Legal Counsel

About this role

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. Make Wayve the experience that defines your career! The role: Wayve is looking for a Legal Counsel (Commercial) based in London to support a broad range of commercial matters. The role will sit in Wayve’s Commercial Legal team, reporting to the Managing Counsel, and will play an important role as we scale globally and bring embodied AI technology into real-world deployment. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in fast-moving, technology-driven environments and enjoys working at the intersection of law, AI, product innovation, and operational scale. While experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or AI would be valuable, it is not essential. We are more interested in candidates with strong foundational commercial skills, sound judgement, and a proven ability to navigate complex legal landscapes in a fast-moving environment. We are looking for a proactive, commercially minded self-starter who is comfortable operating independently on a variety of day-to-day commercial legal matters. This role will have significant exposure to cross-border and international matters and will work closely with commercial, procurement, engineering, product, privacy, and fleet ops teams as the company continues to expand. Wayve’s Legal Team focuses on enabling the business to achieve its goals while appropriately identifying and managing legal risk. We are looking for someone who can clearly and confidently explain legal and commercial risks, exercise sound judgement in assessing those risks, and work collaboratively with stakeholders to find practical solutions. You should be comfortable operating in an environment where there is not always established precedent, and focused on helping the business find a path forward rather than simply identifying reasons why something cannot be done. Key responsibilities: This role will report to the Managing Counsel and support the wider Commercial Legal team on a range of legal and commercial matters, including: • Drafting, reviewing and negotiating a broad range of commercial agreements, from day-to-day supplier, software/SaaS, services and other operational contracts, through to bespoke agreements with OEM customers and Tier 1 suppliers, often involving significant intellectual property, data, privacy and other technology-related issues. • Advising on intellectual property, AI and data usage (including data used for AI development and training) and other general commercial matters, in partnership with other members of the Legal team and external counsel (where required). This includes advising on novel and emerging areas of law, particularly at the intersection of law and AI, and helping navigate complex questions where legal frameworks, precedent and market practice are still developing • Advising the business’s People team on various 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 matters, including supporting the use and sharing of data in connection with Wayve's products, commercial relationships and AI development and training • Helping to improve and develop scalable processes, templates, playbooks, and governance structures to support Wayve’s growth and contracting volume • Supporting strategic initiatives, international expansion, and new product deployments from a commercial legal perspective • Supporting Wayve’s operational teams, including Fleet Operations, in connection with the operation, testing and deployment of Wayve’s vehicle fleet across its international markets • Educating and enabling the business on commercial risk, contracting best practices, and legal process matters, and supporting other members of the Legal Team About you: In order to set you up for success as a Legal Counsel (Commercial) at Wayve, we’re looking for the following skills and experience. Essential • Qualified solicitor in England and Wales • Trained at a leading law firm with 2 to 4 years of relevant post-qualification experience (although we are open to candidates with more or less experience) • Strong experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements, including procurement, supply chain, technology, and vendor contracts • Comfortable negotiating directly with commercial counterparties and able to communicate legal positions clearly and pragmatically • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to distil complex legal issues and clearly explain legal and commercial risk to non-legal stakeholders • Experience supporting strategic commercial transactions and working closely with business stakeholders in fast-moving, technology-driven environments • Strong commercial judgement and an ability to assess legal risk in the context of broader business objectives, providing practical, solutions-oriented advice that enables the business to achieve its goals while appropriately managing risk • Experience advising on employment-related matters affecting a global workforce, or a willingness to develop experience in this area, including navigating a fast-paced employment environment • Ability to work autonomously on day-to-day matters, take initiative, exercise sound judgement on when to escalate, and operate effectively in a fast-paced and evolving environment • Experience partnering cross-functionally with business stakeholders and an ability to communicate effectively with both legal and non-legal experts • Strong organisational and prioritisation skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously and switch effectively between competing priorities • Enthusiasm for getting stuck into a broad range of legal matters, including areas outside your existing experience, and comfort working through novel legal and commercial questions where there may be limited precedent or established market practice Desirable Experience in one or more of the following areas is a major plus: • Commercial experience within the automotive, mobility, or broader technology sector, particularly at an OEM, Tier 1 supplier, or similarly complex engineering-led organization • Experience supporting OEM, strategic partnership, or other large-scale B2B transactions involving hardware, software, data, or integrated technology solutions • Exposure to AI, data or autonomous vehicle related legal issues • Cross-border commercial advisory experience across the UK, US, Europe and Japan. • 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. • Experience helping to automate and scale legal processes, templates, or commercial legal functions This is a full-time role based in our office in London. At Wayve we want the best of all worlds, so we operate a hybrid working policy that combines time together in our offices and workshops to fuel innovation, culture, relationships and learning, and time spent working from home. Some international travel may be required. 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. 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. For more information visit Careers at Wayve. To learn more about what drives us, visit Values at Wayve For US candidates only, please visit E-Verify Notice and Participation and Right to Work 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.