Automotive Engineer

About the role:

The automotive engineer (AE) is a system engineer on the VDP team with a deep automotive background. The AE is crucial in expanding diagnostic coverage to ensure we get accurate, quality data, across the fleet of 10,000+ MMYs (Make Model Years) dealing with various diagnostic protocols, standards, and OEM-specific proprietary information.

We primarily work and collaborate closely with product managers, customer support teams, other firmware teams, and full-stack engineers to expand diagnostic coverage. Features are focused on ensuring maximum vehicle data coverage across a large fleet of vehicle types and providing availability and quality as a top priority.

You should apply if:

• You want to impact the industries that run our world: The software, firmware, and hardware you build will result in real-world impact—helping to keep the lights on, get food into grocery stores, and most importantly, ensure workers return home safely.
• You want to build for scale: With over 2.3 million IoT devices deployed to our global customers, you will work on a range of new and mature technologies driving scalable innovation for customers across industries driving the world's physical operations.
• You are a life-long learner: We have ambitious goals. Every Samsarian has a growth mindset as we work with a wide range of technologies, challenges, and customers that push us to learn on the go.
• You believe customers are more than a number: Samsara engineers enjoy a rare closeness to the end user and you will have the opportunity to participate in customer interviews, collaborate with customer success and product managers, and use metrics to ensure our work is translating into better customer outcomes.
• You are a team player: Working on our Samsara Engineering teams requires a mix of independent effort and collaboration. Motivated by our mission, we’re all racing toward our connected operations vision, and we intend to win—together.

In this role, you will: 

• Expand diagnostic coverage across the fleet of MMYs by working directly on the vehicle and with related engineering tools.
• Become the subject matter expert (SME) on current and future automotive standards (OEM specific, SAE, ISO, etc) along with in-depth knowledge of Samsara’s ecosystem.
• Collaborate with firmware engineers to drive firmware design that meets automotive standards and customer expectations.
• Cross-functional consultation and collaboration with Product Managers, Product Support, Customer Success, and Sales managers, on related automotive issues and new features.
• Understand vehicle architecture to expand diagnostic coverage and stay abreast of future trends in the automotive industry.
• Create system test plans and automate them, perform field validation, and build out vehicle simulations and test scenarios using industry-standard CAN automotive tools (e.g. Vector, Intrepid).  
• Root cause analysis directly remotely, at customer locations, or on vehicles in the Samsara research garage.
• Champion, role model, and embed Samsara’s cultural principles (Focus on Customer Success, Build for the Long Term, Adopt a Growth Mindset, Be Inclusive, Win as a Team) as we scale globally and across new offices.

Minimum requirements for the role:

• Has professional experience working in the automotive industry.
• Strong knowledge of vehicle systems and CAN communication.
• Proficient in CAN data loggers or related data acquisition systems.
• Proficient in CAN analysis SW (Vector CANalyzer, Intrepid Vehicle Spy).
• Technical familiarity with automotive communication protocols (J1939, J1979, OBDII, J1708, etc) and vehicle onboard diagnostics systems from multiple OEMs across heavy trucking and passenger vehicles.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Creative in identifying solutions for complex or ambiguous issues with limited direction.
• Self-starter mentality (learn by doing).
• Able to work with people from different time zones.
• Willingness and availability to travel.

An ideal candidate also has:

• Experience with writing test scripts via python or another scripting language.
• Data analysis using SQL and a visualization tool such as Looker, Databricks, Tableau.
• Automotive OEM/Supplier or Telematics provider experience.
• Basic knowledge of CAN-utils (Linux CAN).
• Familiarity with GIT or related software development program.