Purchasing Manager

The posting, as Wayve wrote it

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.

PURCHASING MANAGER

🛠️ About our Purchasing Team

Wayve’s Purchasing team helps the business scale by ensuring we have the right suppliers, commercial agreements, and procurement processes in place to support our global operations.

As an Indirect Purchasing Manager, you’ll help shape how Wayve sources, manages, and optimizes indirect spend across areas including IT/SaaS, Marketing, People/HR, Facilities, and Security. You’ll work closely with teams across the business to identify the right suppliers, negotiate strong commercial terms, manage risk, and ensure our supplier relationships continue to deliver value as Wayve grows.

This is an opportunity to have a direct impact on how we build a scalable, efficient, and commercially strong procurement function in a fast-moving global environment.

🧠 Your day-to-day

You’ll own procurement activities across a broad range of indirect categories, partnering with internal stakeholders to understand their requirements and develop sourcing strategies that balance cost, quality, service, and risk.

You’ll manage the end-to-end supplier and contract lifecycle — from identifying and evaluating suppliers through negotiation, contracting, onboarding, performance management, renewal, and escalation.

You’ll work closely with Legal, Finance, HR/People, IT, Security, Facilities, and Marketing to ensure purchasing decisions align with business priorities and company policies. You’ll also help improve procurement processes, strengthen supplier governance, and use spend and performance data to identify opportunities for savings and greater efficiency.

🧩 What you’ll be working on

• Developing and executing indirect procurement and sourcing strategies aligned with business priorities and cost-efficiency targets.
• Managing sourcing activities across categories including IT/SaaS, Marketing, People/HR services, Facilities, Security, and other corporate services.
• Leading supplier identification, evaluation, competitive sourcing, and commercial negotiations.
• Owning supplier contracts from initial negotiation and drafting through execution, renewal, and ongoing compliance management.
• Negotiating and managing commercial agreements including MSAs, SOWs, NDAs, order forms, and supplier terms, in partnership with Legal.
• Building and maintaining strong relationships with global suppliers and monitoring performance, service quality, risk, and compliance.
• Managing contract renewals and identifying opportunities to improve commercial terms, consolidate suppliers, or reduce unnecessary spend.
• Acting as the key point of contact between suppliers and internal stakeho

[…]
📈 Meaningful equity, sharing in the ownership and long term success of Wayve
✈️ Relocation support and visa sponsorship where applicable
✅ Hybrid working, core hours and the chance to work hands on in vehicle workshops and labs
📚 Learning and development budgets with support for training, conferences and growth
🩺 Comprehensive benefits including health insurance, dental, enhanced maternity and paternity leave, retirement or pension where applicable, access to therapists, wellbeing partnerships, team socials and more

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.

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. https://wayve.ai/careers/ To learn more about what drives us, visit Values at Wayve https://wayve.ai/careers/

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.