Validation Engineer, Electrical

Validation Engineer

Blue Bird (NASDAQ: BLBD) is recognized as a technology leader and innovator of school buses since its founding in 1927. Our dedicated team members design, engineer and manufacture school buses with a singular focus on safety, reliability, and durability. School buses carry the most precious cargo in the world – 25 million children twice a day – making them the most trusted mode of student transportation.

The company is the proven leader in low- and zero-emission school buses with more than 25,000 propane, natural gas, and electric powered buses sold. Blue Bird is transforming the student transportation industry through cleaner energy solutions.

Job Summary:

Seeking a Validation Engineer with a background in Electrical Engineering to lead the evaluation of our sub-systems and full vehicle platforms. The ideal candidate will be well versed in supporting diverse validation needs (including thermal, aero, mechanical, and software), they should also be competent in the use of simulation and associated correlation activities. This role will directly complement our existing team strengths in mechanical and software validation.

In this position, you will act as a catalyst for innovation. You will identify opportunities to modernize our methodologies, upgrade our testing facilities, and develop persuasive business cases justifying the acquisition of cutting-edge equipment to help us achieve our goal of becoming an industry-leading validation team.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Own, supplement, and execute testing prescribed within each system DVP&R in collaboration with design counterparts, strictly adhering to program phase deadlines
• Perform and manage development, validation, and regulatory compliance testing utilizing internal assets or external laboratories to support product development goals
• Validate powertrain systems with a focus on EV battery integration, thermal management, and power distribution
• Instrument mock-ups, sub-systems, and full vehicles with data acquisition equipment to collect mechanical, electrical, aerodynamic, and thermal data
• Post-process raw test data to provide actionable design recommendations and root-cause solutions documenting findings within a comprehensive report
• Actively participate in simulation activities, ensuring that test and analysis boundary conditions are aligned to improve correlation
• Relentlessly pursuing optimization in methodologies, technologies, and workflows, and product to improve safety, quality, reliability, cost, and timing

Knowledge,

Skills and Abilities

for Success:

• Knowledge of automotive high and low voltage architectures, power distribution, circuit analysis and associated troubleshooting methodologies
• Experience creating, supplementing, and executing DVP&Rs inclusive of compliance of state, federal, and Canadian compliance requirements
• Skilled in the setup, calibration, and use of data acquisition (DAQ) systems to collect mechanical, thermal, fluid, and electrical data.
• Seasoned user of commercial CAE tools, methods, and uses relating to correlation, optimization, root cause techniques, and countermeasure development
• Ability to make sense of, translate and transform raw data empowering and justifying actions that clarify, simplify, and improve,
• History of passion seeking to improve processes, performance, and customer excitement and company competitiveness

Basic

Education and Experience

Required:

• Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from an accredited university.
• 3+ years of engineering experience in a transportation field
• Excel in written and oral communication with the ability to distill complex technical data into inspiring design recommendations, actively fostering team morale, stakeholder buy-in, and a shared sense of optimism.
• Proficiency in engineering software/tools (e.g., nCode Glyph Works, Microsoft Office, AutoCAD, MATLAB, AUTOSAR, Solid Works, and Python scripting)
• All candidates must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States and will be required to provide proof of employment eligibility at the time of hire.

Preferred Experience:

• Familiarity with…