Sr. Controls & Calibration 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. For more information on Blue Bird's complete product and service portfolio,  .

The Senior Controls & Calibration Engineer is responsible for developing, calibrating, validating, and optimizing vehicle control strategies that define the performance, drivability, efficiency, diagnostics, and operational behavior of next-generation commercial vehicle platforms. Working across multiple propulsion systems, this role develops production-ready control calibrations for propulsion, braking, thermal management, charging, power management, and vehicle operating modes while ensuring seamless integration with electrical architectures, software systems, and vehicle-level requirements.

The role partners closely with the Systems, Validation engineering teams and external engineering partners to ensure control strategies deliver robust real-world performance from prototype development through production launch.

This is a high-impact technical leadership role for someone who enjoys solving complex vehicle behavior challenges, thrives in ambiguity, and wants meaningful ownership over how an entire vehicle platform performs.

• Vehicle Controls Strategy:
  Develop and optimize vehicle control strategies supporting propulsion performance, drivability, energy management, thermal management, regenerative braking, diagnostics, and vehicle operating modes.
• Calibration Development:
  Develop, calibrate, and validate production-ready control datasets for diesel, hybrid, electric, and alternative propulsion systems.
• Drivability Optimization:
  Optimize vehicle launch performance, acceleration, torque delivery, shift quality, regenerative braking, idle behavior, thermal transitions, and overall vehicle refinement.
• Vehicle Testing & Validation:
  Plan and execute calibration development activities across proving grounds, chassis dynamo meters, manufacturing environments, prototype vehicles, and public road testing.
• Controls Integration:
  Work closely with electrical architecture, propulsion integration, validation, and systems engineering teams to integrate ECUs, sensors, actuators, communication networks, and software controls.
• Data Acquisition & Analysis:
  Utilize advanced data acquisition and calibration tools to diagnose control system behavior, identify performance opportunities, and resolve complex software and vehicle integration issues.
• Supplier & External Engineering Leadership:
  Provide technical direction to suppliers and external engineering partners supporting controls software, calibration development, ECU integration, and validation activities while maintaining ownership of final calibration quality and vehicle performance.
• Software Release Management:
  Manage calibration revisions, software releases, configuration control, and production-ready datasets supporting prototype, validation, manufacturing, and production programs.
• Compliance & Functional Performance:
  Ensure vehicle control strategies meet emissions, safety, diagnostics, cybersecurity, and applicable commercial vehicle regulatory requirements.
• Launch & Production Support:
  Sup…