Senior Component Engineer, AD Sensors - IMU & Acoustics

About the role

Our Vehicle Platform Component team is seeking a highly motivated Senior Sensing Component Engineer to take end-to-end technical ownership of our motion-sensing and acoustic hardware modules. In this role, you will lead the development, validation, and production readiness of high-precision IMUs and advanced microphone arrays, ensuring they meet rigorous performance, cost, and launch timelines. Additionally, you will play a critical cross-functional role in our perception hardware suite—supporting component-level functional testing across LiDAR, Radar, and Camera systems to guarantee complete sensor suite reliability.

Responsibilities

• Develop and manage component-level technical requirements throughout the program development lifecycle.
• Lead technical collaboration with component suppliers, serving as the internal technical expert for the component.
• Ensure all components comply with specifications for performance KPIs, safety, and reliability.
• Guarantee that components adhere to relevant industry standards and regulatory requirements.
• Collaborate with Design Release Engineers to ensure components meet the overall product's program targets and goals.
• Collaborate with Systems Engineers to confirm that component requirements satisfy system needs and that selected components integrate seamlessly into the overall system architecture.
• Responsible for validating component functionality through hands-on testing conducted at both the bench and vehicle levels.
• Lead issue resolution with suppliers and internal cross-functional teams in a timely and effective manner.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in automotive component design, development and integration.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Technology, or a related field.
• Demonstrated knowledge of sensor physics and hardware, including LiDAR, Radar, Cameras, IMUs, or Microphones.
• Experience with automotive sensor design, development, and integration.
• Understanding of high-speed data acquisition and signal processing.
• Experience with automotive communication protocols including CAN, CAN-FD, Ethernet, GMSL, and FPD-Link.
• Experience with hardware-level time-synchronization (PTP/IEEE 802.1AS, PPS) across multi-modal sensor setups (IMU, LiDAR, Radar, Camera).
• Proficiency in Linux, including the ability to develop scripts (e.g., Python, C++) for testing, validation, and interaction with sensor hardware.
• Familiarity with automotive high-performance compute architectures (e.g., NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin / Thor).
• Experience with lab equipment, including power supplies, oscilloscopes, multimeters, and function generators.
• Proficiency in automotive diagnostic tools, including Vector tools (CANoe, CANape, vFlash).
• Experience with automotive environmental, EMI, and shock/vibration testing.
• Experience in root-cause analysis, with a focus on utilizing AV / ADAS vehicle logs to pinpoint sensor performance issues.
• Familiarity with automotive components validation documentation and procedures, such as DVP&R, DFMEA and PFMEA.
• Experience with requirement compliance, issue-tracking and task management software platforms such as JIRA, Polarion, Confluence, etc.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating with an automotive Tier-1 supplier on the technical development of electronic components.
• Understanding of vehicle integration, packaging, and functional safety standards (ISO 26262).

Bonus Points

• Prior experience in automotive vision sensor hardware and software integration or ADAS technologies.
• Prior experience in an autonomous vehicle or robotics company.

Schedule

This role is based in our Pittsburgh office and requires in-office days each week.

Pay

The salary range for this role is $125,000—$167,000 USD. The estimated compensation range reflects base salary only. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity.

Benefits

Motional’s benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401k with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more.