Engineering Technical Lead – Engineering Triage

ALSO; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) match

One Medical membership

Progyny fertility benefits

Flexible time off

Job summary

ALSO is seeking an Engineering Technical Lead – Engineering Triage to lead triage processes across embedded firmware, mobile apps, cloud services, and connected systems. You will own issue intake, prioritization, investigation, and cross-functional coordination to ensure rapid resolution and high product quality.

You will guide cross-disciplinary teams, drive RCA efforts, and build observability dashboards while mentoring engineers and shaping incident management practices in a fast-moving

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or related field.
• 8+ years in embedded software, mobile apps, cloud services, and engineering operations.
• Automotive experience and debugging with CAN tools and DBCs is a plus.
• Proven track record leading cross-functional engineering investigations.
• Strong understanding of embedded/ distributed architectures, MCUs/RTOS/Linux, OTA updates.
• Experience with Bluetooth/Wi‑Fi/Cellular/GNSS/MQTT/REST in connected products.
• Knowledge of cloud-native architectures, backend services, telemetry, and observability.
• Experience with Jira/Confluence/GitHub/GitLab or equivalents for lifecycle management.
• Excellent debugging, log analysis, and interpretation of traces across layers.
• Familiarity with JTAG/I2C/SPI hardware interfaces and test equipment.
• Programming/scripting to automate workflows and tooling in C/C++/Python.
• Experience with CI/CD, release readiness, and operational excellence in fast-paced environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead Engineering Triage, define processes, workflows, and tooling.
• Own intake, prioritization, investigation, and assignment of issues from multiple sources.
• Drive cross-functional root-cause analysis across firmware, mobile, cloud, APIs, and hardware.
• Partner with multiple teams to ensure timely resolution and quality.
• Lead periodic triage reviews, coordinate investigations, remove blockers, drive closure.
• Develop dashboards and metrics for aging, defect trends, release quality, and throughput.
• Improve observability with logging, diagnostics, telemetry, and remote debugging.
• Define severity classifications, escalation paths, and SLAs for issue management.
• Collaborate with Release Management on readiness and go/no-go decisions.
• Develop tooling to enhance issue tracking, log collection, and diagnostics.
• Drive continuous improvements by identifying recurring failures and actions.
• Mentor engineers in debugging, cross-functional problem-solving, and incident handling.
• Communicate risks, impact, status, and mitigation plans to leadership.

Skills

Embedded software

Mobile applications

Cloud services

Cross-functional leadership

Root cause analysis

Debugging & diagnostics

Scripting/automation

CI/CD & release management

Incidents & triage leadership

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

Jira

Confluence

GitHub

GitLab

Job description

About ALSO.

We’re ALSO, an electric mobility company originally conceived as a part of Rivian. We’re a passionate team of builders, dreamers, doers and innovators, focused on creating entirely new (not to mention, innovative and delightful) vertically integrated, small EVs designed to meet the global mobility challenges of today and tomorrow. Our mission is to inspire everyone to ride ALSO—replacing many local car, truck and SUV miles with ones on vehicles that are more affordable, more enjoyable and 10-50x more efficient.

The Role

ALSO is looking for an Engineering Technical Lead – Engineering Triage within the Validation & Tools Engineering team to lead the technical triage function supporting our embedded firmware, companion mobile applications, cloud services, and connected vehicle platform.

You will be responsible for defining, developing, and continuously improving the engineering triage processes, technical workflows, and operational tooling that enable rapid investigation, prioritization, and resolution of issues across the product lifecycle. You will partner closely with Firmware, Mobile, Cloud, Systems, Product, Customer Support, Manufacturing, Operations, and Program Management teams to ensure engineering issues are efficiently routed, diagnosed, and resolved while maintaining high product quality and release velocity.

This is a highly cross-functional technical leadership role requiring someone who enjoys solving complex system-level problems, thrives in fast-moving startup environments, and can independently drive initiatives from problem identification through implementation. You will combine strong technical expertise across embedded systems, mobile software, cloud services, and connected products with exceptional communication and execution skills to improve engineering effectiveness and customer experience.

What You Will Do

• Lead the Engineering Triage function, establishing technical processes, operational workflows, and best practices for managing engineering issues across firmware, mobile applications, cloud services, and connected systems.

• Own the technical intake, prioritization, investigation, and assignment of engineering issues originating from customer support, field operations, and product development.

• Drive cross-functional root cause analysis across embedded firmware, mobile applications, cloud infrastructure, backend services, APIs, connectivity, and hardware/software interactions.

• Partner closely with Firmware, Mobile, Cloud, Systems Engineering, Product Management, Customer Support, Quality, Manufacturing, and Operations teams to ensure timely resolution of customer-impacting issues.

• Lead periodic engineering triage reviews, coordinating technical investigations, identifying dependencies, removing blockers, and driving issues through closure.

• Develop and maintain engineering dashboards, operational metrics, and reporting for issue aging, defect trends, release quality, customer impact, and engineering throughput.

• Improve engineering observability by working with software teams to enhance logging, diagnostics, telemetry, crash reporting, and remote debugging capabilities.

• Define severity classifications, prioritization frameworks, escalation paths, and service-level objectives for engineering issue management.

• Collaborate with Release Management to assess issue readiness, evaluate release risks, and support go/no-go decisions for firmware, mobile application, and cloud service deployments.

• Develop tooling and automation that improve issue tracking, log collection, diagnostic workflows, defect reporting, and engineering productivity.

• Drive continuous improvements by identifying recurring failure patterns and implementing corrective actions that improve product quality, reliability, and customer satisfaction.

• Mentor engineers on structured debugging methodologies, cross-functional problem solving, technical communication, and effective incident management.

• Communicate technical risks, customer impact, issue status, and mitigation plans clearly to engineering leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.

What You Will Bring

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.

• 8+ years of experience developing and/or validating embedded software, mobile applications, cloud services working with systems engineering, software quality, technical program leadership, and engineering operations.

• Experience working in the Automotive industry is a plus with working knowledge of use of debugging tools for CAN protocols (such as Vector, NI, etc.), understanding of DBCs, Power Management, Fault Management, DTCs, UDS & Telemetry data.

• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional engineering investigations involving embedded firmware, mobile applications, cloud platforms, and connected devices.

• Strong understanding of embedded & distributed architectures, MCU/ECU/microcontrollers, RTOS and Linux-based systems, OTA firmware update mechanisms, hardware/software interfaces, and board-level debugging.

• Experience supporting connected products utilizing Bluetooth, BLE, Wi‑Fi, Cellular, GNSS, MQTT, REST APIs, or similar communication technologies.

• Working knowledge of cloud-native architectures, backend services, distributed systems, APIs, authentication, telemetry pipelines, and observability platforms.

• Experience using engineering lifecycle tools including Jira, Confluence, GitHub, GitLab, or equivalent issue tracking and project management systems.

• Strong analytical and debugging skills with the ability to interpret logs, traces, crash reports, telemetry, and system diagnostics across multiple software layers.

• Experience working with embedded debugging tools including JTAG, I2C, SPI, serial consoles, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and hardware diagnostic interfaces.

• Programming or scripting experience using C/C++, Python, or similar languages to automate engineering workflows, diagnostics, reporting, or operational tooling.

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, release management practices, and software deployment workflows supporting firmware, mobile, and cloud releases.

• Excellent communication and organizational skills with the ability to coordinate engineering efforts across multiple disciplines and manage competing priorities.

• Experience leading incident management, engineering triage, release readiness, or operational excellence initiatives in a fast-paced product development environment.

• Passion for mentoring engineers, improving engineering processes, and building a culture focused on technical excellence, rapid problem solving, and continuous improvement.

The salary for this position ranges from $170,000 to $210,000 per year, depending on experience and qualifications.

Perks and Benefits

• Robust health coverage. Excellent health, dental and vision insurance covered up to 100% by ALSO with FSA & HSA options.

• One Medical membership and dedicated insurance advocates.

• Rich fertility and family building benefits with Progyny.

• Flexible time off.

• 401(k) match.

Why ALSO.

We’re passionate about helping the world find a better way to get there—wherever it is you’re headed.

We’re located in the heart of Silicon Valley and have brought together a world-class team from some of the biggest brands in the technology, automotive, cycling, outdoor recreation and retail spaces.

Together we’re working hands-on to imagine, design and build an entirely new solution to a global set of transportation challenges.