Lead Engineer, Product Delivery

Woven by Toyota is enabling Toyota’s once-in-a-century transformation into a mobility company. Inspired by a legacy of innovating for the benefit of others, our mission is to challenge the current state of mobility through human-centric innovation — expanding what “mobility” means and how it serves society.

Our work centers on four pillars: AD/ADAS, our autonomous driving and advanced driver assist technologies; Arene, our software development platform for software-defined vehicles; Woven City, a test course for mobility; and Cloud & AI, the digital infrastructure powering our collaborative foundation. Business-critical functions empower these teams to execute, and together, we’re working toward one bold goal: a world with zero accidents and enhanced well-being for all.

Who are we looking for?

In this role, you will be responsible for the technical leadership of a distributed team of engineers to develop, mature, and release the software systems engineering artifacts for our next-generation driving stack. You will be responsible for the overall technical development and sign off of the software system requirements, software architecture, software FMEA, Functional Safety software technical requirements, traceability of those requirements, review and assessment of test methods (at all levels,) ensuring the highest quality software system, with continuously improving software and system performance. You will drive development through the team by establishing close working relationships and ensuring technical work meets a standard of excellence that you will define. This role is an individual contributor role, reporting to the Director of Product Delivery. You will lead the team through direct review as well as influence. You will play a significant role in the training and development of our engineering team, creating both formal and informal training opportunities to raise the bar for production quality systems within Woven by Toyota.

The Lead Engineer will also be a member of our Technical Guild, our foremost experts on Autonomous Driving and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. As a member of the guild, you will be responsible for aligning and collaborating on cross-functional technical direction to ensure proper tradeoffs are made in overall system design. You will ensure rapid-development artifacts have a path to production by ensuring development teams have the proper structure  (interfaces, boundary diagrams, etc.) to scale our system to additional vehicle lines and ODDs over time. You will work with experts in perception, planning, and machine learning to make appropriate technical tradeoffs and ensure the solution meets and timing of the business. 

The ideal candidate will have demonstrated experience in product development and launch of safety-critical systems in a technical role. Experience in automotive is a plus. Experience in taking AD/ADAS features from an advanced development stage to production is a *huge* bonus.

Responsibilities

• Indirectly lead a team of 30+ software engineers in a global organization. Coordinate, prioritize and mentor their skills to ensure they can deliver a world-class driving support solution in AD/ADAS applications. Anticipate possible outcomes based on your experience and steer the team toward scalable, robust technical solutions. 
• Work cross-functionally as a member of our Technical Guild to ensure the go-to-production mindset cuts across any organizational boundaries. Lead and orchestrate significant tradeoff discussions within the guild. Work to prioritize/raise visibility on and drive to closure significant issues that require dedicated “deep thought” in a high-demand environment. 
• Grow and mentor the team to raise their technical acumen. Develop a technical training plan on key artifacts/dimensions of production development (e.g., FMEA, SOTIF, etc.) to help 1) raise awareness across the organization (within the entire Line of Business) and 2) realize those artifacts with high quality, meeting our customer deliverables. 
• Play a key role in hiring/developing new talent as the business grows. Assess new talent and ensure they can help us achieve our goal of launching our AD/ADAS stack to production. Can show demonstrated experience in the hiring and development of team members, including entry-level to mid-career engineers and mid-career to more senior roles. 
• Apply best-in-class automotive engineering practices for quality (e.g., DFMEA, etc.) and to day-to-day operations. Leverage Toyota Safety & Quality standards and subject matter experts to ensure we design and implement quality from the start to avoid issues emerging later. Lead the team to anticipate possible failure modes and ensure the design and implementation is robust. Educate/develop the team by asking critical questions and ensuring engineering artifacts have been considered from all perspectives. 
• Ensure the team supports the release, triage, and root cause of issues. Ensure issues are driven to successful closure with proper interim containment and permanent corrective actions. Continuously kaizen the team’s processes to ensure we can maximize quality output. When needed, tackle the hardest technical problems directly to ensure robust delivery of our solution to our customers. 

Minimum Qualifications

• 15 years of automotive experience leading teams, developing technologies, and launching programs at an Automotive OEM, Tier1, or Tier2.
• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Controls/Robotics, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated professional experience in launching software systems to production, ideally in the AD/ADAS environment for the automotive industry. 
• Strong knowledge of build systems, CI/CD pipelines, and scalable infrastructure.
• Experience with data science workflows, including data processing, model deployment, and performance monitoring.
• Demonstrated technical leadership experience with teams of at least 20 or more members. 
• Willingness to travel to California and Japan (20%) 

Bonus Qualifications (nice to haves)

• Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Controls/Robotics, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated experience developing advanced technologies in the automotive industry and maturing them to production quality. Can point to multiple specific program/product launches across multiple carlines. Experience with multiple product releases would be the icing on the cake. 
• Demonstrated experience solving unstructured problems and maturing those solutions to production quality, specifically in the AD/ADAS domain. 

For positions based in Palo Alto, CA, the base pay for this position ranges from $189,000- $310,500 a year

Your base salary is one part of your total compensation. We offer a base salary, short-term and long-term incentives, and a comprehensive benefits package. The total compensation offered to an employee will be dependent upon the individual's skills, experience, qualifications, location, and level.

WHAT WE OFFER

We are committed to creating a modern work environment that supports our employees and their loved ones. We offer many options of the best programs to allow you to do your most meaningful work and to help you shape the future of mobility.

・Excellent health, wellness, dental and vision coverage

・A rewarding 401k program

・Flexible vacation policy

・Family planning and care benefits

Our Commitment

・We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity.

・Any information we receive from you will be used only in the hiring and onboarding process. Please see our privacy notice for more details.