CAE Crash and Safety Engineer

Crash Safety CAE Engineer

This is a contract position for a Crash Safety CAE Engineer in Auburn Hills, MI. The role involves developing design strategies to meet crash safety targets at the vehicle, system, and component levels, ensuring compliance with global safety regulations and consumer rating protocols.

Responsibilities:

• Lead vehicle design development using CAE, balancing all applicable global vehicle safety requirements.
• Build and maintain full vehicle and system level CAE models following best practices, ensuring high simulation fidelity and results accuracy.
• Perform CAE simulations for dynamic and quasi-static crash scenarios, including frontal, side, rear, pedestrian, occupant, and crash avoidance events.
• Improve structural performance and efficiency with minimized weight and cost (topology, joints, weld/adhesive, gauge, lightweight materials, etc.).
• Summarize simulation results in a clear and actionable format for development teams.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Program Management, and other engineering teams (Studio, Body, Trims, Electrical, Electronics, Manufacturing, etc.).

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline.
• 8+ years of experience in full-vehicle crash worthiness and multi-physics CAE simulations.
• Strong knowledge of global regulatory vehicle safety standards (AIS, ECE, FMVSS), consumer safety ratings (US-NCAP, Euro NCAP), and insurance ratings (IIHS, RCAR).
• Strong understanding of structural mechanics and energy management in crashes based on first-principles physics.
• Experience in developing crashworthy structures, occupant restraints, exterior and interior systems.
• Proven ability to correlate the CAE results to physical test data and calibrate virtual models to reflect real-world performance.
• Proficiency in LS-DYNA, ANSA, PRIMER, HYPERWORKS; familiarity with ADAS active safety simulations and AI/ML-based CAE tools is a plus.
• Experience working on multiple vehicle platforms, including Electric, Hybrid, and Autonomous Vehicles.