Plant Vehicle Engineer

ABOUT SLATE

At Slate, we’re building safe, reliable vehicles that people can afford, personalize and love—and doing it here in the USA as part of our commitment to reindustrialization. The spirit of DIY and customization runs throughout every element of a Slate, because people should have control over how their trucks look, feel, and represent them.

Slate is looking for a hands-on Plant Vehicle Engineer, Seat Complete & Restraints to support vehicle assembly, launch readiness, production quality, and continuous improvement for seat complete assemblies and restraint components installed in the vehicle. The scope includes seat manufacturing interfaces, seat assemblies, seat belts, air bags, occupant detection / occupant classification sensors, fasteners, brackets, electrical interfaces, and vehicle integration. This role serves as the engineering link between the manufacturing plant, Design & Release Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Suppliers, Production, Safety, Vehicle Integration, Service, and other cross-functional teams.

The position focuses less on new component design and more on protecting product intent in the plant, resolving production issues, driving root cause analysis, and improving build quality in production. This role does not own production release of seat or restraint designs. It is responsible for identifying build and integration issues, supporting root cause analysis, protecting safety-critical requirements, and driving plant-side issue resolution in partnership with Design & Release Engineering and the broader manufacturing organization.

Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a permanent basis. We are unable to offer visa sponsorship at this time.

Vehicle Engineering Support

• Support the launch and ongoing production of Seat Complete and Restraints systems in a vehicle assembly plant environment.
• Serve as a technical point of contact for plant issues related to seat assemblies, seat belts, air bags, sensors fasteners, brackets, electrical connectors, and vehicle integration.
• Help ensure manufacturing processes maintain product design intent, regulatory expectations, safety-critical requirements, and quality standards.
• Maintain strong discipline around safety-critical characteristics, torque-to-spec requirements, traceability, escalation, containment, and no-build/no-ship decision support where appropriate.

Production Issue Resolution

• Investigate, diagnose, and resolve production issues related to seat assembly, seat installation, restraint installation, fit/function, craftsmanship, electrical connections, torque requirements, and component interfaces.
• Support issue resolution related to seat belt routing, buckle/latch fit, pretension er connections, airbag electrical interfaces, occupant detection / occupant classification concerns, SRS connector integrity, diagnostic faults, and restraint component installation quality.
• Lead or support root cause analysis, containment, corrective action development, and validation of permanent fixes.
• Analyze production data, audit findings, repair trends, supplier concerns, and plant feedback to identify risks, trends, and improvement opportunities.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Design & Release Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Production, Suppliers, Safety, Vehicle Integration, and Service teams to resolve plant and vehicle-level concerns.
• Communicate issue status, risks, corrective actions, containment plans, breakpoints, and support needs to affected teams and plant leadership.
• Provide plant feedback into product and process decisions to improve manufacturability, serviceability, quality, and production robustness.

Engineering Change & Launch Support

• Support engineering change implementation, including build trials, break point coordination, plant readiness, issue tracking, and communication to affected teams.
• Support launch build phases from prototype and pilot through production ramp, including issue tracking, triage, containment, break point management, and readiness reporting.
• Support launch activities,…