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Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Search & Index

wayveSunnyvale, California USAAI Platform
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Salary
Not listed
Job type
Full-time
Work mode
Remote
Experience
Senior · 7+ yrs
Posted
5 Oct 2026
Status
Open · checked 7d ago

About this role

Wayve is hiring a Senior Machine Learning Engineer for their Search and Index team in Sunnyvale, California. This role suits an experienced engineer who wants to build billion-scale vector infrastructure for autonomous vehicle data and multimodal driving systems.

Role Overview

Wayve is seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Search & Index to join the Compute and Data Platform team in the Sunnyvale office as the first hire for this group. The engineer will design, build, and operate search and indexing platforms handling massive video and sensor datasets. The position involves rapid delivery of MVPs, collaborating across technical teams, and scaling systems beyond ten billion vectors.

Key Responsibilities

Design and operate production search and indexing systems at a scale of over ten billion vectors.
Build ingestion and indexing pipelines for video, sensor data, embeddings, and metadata.
Create backend services and APIs supporting vector similarity, semantic retrieval, and metadata-filtered search.
Evaluate and integrate embedding models, vector databases, ANN libraries, and external vendors.
Develop evaluation frameworks measuring retrieval quality, relevance, recall, filtering accuracy, latency, freshness, scalability, and cost.
Integrate search infrastructure into training-set construction, data curation, and research workflows.

Requirements

Seven or more years of experience in backend, infrastructure, or ML systems building production solutions.
Hands-on experience with vector databases or approximate nearest neighbor technologies such as FAISS or LanceDB.
Solid understanding of multimodal embeddings and search quality evaluation across recall, relevance, filtering accuracy, and performance.
Strong coding proficiency in Python or another systems language.
Proven delivery of search services, APIs, and large-scale ingestion and indexing pipelines.
Experience delivering zero-to-one systems within ambiguous problem spaces.

Nice to Have

Background in large-scale ML pipelines or distributed data infrastructure.
Experience with multimodal data including video, images, sensor data, and metadata.
Familiarity with active learning, semantic retrieval, or training-data selection workflows.
Exposure to autonomy, robotics, or large-scale data infrastructure.
Experience evaluating technical vendors and working with external providers.

Skills and Tools

Python
FAISS
LanceDB
Vector databases and ANN libraries
APIs and backend services

Salary and Benefits

Market-benchmarked annual salaries.
Meaningful equity options.
Relocation support and visa sponsorship where applicable.
Hybrid working model with core hours and access to vehicle workshops and labs.
Learning and development budgets for training and conferences.
Comprehensive benefits including health insurance, dental coverage, enhanced parental leave, retirement plans, therapist access, and wellbeing partnerships.

About the Company

Wayve builds embodied intelligence and a mapless, hardware-agnostic AI platform for autonomous driving. The technology enables vehicles to learn directly from real-world experience, scaling from L2 plus to L4 automation across global OEM partnerships. The company operates across multiple international hubs including London, Sunnyvale, Yokohama, Herzliya, Vancouver, and Leonberg.

How to Apply

Apply directly on the official company careers page.

Skills and tech stack

PythonFAISSLanceDB

Questions candidates ask

Where is this role located?

This position is located in the Sunnyvale, California office with a hybrid working model.

What is the scale of the search infrastructure for this position?

The system is designed to scale beyond ten billion vectors while processing hundreds of thousands of hours of video and sensor data.

What experience level is required?

Candidates must have 7+ years of experience in backend, infrastructure, or ML systems.

Is visa sponsorship available?

Yes, visa sponsorship and relocation support are provided where applicable.

What does the interview process look like?

The process includes an initial recruiter screen, three hours of deep-dive technical interviews covering programming, system design, and domain knowledge, followed by a 45-minute mission and values alignment interview.

Ready to apply?

The application is on the official wayve careers page.

Apply on company site