Technical Business Development Manager
Wayve · Leonberg, Baden-Wurttemberg
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
As a Technical Business Development Manager at Wayve, you’ll play a pivotal role in scaling strategic OEM partnerships across Europe. You’ll own the front-end of major RFQ/RFI and pre-nomination activity—shaping how we position our autonomy and automotive software capabilities with customers. This is a highly cross-functional role, working closely with product and engineering to turn complex technical value into compelling customer outcomes. You’ll have direct exposure to senior customer stakeholders and the chance to materially influence commercial momentum in one of our priority geographies.
Key responsibilities:
- Lead Europe-focused early-stage OEM engagements and drive opportunity strategy from first touch through pre-nomination phases
- Own RFQ/RFI and bid responses end-to-end: clarify requirements, coordinate inputs, manage timelines, and deliver high-quality submissions
- Partner with product, engineering, and technical leads to develop customer narratives, proposals, and supporting materials (decks, business cases, GTM content)
- Present confidently to both working-level engineering teams and executive (C-level) stakeholders, tailoring messaging to audience needs
- Operate effectively in a matrix organisation: align internal stakeholders on positioning, feasibility, and priorities to move opportunities forward
About you
In order to set you up for success as a Technical Business Development Manager (OEM / Tier-1 / Technology Partners) at Wayve, we’re looking for someone who can sit confidently at the intersection of deep automotive autonomy technology and complex commercial partnering. You’re as comfortable running a technical deep-dive with engineering teams as you are aligning executives on strategy, risk, and deal structure. You bring the judgement to translate product and engineering realities into clear customer commitments—and the drive to push opportunities from early discovery through PoC planning and ultimately toward nomination.
Essential
- Automotive and/or automotive software background (must-have)
- Strong understanding of OEM processes and commercial motion: RFQ/RFI, Tier 1/OEM dynamics, bidding, and pre-nomination workflows
- Ability to understand, translate, and present technical materials credibly to technical and non-technical audiences
- Proven ability to drive cross-functional execution in a matrix organisation (aligning product/engineering/commercial stakeholders)
Desirable
- Experience working directly with European OEMs and navigating complex enterprise procurement and decision-making environments
- Background in adjacent roles (e.g., solutions architecture, technical sales, or consulting) with demonstrated willingness to operate hands-on at detail level
- Exposure to autonomy/ADAS, software-defined vehicles, or related domains (helpful, not required)
- Act as a force multiplier across teams, orchestrating the right stakeholders to align on priorities, build conviction around outcomes, and accelerate execution against critical goals.
- Highly adaptable, with the flexibility to travel and attend onsite meetings and events as business needs require.
#LI-MB1
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.