Wayve is seeking a Research Scientist, Wayve Labs to join its research team in Vancouver, Canada. The full-time position focuses on embodied AI, machine learning, robotics, simulation, autonomous driving, and foundation models.
Importantly for international applicants, Wayve states that the role includes relocation support with visa sponsorship, making this an opportunity that may be relevant to qualified candidates who require immigration support to work in Canada.
Job Details
- Employer: Wayve
- Position: Research Scientist, Wayve Labs
- Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Job Type: Full-time
- Work Arrangement: Hybrid
- Field: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics, Autonomous Driving
- Experience: 3+ years developing and deploying ML systems
- Education: PhD, Master’s degree, or equivalent experience
- Visa Sponsorship: Relocation support with visa sponsorship stated by the employer
- Programming: Python, PyTorch and related ML frameworks
About Wayve
Wayve is a technology company focused on embodied artificial intelligence and autonomous driving. Founded in 2017, the company develops AI software and foundation models designed to help vehicles perceive, understand and navigate complex environments.
The company’s technology is designed to support automated driving through intelligent, mapless and hardware-agnostic AI systems.
Wayve says its teams work across machine learning, engineering, robotics and autonomous driving while focusing on solving complex problems in real-world environments.
About the Role
The Research Scientist will join Wayve Labs, a research team working on the next generation of AI systems for autonomous driving and robotics.
The role sits at the intersection of machine learning, simulation, robotics and real-world deployment. Researchers will work on technologies designed to advance embodied AI, including world models, spatial intelligence, reinforcement learning, multimodal learning and scalable decision-making systems.
The company is particularly interested in researchers who can contribute to areas such as:
- World and reward modeling
- Representation learning and spatial intelligence
- Scalable decision-making systems
- Cross-embodiment and multimodal learning
- Robotics and autonomous driving
- Simulation and real-world AI deployment
Key Responsibilities
The successful candidate may be responsible for:
- Developing world models and planners using diffusion-based, autoregressive or hybrid approaches.
- Advancing reinforcement learning and reward modeling systems.
- Developing geometric foundation models for 3D spatial understanding.
- Working on cross-embodiment robotics using multimodal foundation models.
- Conducting research into scaling laws, generalization and sim-to-real transfer.
- Developing evaluation frameworks and benchmarks for long-horizon prediction, scene fidelity and driving performance.
- Working with large-scale datasets and machine learning infrastructure.
- Collaborating with researchers, engineers and other specialists across the organization.
Required Qualifications
Candidates should have:
- At least 3 years of experience developing and deploying machine learning systems in real-world or production environments.
- A PhD, Master’s degree or equivalent experience in Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Robotics or a related field.
- Deep expertise in at least one major area of embodied AI.
- Strong knowledge of foundation models, generative modeling, reinforcement learning or spatial AI.
- A track record of research publications at leading conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ICCV or CoRL.
- Strong Python programming skills.
- Experience with frameworks such as PyTorch.
- Experience working with large-scale datasets and evaluation.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- The ability to work effectively in interdisciplinary teams.
Preferred Qualifications
The following experience may be an advantage:
- Experience in autonomous driving, robotics or simulation systems.
- Experience with large-scale model training using technologies such as FSDP, DeepSpeed or JAX.
- Experience with sim-to-real transfer.
- Experience with data-efficient machine learning.
- Contributions to open-source machine learning tools or research infrastructure.
Salary and Benefits
Wayve states that it offers:
- Competitive salary and equity.
- Relocation support with visa sponsorship.
- Flexible working hours.
- Learning and development opportunities.
- Private health insurance.
- Enhanced parental leave.
- Workplace nursery scheme.
- Onsite chef.
- Daily yoga.
- Therapy and wellbeing support.
- Social and team activities.
- Learning and development support.
The exact salary and equity package may depend on the candidate’s experience and other factors.
Visa Sponsorship and Relocation
This is one of the important aspects of the vacancy for international applicants.
Wayve explicitly states that the package includes relocation support with visa sponsorship. This means candidates who are selected for the position may receive employer support related to relocating to Canada and obtaining the necessary work authorization.
However, visa sponsorship does not mean that every applicant automatically qualifies for a Canadian work permit. Immigration approval is subject to the applicable Canadian immigration requirements and the specific work authorization process.
International applicants should therefore confirm the immigration arrangements with Wayve during the recruitment process and review the current requirements from the Government of Canada before making relocation plans.
Who Should Apply
This position is particularly relevant to experienced researchers and machine learning professionals with backgrounds in:
- Artificial intelligence
- Machine learning
- Computer vision
- Robotics
- Autonomous vehicles
- Reinforcement learning
- Foundation models
- Generative AI
- Spatial AI
- Simulation
- Multimodal AI
Candidates with strong academic research backgrounds and publications in leading AI and machine learning conferences may be particularly suited to the position.
How to Tailor Your CV for This Job
Your CV should be tailored specifically toward research and engineering work in embodied AI rather than using a general software engineering CV.
Highlight:
- Machine learning systems you have developed and deployed.
- Research projects involving foundation models, computer vision, robotics or reinforcement learning.
- Publications and conference presentations.
- Experience with PyTorch, Python, JAX, FSDP or DeepSpeed.
- Large-scale model training and datasets.
- Autonomous driving or robotics projects.
- Simulation and sim-to-real transfer experience.
- Multimodal or 3D spatial AI work.
- GitHub or open-source contributions.
- Measurable results from your research or engineering projects.
If you have publications, place them in a clearly visible section of your CV and include links where appropriate.
For international applicants, also make sure your education and professional experience are presented clearly because the employer is looking for candidates with advanced technical and research expertise.
How to Apply
Interested candidates can apply through Wayve’s official recruitment platform.
Candidates should review the full job description and ensure they meet the required qualifications before submitting their application.
You can also explore other vacancies through Wayve’s careers page:
Important Note for International Applicants
Although the employer states that this position offers relocation support with visa sponsorship, applicants should not assume that sponsorship guarantees a work permit or permanent residence in Canada.
The final immigration pathway depends on the candidate’s circumstances, the employer’s sponsorship arrangements and Canadian immigration rules applicable at the time of application.
Applicants should also be prepared to demonstrate that they meet the employer’s technical requirements. This is a highly specialized research position and is not an entry-level job.
Disclaimer: OpportunityShape shares publicly available job opportunities to help international applicants discover employment and career pathways. We do not guarantee employment, visa sponsorship, relocation assistance or immigration approval. Visa sponsorship mentioned in this article is based on the employer’s published job information and may be subject to the employer’s recruitment process and applicable immigration requirements. Always verify the latest details directly with the employer before applying or making financial or relocation decisions.
