Senior Automotive System Architect - ECU/HIL/Production - Contract

Sentinel; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Sentinel in London is seeking a Senior Automotive System Architect to own ECU/HIL/production architecture on a long-term contract. The role demands deep expertise in system architecture, validation, and production readiness.

You will take ownership of the System Under Test (SUT) architecture, collaborate across hardware, software, validation and manufacturing to ensure fully integrated, testable and production-ready systems.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of automotive engineering experience.
• Strong Systems Engineering/System Architecture background.
• Production ECU/system architectures experience.
• Experience across integration and validation.
• Strong understanding of SIL, HIL and EOL testing.
• Experience with ECU flashing, diagnostics and provisioning.
• Knowledge of CAN/CAN FD and Automotive Ethernet.
• Experience taking systems through development into production/SOP.
• Ability to act as a senior technical authority across multiple disciplines.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the SUT architecture across hardware, software and test environments.
• Translate product requirements into complete, consistent and testable system requirements.
• Define ECU architectures supporting integration, validation and production.
• Ensure systems provide observability, controllability, diagnosability and scalability.
• Work with validation teams across SIL, HIL and EOL environments.
• Define architecture and requirements for ECU flashing, provisioning, diagnostics and fault detection.
• Define interfaces between ECUs, vehicle networks, test systems and manufacturing systems.
• Support production readiness and ramp-up.
• Provide technical leadership across systems engineering, software, validation and industrialisation teams.

Skills

Automotive Systems Engineering

System Architecture

Production ECU Architectures

Integration & Validation

SIL/HIL/EOL testing

ECU flashing & provisioning

CAN / CAN FD / Automotive Ethernet

Leadership / technical authority

Tools

DOORS

Polarion

Job description

Senior Automotive System Architect - ECU/HIL/Production - Contract. Inside IR35/London/Onsite/Remote. A leading automotive organisation is looking for an experienced System Architect to join their engineering team on a long-term contract.

This is a senior technical position for an experienced automotive systems engineer with a strong background in ECU/System Architecture, validation and production environments.

You will take ownership of the System Under Test (SUT) architecture, working across hardware, software, validation and manufacturing to ensure systems are fully integrated, testable and production-ready.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the SUT architecture across hardware, software and test environments.
• Translate product requirements into complete, consistent and testable system requirements.
• Define ECU architectures supporting integration, validation and production.
• Ensure systems provide observability, controllability, diagnosability and scalability.
• Work closely with validation teams across SIL, HIL and EOL environments.
• Define architecture and requirements for ECU flashing, provisioning, diagnostics and fault detection.
• Define interfaces between ECUs, vehicle networks, test systems and manufacturing systems.
• Support production readiness and ramp-up.
• Provide technical leadership across systems engineering, software, validation and industrialisation teams.

Essential Experience

• 15+ years' automotive engineering experience.
• Strong Systems Engineering/System Architecture background.
• Proven experience with production ECU/system architectures.
• Experience across integration and validation.
• Strong understanding of SIL, HIL and EOL testing.
• Experience with ECU flashing, diagnostics and provisioning.
• Strong knowledge of automotive networks including CAN/CAN FD and Automotive Ethernet.
• Experience taking systems through development into production/SOP.
• Ability to operate as a senior technical authority across multiple engineering disciplines.

Desirable

• AUTOSAR
• UDS/ISO 14229
• ISO 26262/Functional Safety
• Automotive Ethernet/SOME/IP
• Production test/manufacturing systems
• DOORS, Polarion or similar requirements tools
• Distributed ECU architectures

The Opportunity

This is a highly technical contract position offering the opportunity to work on complex automotive systems from architecture and integration through to validation and production.

If you are an experienced Automotive System Architect/Lead Systems Engineer with substantial production ECU experience and are available for contract work, we'd like to hear from you.