Senior Automotive Engineer

Auto Senior (L5 equivalent) 5-8 years

Other levels: Automotive Engineer Principal Automotive Engineer Lead Automotive Engineer Junior Automotive Engineer

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Tesla

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The job description

Tech stack. CATIA/NX, MATLAB/Simulink, program management tools, DFMEA/DVP&R systems, supplier technical management, cost modeling

About the role

You will join an automaker as a senior technical owner for a vehicle system or subsystem through a full program cycle. The team relies on you for the decisions that are hard to reverse: architecture choices, supplier selections, and requirement tradeoffs. This role matters because your judgment protects program timing and budget, your reviews prevent the defects that become recalls, and your mentorship builds the engineers who will own the next program. You will mentor junior engineers through their first full program cycles, teaching them to distinguish real risks from noise in test data and design reviews. Your technical judgment will be the backstop on gateway decisions, where you will be expected to dissent with data when a plan does not hold together. You will also drive standardization of methods across teams, turning hard-won lessons from past programs into checklists and templates the whole organization uses.

What you will achieve

Lead a subsystem (chassis, body, electrical, or thermal) from concept through Job 1, hitting all gateway deliverables on time with quality metrics in the top quartile
Cut late design changes by 40 percent through rigorous early-phase requirements, interface management, and design reviews
Own supplier technical relationships: SOW definition, design reviews, and issue escalation for 5 to 10 key suppliers
Drive cost and mass reduction roadmaps delivering 5 percent year-over-year improvement without quality regression
Mentor 3 to 4 engineers, growing their independence on complex cross-functional problems

What you will bring

Must-haves

5 to 8 years of automotive engineering experience with at least one full vehicle program from concept to launch
Expert-level command of your subsystem domain with working fluency across adjacent vehicle systems
Track record of leading technical workstreams: requirements, design reviews, validation, and launch support
Strong supplier management: technical negotiations, design reviews, and quality issue resolution
Deep familiarity with automotive development processes: gateways, APQP, PPAP, and change management
Ability to make data-driven tradeoff decisions under conflicting cost, timing, and performance pressures
Mentorship experience with clear examples of engineers you have developed

Nice-to-haves

Experience across both ICE and EV programs
Knowledge of program financials: piece cost, tooling, and warranty cost modeling
Exposure to global programs with multi-region engineering and manufacturing
Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent advanced quality training