Senior Vehicle Integration Engineer - Field Support

About the role

The Senior Vehicle Integration Engineer will play a critical role in maintaining the reliability and functionality of Kodiak's autonomous systems deployed at customer sites. This position requires a strong blend of technical expertise, problem-solving skills, and customer service orientation.

Responsibilities

• Respond rapidly to field failures and technical support requests to maintain system uptime
• Travel frequently to customer and deployment sites to troubleshoot and resolve complex issues (min. 30% travel expected)
• Lead cross-functional root cause analysis (RCA) across electrical, mechanical, firmware, and software domains
• Drive corrective and preventive actions to eliminate repeat failures
• Support implementation of design changes through prototyping, validation testing, and integration at customer sites
• Sourcing and defining technical requirements for field-facing hardware and integration designs based on real-world failure data and operational needs
• Improving diagnostic strategies and tooling to detect and isolate failure modes more rapidly, and recommending reliability enhancements based on operational performance data
• Performing preventative, corrective, and predictive maintenance on autonomous platforms
• Providing direct design feedback to product and hardware engineering teams grounded in hands-on field experience
• Creating and reviewing documentation including schematics, drawings, build instructions, and troubleshooting guides

Requirements

• Strong bias toward action. You take ownership of ambiguous problems, move quickly to contain issues, and deliver results without waiting for perfect clarity.
• Hands on. You are just as comfortable with a wrench as a keyboard. Proven experience debugging and assembling complex hardware/software systems, ideally in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or similarly advanced systems.
• Systems thinker. Strong troubleshooting ability across electrical, mechanical, and software domains. Deep familiarity with automotive and embedded electronics, including communication protocols such as Ethernet, CAN, LIN, and 100BASE-T1.
• Design-minded. Track record of contributing to hardware or systems design reviews with practical, implementation-focused feedback. You translate field observations and failure trends into actionable design requirements.
• Comfort operating in Linux environments and using terminal-based diagnostic tools.
• Experience with scripting or programming languages such as Python, C++, C, Bash, or ROS.
• Ability to independently solve complex, novel technical problems with minimal guidance.
• Great communicator. Strong written and verbal skills across diverse audiences — you can explain a firmware bug to a customer and write a clear troubleshooting guide for the field team.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field
• Minimum 5 years of experience in vehicle integration, autonomous systems, or similar roles
• Proven track record of successfully resolving complex technical issues in a high-stakes environment
• Experience with autonomous vehicle technologies and/or embedded systems is highly desirable
• Experience with Linux and terminal-based diagnostic tools is essential
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

Skills

• Linux environment proficiency
• Scripting or programming languages (Python, C++, C, Bash, ROS)
• Communication and interpersonal skills
• Problem-solving and analytical skills

Benefits

• Competitive compensation package including equity and annual bonuses
• Excellent Medical, Dental, and Vision plans through Kaiser Permanente, Cigna, and MetLife (including a medical plan with infertility benefits)
• MetLife Legal Services, Identity & Fraud Protection, Hospital Indemnity Insurance, Accident Insurance, & Critical Illness Insurance
• Flexible PTO, 10 paid holidays, and generous parental leave policies
• Office perks: dog-friendly, free catered lunch, a fully stocked kitchen, and free EV charging
• Long Term Disability, Short Term Disability, Life Insurance
• Wellbeing Benefits - Headspace through Cigna, Calm through Kaiser, One Medical, Gympass, Spring Health through Cigna, Rula (mental health navigation)
• Fidelity 401(k)
• Various incentive programs (referral bonuses, patent bonuses, etc.)

Pay

California Pay Range: $180,000 - $210,000 USD