Staff Engineer, Hardware Design, System Integration & Test Automation

We are CARIAD, an automotive software development team with the Volkswagen Group. Our mission is to make the automotive experience safer, more sustainable, more comfortable, more digital, and more fun. To achieve that we are building the leading tech stack for the automotive industry and creating a unified software platform for over 10 million new vehicles per year. We’re looking for talented, digital minds like you to help us create code that moves the world. Together with you, we’ll build outstanding digital experiences and products for all Volkswagen Group brands that will transform mobility. Join us as we shape the future of the car and everyone around it.

​Role Summary:

The Staff Engineer, Hardware Design, System Integration & Test Automation is a hands-on staff-level individual contributor who connects detailed embedded hardware design with system-level integration and validation. The ideal candidate is an accomplished design engineer who wants to broaden their ownership from board or ECU design into complete system behavior, interfaces, bring-up, and verification

This engineer applies a systematic view across hardware, software, power, networks, mechanics, diagnostics, manufacturing, and validation to translate design intent and requirements into robust integration strategies, HIL and bench architectures, interface documentation, and repeatable test evidence.

The role leads complex board, ECU, and system bring-up; resolves cross-domain issues; improves design-for-integration and design-for-test practices; and guides scalable automation for CARIAD hardware platforms, including AI-enabled workflows where they provide safe, traceable engineering value.

Role Responsibilities:

Hardware Design-to-System Integration & Bring-Up

• Lead the transition from board and ECU design intent into successful system integration, ensuring requirements, interfaces, dependencies, operating states, and verification needs are understood before bring-up.
• Review schematics, component choices, PCB implementation, power architecture, clocks, reset, interfaces, design margins, and design-for-test provisions to identify integration risks and improve system readiness.
• Lead complex board, ECU, and system bring-up across prototypes and revisions, including power, reset, clock, boot, flashing, communications, peripheral interfaces, diagnostics, and cross-domain issue isolation.
• Build systematic integration plans with clear sequencing, entry/exit criteria, instrumentation, configuration baselines, expected behavior, evidence, decision records, owners, and closure criteria.
• Debug hardware/software/system issues using schematics, requirements, ICDs, harness drawings, logs, instruments, controlled experiments, and root-cause methods while mentoring engineers in disciplined investigation.

System Architecture, Interfaces & Test Infrastructure

• Maintain a system-level view across hardware, software, networks, power states, diagnostics, mechanics, manufacturing, and validation; identify interface gaps and integration risks early.
• Own and approve Interface Control Documents, harness drawings, pinouts, connector definitions, cable assemblies, and lab wiring documentation required for system integration and HIL execution.
• Translate requirements, design documentation, schematics, supplier deliverables, and failure modes into integration coverage, HIL strategy, test procedures, fixtures, automation needs, and validation evidence expectations.
• Define scalable bench architectures, configuration baselines, readiness checklists, and technical standards for integration benches, HIL benches, breakout/load boxes, fixtures, harnesses, and lab stations.
• Support DV/PV, EMC/ENV, manufacturing, and end-of-line readiness by ensuring test infrastructure can reproduce failures, validate design changes and corrective actions, and scale across program needs.

Systematic Validation, Automation & AI-Enabled Lab Capability

• Define repeatable validation methods that connect requirements and design intent to test conditions, measurements, pass/fail criteria, traceable evidence, and technical closure.
• Guide reusable Python automation and tool interfaces for equipment control, bench state, test orchestration, data capture, artifact retrieval, failure triage, and report generation.
• Develop scalable workflows for setup verification, automated execution, log capture, failure clustering, evidence packaging, and regression testing across hardware revisions and system configurations.
• Partner with software, automation, IT, systems, and validation te