Field Engineering Lead, UK

Field Engineering Lead

London

The Field Engineering Lead serves as the on-site leader, responsible for rapid fault diagnosis and resolution of vehicle software and hardware issues to keep the fleet operational. They will oversee and support field engineers, ensuring a 5-minute response time and providing a fix to getting the vehicles back on the road as quickly as possible within reason depending on the issue at hand.

This role demands hands-on leadership, seamless coordination with global teams, and participation in an on-call rotation to provide 24/7 support across locations. As a key contributor to a new Fleet Operations function, the Field Engineering Lead will play a pivotal role in shaping processes and driving efficiency in a fast-paced environment.

Key responsibilities:

1. Lead on-site fault triage and resolution, ensuring vehicle software and hardware issues are diagnosed and repaired swiftly to maintain fleet uptime.
2. Collaborate - Work closely with Reliability Engineering team (and wider teams) to triage and mitigate new issues as new features are added and new tools are created.
3. Develop and enforce structured processes for fault diagnosis, repair protocols, and operational workflows within the newly established Field Engineering function.
4. Oversee and support field engineers, providing hands-on leadership, technical guidance, and ensuring seamless collaboration across global teams.
5. Ensure rapid response and resolution, meeting the 15-minute issue response and one-hour repair SLA to keep vehicles operational.
6. Manage global operational handovers, maintaining open communication with the Head of Field Engineering and ensuring smooth transitions across geographical locations.
7. Coordinate on-call support and shift coverage, ensuring round-the-clock technical assistance and problem-solving across multiple regions.
8. Uphold strict safety and compliance standards, ensuring all fault triage, diagnosis, and repairs follow the correct protocols and approvals.
9. Continuously improve, identifying areas for improvement and optimizing field engineering support across all geographical locations.

In order to set you up for success as a Field Engineering Lead at Wayve, we're looking for the following skills and experience.

Essential

1. Lead by example, inspiring and guiding a team of Field Engineers to efficiently triage, troubleshoot, and resolve hardware, software, and automotive system issues.
2. Take full ownership of the field engineering function within their respective location, ensuring operational excellence.
3. Strong knowledge of vehicle diagnostics, fault triage, and repair processes, with experience in fleet operations, automotive systems, or ADAS technology being a plus.
4. Skilled in process development, resource allocation, and workflow efficiency to meet strict SLAs (5-minute response time, 90% vehicle uptime on average).
5. Excellent ability to coordinate with global teams, provide clear technical guidance, and ensure seamless handovers between locations.
6. Deep understanding of safety protocols, incident management, and strict adherence to operational procedures.
7. Comfortable working in a fast-paced, evolving environment, including participation in on-call rotations and weekend coverage when required.

Desirable

1. Background in Automotive, DevOps, or Infrastructure - Experience in vehicle systems, software deployment, or cloud-based monitoring is highly beneficial.
2. Knowledge of ADAS and Autonomous Vehicle Technology - Familiarity with sensor systems, vehicle diagnostics, and real-world testing environments is a plus.
3. Experience in System Troubleshooting and Optimisation - Ability to diagnose and resolve issues across hardware, software, and networked vehicle systems efficiently.

This is a full-time role based in our London office. 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.