Technical Lead - ADAS Test Bench

NVIDIA is shaping the future of autonomous driving. Our Automotive Software team in Munich delivers cutting-edge autonomous driving solutions to leading global OEMs. As the primary Plan of Record (POR) owner, customer interface, and technical escalation authority for the autonomous driving program, you will lead the technical specification, commissioning, and operational scaling of our open-loop bench farm. Having built, flashed, and debugged automotive test benches hands-on in your past engineering roles, you will now mentor and guide a dedicated cross-functional engineering team—including Technical Operations, Program Management, and Hardware Engineering—in diagnosing complex electronics, hardware, and signal integrity issues. Your mission is to scale our open-loop bench farm, automate bench workflows, and pave the way for expansion to future OEM platforms. What you’ll be doing: Define Bench Architecture & POR: Establish and own the technical Plan of Record for open-loop bench architectures, defining component BOMs, wiring schematics, power delivery, and sensor interfaces to achieve vehicle-equivalence. Technical Mentorship & Escalation Leadership: Act as the top-level technical escalation point for on-ground Technical Operations engineers and technicians. Mentor the team in bringing up new benches, diagnosing component-level faults, and troubleshooting complex hardware issues. Electronics & Hardware Troubleshooting: Guide hands-on diagnostics across ECU power supplies (12V external supplies, ground busbars), custom wiring harnesses (40-pin harness connectors, DB9 interfaces), console headers (UART-to-USB dongles for Orin/Aurix), and Aurix JTAG Lauterbach flashing headers. Bus Communication & Sensor Integration: Troubleshoot and validate multi-sensor interfaces, including camera arrays, radar suites, Ultrasonic Sensor (USS) daisy chains, and Vector VN5620 CAN/CAN-FD replay interfaces. Automate Bench Workflows & CI/CD Pipelines: Drive end-to-end automation of bench operational tasks, such as automated SoC and microcontroller firmware flashing, software deployment, remote logging, and integration of CI/CD test automation pipelines directly onto the benches. Bench Farm Scaling & Capacity Planning: Lead the technical scaling of the Munich bench farm, standardizing bring-up checklists and qualification criteria so the architecture can scale to additional OEM programs. Customer & Management Technical Interface: Represent bench technical readiness, operational status, and capacity roadmaps in technical syncs with software development leads, project management, and OEM client technical stakeholders. What we need to see: Education & Experience: Master’s or Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related technical field, combined with 8+ years of hands-on experience in automotive test bench operations (Open Loop / HIL), embedded hardware bring-up, and technical team leadership. Hands-on Bench Engineering Background: Proven track record of personally building, wiring, flashing, and debugging automotive development benches from bare hardware to fully qualified setups. Automotive ECU & Architecture Expertise: Deep domain knowledge of high-performance automotive ECU platforms (e.g., NVIDIA Orin, Infineon Aurix, Oak), custom vehicle harnesses, power distribution, and ECU pinout schematics. Bus Protocols & Replay Hardware: Practical expertise in CAN, CAN-FD, Automotive Ethernet, gPTP time synchronization, and Vector diagnostic/replay interfaces (VN5620, CANoe/CANalyzer). Electronics Diagnostics & Tooling: Advanced capability using oscilloscopes, multimeters, logic analyzers, Lauterbach/JTAG debuggers, and ST Hub Debug units to isolate physical layer and signal integrity failures. Automation & Scripting Skills: Proficiency in Python, Linux shell scripting, and build pipeline tools to automate bench commissioning, ECU flashing, and software validation workflows. Leadership & Cross-Functional Communication: Excellent communication skills in English, with proven ability to mentor technical staff, manage customer interfaces, and coordinate across hardware, software, and program management. Ways to stand out from the crowd: Prior hands-on experience with NVIDIA DRIVE systems and reference setups. Proven experience scaling lab or bench operations from small prototype groups to large multi-bench farms supporting production OEM programs. Experience integrating multi-sensor replay setups (GMSL2 cameras, MateNet radars, USB/daisy-chained USS arrays) into automated software test pipelines. German language proficiency.