People Operations Associate

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!

As part of our People team, you will help build and run the operational backbone that lets our people do their best work. Across the full employee lifecycle — from onboarding through to offboarding — you’ll keep day-to-day People operations running smoothly and accurately, covering areas such as onboarding, working hours, social and labour insurance, employee documentation and compliance, working closely with the wider team and our external partners.

The most exciting part of this role is that you’ll help shape our People foundations in Japan from an early stage. Rather than simply operating a finished machine, you’ll be working in an environment with plenty of white space — where the way you work directly improves how our processes and systems evolve. There’s real room here to make things better, and it’s largely yours to shape.

In a fast-growing scale-up, we’re looking for someone who enjoys more than just completing set tasks — someone who spots “this could work better” and turns it into reality. Partnering with employees, managers and external providers across a broad range of areas, you’ll naturally develop a wide, cross-functional view of People operations in Japan.

• Onboarding: preparing offers and employment contracts, collecting required documents, Day 1 setup, and probation management.

• Offboarding: supporting leaver processing and final pay, issuing separation and withholding certificates, equipment return and access removal.

• HRIS administration: maintaining employee data, managing leave balances, producing reports, and monitoring PTO uptake.

• Working hours: reconciling and operating attendance records, supporting monitoring of the 36-Agreement, and checking submissions and approvals.

• Social & labour insurance: enrolments and withdrawals on hire and leave, employment insurance, standard and revised remuneration filings, and the annual labour insurance update (all handled and submitted in partnership with our external providers), plus maternity, childcare and injury/sickness benefits.

• Payroll & tax: monthly coordination with our external provider and payroll team, commuting and other allowances, resident tax updates, and supporting the year-end adjustment.

• Benefits & health: liaising with benefits vendors, coordinating health checks and stress checks, arranging occupational physician meetings, and setting up and following through on worksite visits.

• Letters & certificates: employment contracts and terms notices, employment and salary certificates, and