Vehicle Integration Engineer - Field Support

Vacancy Details

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. is seeking a Vehicle Integration Engineer with a field support focus to ensure the reliability and functionality of their autonomous systems at customer sites.

About the Role

You will be responsible for maintaining system uptime, leading root cause investigations, and acting as a technical bridge between customers, field operations, and product engineering. Your work will involve resolving complex issues across various domains including hardware, software, firmware, and systems integration.

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 (minimum 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
• Sources and defines technical requirements for field-facing hardware and integration designs based on real-world failure data and operational needs
• Improves diagnostic strategies and tooling to detect and isolate failure modes more rapidly, and recommends reliability enhancements based on operational performance data
• Performs preventative, corrective, and predictive maintenance on autonomous platforms
• Provides direct design feedback to product and hardware engineering teams grounded in hands-on field experience
• Creates and reviews 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

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in vehicle integration, autonomous systems, or related fields.
• Proven experience in troubleshooting and resolving complex technical issues.
• Experience with automotive and embedded electronics, including communication protocols such as Ethernet, CAN, LIN, and 100BASE-T1.
• Strong understanding of Linux environments and terminal-based diagnostic tools.
• Experience with scripting or programming languages such as Python, C++, C, Bash, or ROS.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Passion for autonomous technology and a commitment to safety and reliability.

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: $140,000 - $170,000 USD

Schedule

Full-time position with flexible hours to accommodate field support needs.