Manager, Vehicle Controls

About the role

The Manager, Vehicle Controls at Arc will lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing team of Vehicle Controls Engineers. They will own the execution, deployment, and process improvements of our vehicle controls systems. Reporting to the Director of Software Engineering, they will work closely with a lean, high-trust team.

Responsibilities

• Leading, mentoring, and growing a high-performing vehicle controls engineering team, providing technical guidance and career development support.
• Owning the vehicle-level control architecture from prototype through production, ensuring design quality, safety, and reliability across all real-time systems.
• Providing hands-on technical leadership when needed, guiding bring-up, debugging, validation, and problem-solving across powertrain, BMS, propulsion, and maneuvering systems.
• Driving the development and validation of control strategies and fault detection/mitigation logic for safety-critical systems.
• Overseeing structured root cause investigations using data, instrumentation, and experimentation — and ensure learnings are systematically incorporated into the product.
• Own and continuously improving the team’s validation strategy, including bench testing, HIL infrastructure, and production-level verification.
• Partnering with electrical, firmware, and mechanical teams to lead cross-domain integration and resolve complex system-level issues.
• Collaborating with service and manufacturing teams to proactively triage controls faults, define service actions, and ensure high uptime across the fleet.
• Providing executive-level updates on team progress, technical risks, and mitigation strategies.
• Contributing to roadmap planning for future vehicle programs, identifying technical risks, staffing needs, and opportunities for innovation in vehicle intelligence and autonomy.
• Fostering a culture of innovation, accountability, and cross-functional collaboration.

Requirements

• 5+ years of hands-on experience in embedded systems, controls, or vehicle electrical integration, with a strong ability to guide and support engineers in troubleshooting and development.
• 2+ years of proven experience leading and managing engineering teams, including mentorship, performance management, and hiring.
• Deep familiarity with CAN-based architectures and network-level debugging tools.
• Demonstrated experience shipping complex hardware-integrated, real-time systems into production.
• Strong intuition for system-level tradeoffs under real-world constraints.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills with a proven ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience with EV or marine electrical and controls architectures.
• Proficiency in C/C++, Rust, Python, or similar languages for embedded or automation development.
• Experience with model-based design or control algorithm development (e.g., MATLAB/Simulink).
• Familiarity with DFMEA, functional safety, or reliability engineering practices.
• Experience building automated validation or HIL infrastructure.
• Comfort working directly with oscilloscopes, data loggers, and ECU flashing tools.
• 3+ years of experience managing technical teams in a manufacturing or production setting.
• Enthusiasm for boating and the water.

What We Offer

• Base salary: $215,000 annually
• Highly competitive equity grants
• Semi-annual bonuses tied to your impact
• Top-tier benefits for full-time employees, including healthcare, parental leave, time off, income protection, retirement savings, office perks, and relocation assistance

Our Values

• Ownership over both your work and the company’s success
• Empathy for colleagues and for customers
• Humility in problem solving and collaboration
• Pragmatism for navigating ambiguity quickly and sensibly