Senior Seating and Restraints Architecture Engineer

About the role

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the world's most trusted driver. Since its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has focused on building the Waymo Driver—The World's Most Experienced Driver™—to improve access to mobility while saving thousands of lives now lost to traffic crashes. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo’s fully autonomous ride-hail service and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over ten million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving over 100 million miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 15+ U.S. states.

Hardware Engineering is a diverse, innovative, and collaborative group of electrical, mechanical, reliability, software, and vehicle engineers. We design, build, and perfect the products which are the eyes and ears of Waymo's autonomous driving technology, and integrate those products into vehicle platforms. This role is to take us further into the future of custom vehicle development for optimized customer experiences. This role follows a hybrid work schedule, and you will report to a Director, Concepts and Pre Program Development.

Responsibilities

• Work with suppliers and partner OEMs along with Waymo’s Product and ID teams to lead the concept and architecture development of unique seating systems which are optimized for ride-hailing vehicles.
• Set comfort targets and work on novel seat comfort concepts which are optimized for ride-hailing vehicles to achieve these targets.
• Benchmark competitor vehicles to validate these targets and ensure that when it comes to occupant accommodation, ergonomics, and comfort, Waymo vehicles are class-leading.
• Support the optimization of ingress/egress for a highly diverse demographic across novel cabin topologies.
• Lead the concept development of restraint systems to allow unique cabin configurations.
• Support the development and execution of user clinics designed to optimize seat and restraint comfort for the purposes of ride-hailing.

Requirements

• 7+ years of related experience in the field of automotive seating and restraints concept development and execution.
• Proven experience with seating comfort assessment and hands-on experience with both subjective as well as quantitative methods of evaluations.
• Understanding of FMVSS, ECE, NCAP, IIHS regulation and test protocols to use as inputs in the creation of restraints concepts.
• Experience with RAMSIS, CAVA, and Catia CAD tools to create, integrate, and maintain 2D/3D seat concept layout and input into the Design Studio and CAE Analysis teams.
• Proven ability to create and negotiate targets and requirements with OEMs and partner companies/suppliers.
• Ability to work in an ambiguous world and find a path forward to resolve seemingly conflicting requirements.

Qualifications

We Prefer

• Minimum Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering; Master's is preferred.
• Experience in the future mobility sector, e.g., outside of the traditional OEM/personal car ownership model.
• Experience at more than one OEM, to give a broader perspective of Product Development methodologies.
• Experience in occupant package and vehicle layout specific to electric vehicles.
• An interest in the Autonomous Vehicle sector and how it is shaping future mobility.

Travel Requirements

• Global travel required for on-site OEM engagements (10%).
• Occasional travel to other Waymo locations, suppliers, and service providers on an as-needed basis (10%).

Pay

The expected base salary range for this full-time position across US locations is $196,000—$242,000 USD. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors, including exact work location, experience, relevant training and education, and skill level. Waymo employees are also eligible to participate in Waymo’s discretionary annual bonus program, equity incentive plan, and generous Company benefits program, subject to eligibility requirements.