Principal Process Architect, Automotive Software

What you'll do

• Lead the canonical DriveOS process architecture, terminology, roles, and interfaces across all engineering and quality functions.
• Develop and govern a risk-based tailoring framework to define variant applicability, decision rights, and acceptance criteria.
• Establish process maturity, release-readiness, and quality-gate criteria to surface risks early in the development lifecycle.
• Translate industry standards into clear, verifiable workflows, templates, and guidance for development teams.
• Align plans, evidence, dependencies, and handoffs across product variants with domain leads and program managers.
• Convert recurring defects and assessment observations into durable improvements for common processes and measurements.
• Drive process automation and AI-assisted workflows to reduce rework and cycle time while preserving governance.
• Serve as an independent technical authority to identify process gaps and provide recovery plans with clear product impact.

What we're looking for

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in engineering, computer science, systems engineering, quality, or a related field.
• 15+ years of experience in automotive or other safety-critical product development, including process architecture, engineering quality, systems engineering, or technical program leadership.
• Deep understanding of Automotive SPICE and how process capability translates into engineering behavior and assessable evidence.
• Strong understanding of the software and systems development lifecycle, including requirements, architecture, implementation, verification, validation, configuration, change, and release management.
• Hands-on experience with automotive functional safety, cybersecurity, and AI/ML safety requirements, including ISO 26262, ISO/SAE 21434, and ISO 8800.
• Proven track record of building risk-based tailoring, establishing quality gates, and balancing compliance with program realities in multi-variant environments.
• Excellent written communication, facilitation, and influence skills to make process requirements actionable for engineers and decision-ready for senior leaders.
• Experience using data, workflow tooling, and AI-assisted capabilities to improve engineering processes without weakening accountability or traceability.
• Proven success implementing or modernizing an automotive quality-management system or development process across multiple teams or product variants (preferred).
• Experience with hardware engineering process models, including HW SPICE, or with the interaction of system, software, and hardware engineering (preferred).
• Participation in relevant standards bodies or working groups, such as intacs, VDA QMC, ISO TC22/SC32, or comparable industry forums (preferred).
• Experience building process tooling, traceability models, measurements, or controlled AI-assisted workflows for safety- or security-critical development (preferred).
• Credentials or demonstrated proficiency in Automotive SPICE, functional safety, cybersecurity, or AI/ML safety (preferred).