Exterior Lighting Design & Release Engineer

Location: Foster City, CA

We're seeking an experienced Exterior Lighting Design & Release Engineer to lead the design and development of advanced automotive lighting systems from concept through production. In this role, you'll collaborate closely with design, manufacturing, suppliers, and cross-functional engineering teams to transform creative styling concepts into high-quality, production-ready lighting solutions that meet performance, regulatory, cost, and timing objectives. The ideal candidate brings a strong background in automotive lamp development, expertise in optical and mechanical design, and a passion for solving complex engineering challenges while driving innovative products into production.

Responsibilities
• Design and develop exterior lighting solutions for various vehicles, translating aesthetic styling visions into feasible, production-ready designs from concept through production, ensuring performance, timing, and commercial requirements are achieved.
• Collaborate and communicate technical concepts and requirements effectively with Studio Designers, Suppliers, Manufacturing, and other cross-functional teams to achieve design themes, attribute targets, and resolve complex engineering issues.
• Leverage expertise in plastics, injection molding, optical design, GD&T principles, tolerance stack-up analysis, and electronics to solve complex technical problems and evaluate design trade-offs using first-principles reasoning and root-cause analysis, ensuring all parts and assemblies are optimized for high-volume manufacturing.
• Conduct high level root-cause analysis for any lighting system faults. Investigate system-level failures, often involving reviewing communication logs (CAN traces), module diagnostics, and correlating them with the functional model to find the source of the issue.
• Understand lighting system architecture
• Lead the development and creations of DFMEAs ensuring that dependencies are effectively cascaded to relevant cross-functional partners.
• Support product validation plans, validation activities and sign off results.
• Manage Tier 1 supplier relationships including RFQ documentation, technical design reviews, and the integration of supplier feedback.
• Manage engineering change management, maintain accurate Bill of Materials (BOM) using Enovia, and generate and manage 3D and 2D data with Catia V6.
• Align engineering deliverables with commercial program requirements including appearance, cost, weight, durability, legal requirements, and program timing objectives.

Qualifications
• Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering (Or related discipline, Masters degree preferred)
• 5+ years (preferred) of Exterior/interior Lamp development at a Tier 1 or OEM
• Experience in Lighting systems Engineering: communication logs (CAN traces).
• Capable of managing the full part lifecycle, including design, engineering validation, and release to production systems.
• Proficient in CATIA V5/V6, utilizing key modules like Part Design and Geometric Surface Design to generate 3D geometry, sectional data, and communicate technically sound design solutions.
• Strong understanding of engineering first principles and the ability to apply them to identify, analyze, and resolve technical challenges.
• Demonstrated ability to manage information, prioritize tasks, and communicate project status with clarity.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to clearly and concisely communicate with both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong working knowledge of FMVSS, ECE, NCAP and other automotive evaluation and regulatory achievement
• Ability to self-direct while managing ambiguity.
• Curiosity and high learning agility.

Salary Range
• $115,000-130,000
• The actual salary offered is dependent on various factors including, but not limited to, location, the candidate’s combination of job-related knowledge, qualifications, skills, education, training, and experience