Legal Counsel (Commercial)

Before the detail, here's the challenge you'd help us solve.

We build the embodied intelligence that moves real vehicles safely, and the ecosystem a billion machines will run on in the future. Very few people in AI can say this. Every role here, whatever the team, plugs into that.

Here’s what this particular role covers.

The Role

Wayve is looking for a Commercial Counsel based in Sunnyvale, California to support a broad range of commercial matters across the business. This is a mid-level position that will play a critical role in shaping Wayve’s commercial legal function in the United States 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 commercial contracting, product innovation, and operational scale. While experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, automotive, 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 contractual landscapes within technology, mobility, or other highly regulated industries.

We are looking for a proactive, commercially minded self-starter who is comfortable operating independently, building scalable processes and frameworks, and partnering closely with senior stakeholders across the business. This role will have significant exposure to cross-border matters and will work closely with commercial, procurement, engineering, product, finance, privacy, and operational teams as the company continues to expand internationally.

Key responsibilities:

This role will support the legal and leadership teams on a wide range of commercial matters, including:

• Advising the business on a broad range of commercial matters, with a primary focus on global procurement, supply chain, technology, and vendor management, as well as general US commercial work
• Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a wide range of commercial agreements, including procurement, supplier, services, software/SaaS, data, licensing, consulting, and other operational contracts
• Supporting large, complex strategic transactions involving OEM partnerships and Tier 1 suppliers, including development, proofs of concept, integration, deployment, production, and related commercial arrangements
• Advising on product, marketing, intellectual property, data privacy, and general corporate matters on an ad hoc basis, in partnership with other members of the Legal Team and external counsel where required
• Partnering closely with engineering, procurement, finance, privacy, communications, commercial, and operational teams to provide practical and commercially focused legal advice
• Helping to develop scalable processes, templates, playbooks, and governance structures to support Wayve’s growth and contracting volume
• Managing external counsel and coordinating cross-border legal advice where required
• Supporting strategic initiatives, market expansion, and new product deployments from a commercial legal perspective
• Helping to build and shape Wayve’s broader US commercial legal capability as the team grows
• Educating and enabling the business on commercial risk, contracting best practices, and legal process matters

About you

In order to set you up for success as a Commercial Counsel at Wayve, we’re looking for the following skills and experience.

Essential

• Licensed attorney admitted to practice in California
• 3+ years of relevant legal experience, with a minimum of 2 years of law firm experience and some in-house experience (preferably at a high-growth B2B tech or AI company)
• Strong experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements, including procurement, supply chain, technology, and vendor contracts
• Experience supporting strategic commercial transactions and working closely with business stakeholders in fast-moving, technology-driven environments
• Excellent legal analysis, pragmatic communication, and stakeholder management skills
• Strong commercial judgment and ability to assess legal risk in the context of broader business objectives
• Ability to work autonomously, take initiative, and operate effectively in a fast-paced and evolving environment
• Experience partnering cross-functionally with senior business stakeholders
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously
• Interest in helping to build and scale Wayve’s US commercial legal capability

Desirable

Experience in one or more of the following areas will be a major plus:

• Commercial or product counseling 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
• Familiarity with procurement, supply chain, manufacturing, logistics, or other operational contracting matters in a global business
• Exposure to autonomous vehicle, AI, product, data privacy, intellectual property, or marketing legal issues
• Cross-border commercial advisory experience across the US, the UK, Europe, Asia, or other international markets
• Experience helping to establish or scale legal processes, templates, or commercial legal functions within growing businesses

Pay Transparency Disclosure

If based in Wayve’s Sunnyvale office, this role has the annual base salary range stated below.

Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location. The listed range is a guideline, and the range for this role may be modified. For roles that are available to be filled remotely, the pay range is localized according to employee work location by a factor of between 80% and 100% of range. Please discuss your specific work location with your recruiter for more information.

Annual Base Salary Range:

$150,000 - $200,000 USD

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

A quick, honest note before you apply.

Wayve is not a mature, fully-structured place with the playbook already written. Much of how we work is still being written, and if you join, you’ll help write it. That suits people who want real ownership more than people who need a settled structure from day one.

If that sounds like the kind of problem you want to spend your time on, we’d really like to hear from you.