Lead Harness Architect for Autonomous Vehicle Systems

Kodiak Robotics; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 235,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity and annual bonuses

Medical/Dental/Vision plans

Flexible PTO

Dog-friendly office

401(k)

Commuter benefits

Job summary

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. in Mountain View, CA is seeking a Lead Harness Engineer/Manager to own harness architecture for our autonomous vehicle platform.

This is a hands-on role that drives the technical direction for harness design across high speed, low voltage, and high power systems, and sets standards, processes, and supplier relationships. You will mentor engineers, lead design reviews, and coordinate with Electrical, Mechanical, Integration, and Manufacturing teams to deliver scalable

Qualifications

• BS or MS in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of hardware development in automotive/aerospace/safety-critical industries with leadership.
• Deep expertise in electrical harness design, architecture, and manufacturing at the system level.
• Proven experience setting design/quality standards and mentoring or leading engineers or teams.
• Strong troubleshooting skillset with hands-on root cause analysis experience.
• Expert familiarity with IPC quality standards (IPC/WHMA-A-620, etc.) and their application to program-level quality processes.
• Experience with implementation and on-vehicle debugging of low-level hardware buses (CAN, Ethernet, LIN).
• Demonstrated ability to lead supplier negotiations and manage external manufacturing partnerships.
• Hands-on. Comfortable in the shop debugging a subsystem and in the room driving architecture decisions.
• Excellent communicator — experience writing and reviewing clear, concise technical documentation and presenting to leadership.
• Passion for autonomous vehicles and their potential impact.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical strategy and architecture for wire harness and subassembly design across the vehicle platform, balancing high speed, low voltage, and high power requirements.
• Set and enforce design standards, review processes, and DFM/DFA practices for harness schematics, diagrams, and system interconnect diagrams.
• Drive make/buy and supplier strategy for harness manufacturing; own key external manufacturing partner relationships and scale-up readiness.
• Lead trade studies on harness architecture (topology, routing, connector strategy, EMI/signal integrity tradeoffs) with system-level cost, weight, and reliability impact.
• Own full program lifecycle governance: technical reviews, DVP&R, outsourced cable manufacturing, qualification testing, and release.
• Lead or oversee root cause analysis on complex/escalated electrical system issues; drive corrective and preventive action across teams.
• Define and champion automated harness validation tooling and test strategy.
• Mentor and provide technical leadership to harness and electrical engineers and directly manage a harness engineering team.
• Represent harness engineering in cross-functional and executive-level design reviews with Software, Mechanical, Manufacturing, Systems, and external suppliers.

Skills

Harness design

Technical leadership

Supplier negotiations

Root cause analysis

Electrical integration

Clear communication

Hardware debugging

Education

BS/MS in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering

Tools

CAN/Ethernet/LIN debugging tools

IPC quality standards (IPC/WHMA-A-620)

Job description

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. in Mountain View, CA is seeking a Lead Harness Engineer/Manager to own harness architecture for our autonomous vehicle platform.

This is a hands-on role that drives the technical direction for harness design across high speed, low voltage, and high power systems, and sets standards, processes, and supplier relationships. You will mentor engineers, lead design reviews, and coordinate with Electrical, Mechanical, Integration, and Manufacturing teams to deliver scalable