Senior AV Release & Validation Engineer

Motional; Las Vegas (NV); On-site; USD 125,000 - 167,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401k with company match

Health savings accounts

Life insurance

Pet insurance

Job summary

Motional is seeking a Senior AV Test Engineer to own end-to-end release readiness for commercial self-driving software across simulation, SIL/HIL, and on-vehicle environments. You will lead risk assessments, define gates, and guide cross-functional sign-off for fleet deployments.

You will mentor engineers, influence product architecture early, and build scalable test frameworks while ensuring safety compliance and robust RCA to prevent recurrences.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Engineering, Robotics, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field (Master's preferred).
• 5+ years in software QA, systems testing, or release engineering within AV, ADAS, robotics, or safety-critical automotive systems.
• Proven track record leading software/systems release sign-off and defining release readiness frameworks for commercial-grade products.
• Hands-on experience establishing automated release gates, CI/CD verification workflows, and release risk management strategies.
• Advanced proficiency in Linux environments and scripting languages (Python, Bash/Shell, C++).
• Deep experience in end-to-end testing across SIL, HIL, simulation (Applied Intuition, CARLA, IPG Carmaker), and track/on-vehicle environments.
• Working knowledge of ISO 26262, ISO 21448 (SOTIF), UL 4600 and AV safety case development workflows.
• Strong technical leadership and mentoring skills; ability to influence cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Own commercialization release candidate validation lifecycle; define, enforce, and maintain release readiness criteria and safety verification protocols for commercial fleet deployments.
• Lead validation across simulation, SIL, HIL, and on-vehicle environments focusing on end-to-end performance across perception, planning, and control subsystems.
• Design, deploy, and enforce automated quality gates within CI/CD and testing pipelines to prevent critical bugs reaching deployment builds.
• Mentor junior engineers; design test frameworks, SOPs, and documentation to scale testing practices.
• Lead RCA for systemic failures and drive architectural/code/operational changes to prevent recurrence.
• Coordinate release schedules, dependency tracking, and risk trade-offs with Safety, Systems, Software, and Fleet Operations.
• Travel domestically for on-site testing and deployments as needed.

Skills

Linux

Python

Bash/Shell

C++

End-to-end testing

SIL/HIL

Root Cause Analysis

Shift-Left

CI/CD

Test automation

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Engineering/Robotics/CS

Tools

Applied Intuition

CARLA

IPG Carmaker

Job description

Motional is seeking a Senior AV Test Engineer to own end-to-end release readiness for commercial self-driving software across simulation, SIL/HIL, and on-vehicle environments. You will lead risk assessments, define gates, and guide cross-functional sign-off for fleet deployments.

You will mentor engineers, influence product architecture early, and build scalable test frameworks while ensuring safety compliance and robust RCA to prevent recurrences.