---
title: 'Director of Communications at Waabi'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-communications-waabi-san-francisco-tq69v85xeqmb'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-29'
---

# Director of Communications at Waabi

- **Company:** Waabi
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-14
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-29
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/waabi/e2c99391-2880-414f-9a59-c2799dbd12f5

## Job description

Waabi, founded by AI visionary Raquel Urtasun, is the leader in Physical AI. With a world-class team, we're unlocking the next era of autonomous transportation with technology that's powering commercial autonomous trucks and robotaxis. Waabi is backed by and partners with world leaders in AI, automotive, logistics, and deep tech.

With offices in Toronto, San Francisco, Dallas, and Pittsburgh, Waabi is growing quickly and looking for diverse, innovative and collaborative candidates who want to impact the world in a positive way. To learn more visit: www.waabi.ai

## About the Role

We're looking for a Director of Communications to build and run Waabi's earned media and executive communications function. You'll be the person landing meaningful coverage of Waabi across logistics, technology, and business media — shaping how the market understands a company building AI for the physical world, not just another autonomous trucking company. You'll partner closely with our Director of Marketing on blog posts, thought leadership, and executive communications, and you'll manage our communications agency day to day. As the team grows, this role has a clear path to building and leading a communications team. You will… Own relationships with reporters and editors across logistics, technology, and business media; pitch, place, and manage stories that land accurate, positive coverage of Waabi and its partners and customers. Ensure every external story reinforces Waabi's core narrative — grounded in proof, not hype — and helps position Waabi against the right set of peers rather than being pigeonholed as just another AV company. Partner with the Director of Marketing and IR to draft executive communications, speaking materials, and talking points that carry a consistent voice across founder and leadership visibility moments. Partner with the Director of Marketing to craft compelling blog posts and thought leadership content across logistics, transportation, technology, safety and policy that reflect Waabi's credibility without overselling it. Manage our communications agency's day-to-day work — briefing, reviewing output, and holding the relationship accountable to results, not just activity. Maintain and enforce guardrails on what's cleared for external use — proof points, terminology, and claims — so communications stay accurate as the company scales. Own internal communications strategy in partnership with the Head of People and CEO's Chief of Staff, building the foundation a future internal comms lead will inherit. As volume and scope grow, build the case for and eventually lead a small communications team. What Success Looks Like: In your first 6–12 months, you will have: Established a consistent narrative and message discipline across press, blog, and executive communications, with a clear point of view on what's cleared for external use. Landed a growing cadence of accurate, positive placements across logistics, technology, and business media that build durable third-party credibility. Shipped executive communications and thought leadership content, in partnership with the Director of Marketing, that strengthens leadership's external voice. Brought clear direction and accountability to the communications agency relationship, with measurable improvement in output quality or placement rate. Qualifications: 10+ years in communications, PR, or media relations, with a track record of landing coverage in technology, business, or industrial/logistics trade press Proven ability to translate deep technical or scientific work into a compelling, accurate story for both trade and mainstream business media Experience managing an external communications or PR agency, including briefing, review, and performance accountability Experience supporting executive communications — speeches, talking points, bylines, or media training Excellent writer, capable of shaping thought leadership and blog content in partnership with product marketing Strong message discipline — comfortable maintaining clearance guardrails on claims, terminology, and proof points as a company's public narrative matures Comfortable operating in a small team, hands-on environment with the expectation of building toward leading a team over time Bonus/nice to have: Experience communicating for a deep-tech, AI, or robotics company transitioning to commercial scale, especially one whose story needs to be actively repositioned against a specific peer set Existing relationships with reporters covering logistics, supply chain, transportation technology, or AI Experience with a company navigating a narrative shift (e.g., from a narrower category into a broader one) Experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or physical AI specifically Experience building a communications function or team from the ground up Open-minded and collaborative team player with the willingness to help others. Passionate about self-driving technologies, solving hard problems, and creating innovative solutions.

The US hourly range for this role is: $165,000 - $255,000 USD in addition to  competitive perks & benefits. Waabi US Inc.’s yearly salary ranges are determined based on several factors in accordance with the Company’s compensation practices. Note: The Company provides additional compensation for employees in this role, including equity incentive awards and an annual performance bonus.

Perks/Benefits: Competitive compensation and equity awards. Health and Wellness benefits encompassing Medical, Dental and Vision coverage (for full-time employees only). Unlimited Vacation. Flexible hours and Work from Home support. Daily drinks, snacks and catered meals (when in office). Regularly scheduled team building activities and social events both on-site, off-site & virtually. As we grow, this list continues to evolve!

Waabi is a technology start-up building technologies to transform the way the world moves. Join our talented team to be a part of the future and to make an impact!

Waabi is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating a supportive, inclusive, and accessible workplace for all our employees. We seek applicants of all backgrounds and identities, across race, color, ethnicity, national origin or ancestry, age, citizenship, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, military or veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or parental status, caregiver status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law. We make workplace accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as required by applicable law. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process please let our recruiting team know.

## About Waabi

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Waabi is pioneering Physical AI for autonomous vehicles, starting with self-driving trucks and expanding into robotaxis, using a breakthrough interpretable AI model and the industry's most realistic neural simulator.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series C, $1B total funding)
- **Headquarters**: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Raquel Urtasun

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Autonomous vehicle technology, truck transportation, logistics, robotaxi services
- **Target customers**: B2B – trucking fleets, logistics providers, and eventually ride-hailing operators; enterprise partnerships with OEMs and transportation companies
- **Mission**: To empower humanity to build a better tomorrow by fundamentally rethinking how autonomous vehicles are developed, deployed, and scaled – safely and efficiently.

## Products & Services
- **Waabi Driver**: An end-to-end, interpretable and verifiable AI system that enables self-driving capabilities for trucks and, soon, robotaxis. The system is designed to be scalable and safe by leveraging a next-generation neural simulator (Waabi World) for validation before deployment on public roads.
- **Waabi World**: The industry’s most realistic neural simulator, used for testing and training the Waabi Driver in millions of scenarios, dramatically reducing the time and resources needed to bring autonomous vehicles to market.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company)
- **Key Metrics**: Annual Revenue: $11.2M (est., from private data providers); Total Funding: ~$1B across four rounds; Headcount: 271 employees (+51% YoY)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Khosla Ventures (lead in Series B & C), Uber, Volvo Group Venture Capital, Radical Ventures, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture arm)
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Raised $750M Series C in January 2026 (led by Khosla Ventures)
  - Expanding from autonomous trucks into robotaxi market (hired Ryan Wallace as GM of Robotaxi in Sept 2026)
  - 52 active job postings (+62% YoY job posting growth)
  - Talent influx from Cruise, Aurora, Uber, Waymo, TuSimple, NVIDIA

## Competitive Advantages
- **Interpretable & verifiable AI**: Unlike black-box systems, Waabi’s end-to-end model is designed to be transparent and auditable, increasing trust and regulatory viability.
- **Neural simulator (Waabi World)**: Enables massive-scale virtual testing that accelerates development while maintaining safety – a key moat over rivals that rely on costly real-world miles.
- **Founder-led**: Raquel Urtasun is a world-renowned AI researcher (former Uber ATG chief scientist) with deep expertise in computer vision and autonomous systems.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale the Waabi Driver** for commercial trucking operations and simultaneously **enter the robotaxi market**.
- **Deepen OEM and strategic partnerships** (e.g., with Volvo and Uber) to integrate technology into production vehicles.
- **Continue aggressive hiring** of AI researchers, software engineers, systems engineers, and policy experts across North America.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Values safety, efficiency, data-driven decision-making, and a "virtuous cycle of innovation." Emphasis on real-world impact and personal growth.
- **Remote/Hybrid**: Offers remote flexibility with 5 offices across North America (Toronto, San Francisco, Dallas, Phoenix, Pittsburgh). Many roles are hybrid or remote.
- **Engineering culture**: Technical stack includes Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, CUDA, ROS, Linux, Kubernetes, and proprietary simulation tools. 43% of employees are in technical roles, 15% in research.
- **Perks**: Not explicitly listed, but strong employer rating (4.6/5 on third-party reviews) and high compensation (e.g., Staff Software Developer median ~$151K USD, Systems Engineer ~$124K).
- **Growth opportunities**: 51% YoY headcount growth, many leadership hires; career progression from intern to director roles is common.

## Sources
1. [waabi.ai/careers](https://www.waabi.ai/careers)
2. [waabi.ai/company](https://waabi.ai/company)
3. [jobs.lever.co/waabi](https://jobs.lever.co/waabi)
4. [linkedin.com/company/waabi](https://www.linkedin.com/company/waabi)
5. [cbinsights.com/company/waabi](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/waabi)

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