Staff Systems Engineer – Release Strategy & Validation

About the Company

At Torc, we have always believed that autonomous vehicle technology will transform how we travel, move freight, and do business. A leader in autonomous driving since 2007, Torc has spent over a decade commercializing our solutions with experienced partners. Now a part of the Daimler family, we are focused solely on developing software for automated trucks to transform how the world moves freight. Join us and catapult your career with the company that helped pioneer autonomous technology, and the first AV software company with the vision to partner directly with a truck manufacturer.

Torc is building scalable Level 4 autonomous truck software. This role defines how we verify, validate, and release it safely. The Release group plays a critical role in Torc’s product engineering and release lifecycle, ensuring safe and successful product delivery by working collaboratively across engineering divisions to sponsor and drive the release ecosystem. We deliver a structured release process and skillsets to achieve product acceptance, drive performance indicators, and enable efficient delivery of product releases. We lead system verification and validation using industry standards and quality monitoring of build deliverables to achieve a robust, reliable, performant, and safe product release.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic expertise in verification, validation, and release by incorporating industry best practices such as ISO 26262 (Automotive Functional Safety), ISO 21448 (Safety of the Intended Functionality), and ISO/PAS 8800 (Road vehicles — Safety and artificial intelligence).
• Perform thought leadership, cross-function collaboration, and drive improvements for release management processes to meet production goals.
• Provide leadership, direction, and definition for the verification and validation lifecycle, including strategic approaches for a comprehensive and defensible V&V test plan.
• Create a state-of-the-art verification and validation strategy covering multiple test levels and environments (component, subsystem, system testing on Hardware-in-loop (HIL), simulation for behavior and perception, and vehicle-level closed-course and public road work).
• Define and review strategies for product release and associated risks with mitigations.
• Verify and review test results and tool qualification activities that support the V&V claim evidence across multiple test levels and environments.
• Report and communicate critical gaps on traceability, defensibility, and completeness to leadership.
• Provide direction and guidance to teams on safety test methods such as test derivation, coverage calculations, sampling strategies, edge case scenarios, and FMEA.
• Lead cross-functional collaboration with PMO (Program Management Office), Engineering, and other stakeholders within and between ARTs (Agile Release Trains) to ensure strategic and execution alignment.
• Identify opportunities for efficiency improvements and quality enhancements in Torc’s product development lifecycle.
• Provide insight and guidance for machine-learned software, emphasizing training data validation and model testing as part of a larger system.

Requirements

• Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, or equivalent with 7+ years of relevant experience OR Bachelor’s Degree in the same fields with 10+ years of relevant experience.
• 2+ years of progressive technical systems or software development experience, including 2+ years as an individual technical contributor.
• 2+ years of experience leading engineers in delivering safety-critical software solutions, including complex algorithm development and data models, with emphasis on best practices in coding standards, testing, and systems integration.
• 2+ years of experience launching safety-critical commercial products.
• Experience with complex embedded systems, including ADAS technologies (autonomous driving software architecture, sensors, networking, compute hardware, control systems).
• Experience with software release tools (build systems, software versioning systems, defect management systems, source control).
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, attention to detail, and ability to learn in unstructured environments.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, fostering a positive work environment.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with evolving software/hardware infrastructure.
• Experience delivering production systems from early prototype phases through product launch and in-field maintenance.
• Experience in software development, operating systems, development languages, and deployment of software products, or systems engineering including networking, database management, virtual environments, system design, integration, and maintenance.
• Exhibit strong servant leadership characteristics, supporting the career growth of others, and demonstrating facilitation, technical team coaching, and critical systems thinking.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience testing autonomous vehicles, ROS-based robotics systems, or ADAS features.
• Experience with machine learning software test practices.
• Configuration management of safety-critical systems, understanding of systems engineering, verification, and validation methodologies.
• Project management experience.

Work Location

This position is open to hiring in Ann Arbor, MI (U.S.) in a hybrid capacity. We are also open to hiring remotely within the United States.

Benefits

• A competitive compensation package that includes a bonus component and stock options.
• 100% paid medical, dental, and vision premiums for full-time employees.
• 401K plan with a 6% employer match.
• Flexibility in schedule and generous paid vacation (available immediately after start date).
• Company-wide holiday office closures.
• AD&D and Life Insurance.

Pay

Torc’s total compensation package reflects the cost of labor across several geographic markets. Pay is based on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The hiring range for this position is $168,800—$202,600 USD. The total compensation package also includes a corporate bonus and stock option plan. Dependent on the position offered, sign-on payments, relocation, and other forms of compensation may be provided.