Vehicle Software Validation Operations Engineer

Overview

As a Product Development Engineer, the candidate will be a key contributor within a team responsible for managing and operating a fleet of test vehicles supporting vehicle software development and validation. This role focuses on vehicle operations, vehicle maintenance, software baselining, OTA and service software updates, scripting and tools development, and advanced root cause analysis across vehicle systems. You will own portions of the test-vehicle lifecycle, ensuring vehicles are properly configured, updated, maintained, and operational to support continuous software development, validation, and release activities.

The role requires close collaboration with technicians, software engineers, feature owners, and test teams to diagnose complex vehicle and software issues, improve operational efficiency, and enable high-quality software delivery.

• Manage and operate assigned test vehicles to support software development, validation, and release activities.
• Ensure vehicles are properly configured, updated, maintained, and operational; support continuous software development.
• Collaborate with technicians, software engineers, feature owners, and test teams to diagnose complex vehicle and software issues.
• Perform advanced root cause analysis across vehicle systems in support of fleet reliability and continuous improvement.
• Own portions of the test-vehicle lifecycle, including vehicle readiness, baselining, and configuration control.

• Scripting, Software Testing, Test Automation, Test Execution, Root Cause Analysis, Fleet Management
• Develop and maintain scripts (preferably Python; C++ or similar languages a plus) to support vehicle operations and efficiency.
• Leverage automation to improve operational efficiency by reading vehicle diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs) from logs, CAN data, or diagnostic APIs; classify issues and suggest remediation steps.
• Support efficient test execution by ensuring vehicles are prepared and available for testing teams; verify software baselines and coordinate vehicle availability to minimize test delays.
• Perform root cause analysis related to vehicle and fleet issues; analyze diagnostic data, logs, and usage history to identify software, hardware, or operational root causes; document findings and resolutions.
• Fleet management including sign-out/sign-in processes, maintenance coordination, and fleet policy compliance; track vehicle status, location, usage, and health.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Software Engineering, or related technical field.
• 3–5 years of experience in software engineering, automotive product development, vehicle software operations, test systems, or complex embedded/software environments.
• Demonstrated experience managing test vehicles and executing vehicle software updates.
• Hands-on experience with scripting, automation, and diagnostic tools.
• Proven ability to perform advanced root cause analysis and debug complex system issues.

• Python or similar scripting languages
• API interaction and data parsing
• Log analysis and telemetry interpretation
• Test automation frameworks
• Toolchain development for vehicle operations
• Technical writing and process documentation

• Bachelor's Degree

• Manage and operate assigned test vehicles, ensuring readiness for software validation and release activities.
• Coordinate vehicle usage, availability, sign-out/sign-in, and configuration control to support multiple engineering teams.
• Oversee preventive, corrective, and predictive maintenance of test vehicles, including hardware, ECUs, safety, power systems, and network components.
• Execute and manage vehicle software baselining activities, including flashing, configuration management, and version control across multiple ECUs.
• Perform OTA, service, manufacturing, and manual software updates on test vehicles.
• Verify software integrity, configuration correctness, and system behavior following updates.
• Support software release readiness by validating baseline stability and vehicle operability.
• Develop and maintain scripts and tools (e.g., Python, shell) to automate vehicle auditing, health checks, log collection, dashboards, and reporting.
• Enhance operational tooling to improve fleet utilization, reduce manual effort, and increase repeatability and reliability.
• Perform advanced root cause analysis on vehicles and analyze logs, traces, diagnostics, and telemetry to isolate failures related to software updates, configuration issues, or vehicle behavior.
• Document findings and ensure defects are properly prioritized and tracked in JIRA or equivalent systems.
• Work closely with product, software, validation, and operations teams to align vehicle readiness with program milestones and sprint objectives.
• Provide accurate effort estimates for vehicle operations, software updates, and tooling tasks during sprint planning.
• Contribute to technical documentation,…