. 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.