ECU Validation Engineer (Palo Alto, CA)

Location: Palo Alto, CA (Onsite)

Duration: 6-month contract (W2)

Schedule: Standard working hours

Pay Rate: $63.00 – $67.00/hr




Position Summary

Our client is a leading electric vehicle manufacturer seeking an ECU Validation Engineer to join their electronics validation team. In this role, you will be part of the team responsible for functional validation and testing of electronic control units (ECUs) including telematics, infotainment, battery management, ADAS, and zonal ECUs. The team builds custom automated test solutions that include internal-facing software, low-level firmware, data management platforms, and custom electromechanical hardware — solutions deployed internally and at external labs and contract manufacturing facilities.


As an individual contributor, you will own the verification and validation of vehicle electronics, working cross-functionally to ensure electronics are designed to meet module-level requirements under environmental stress conditions including thermal extremes, shock/vibration, humidity, and fault injection.



Responsibilities

• Develop detailed design verification and validation test plans for all phases of ECU programs, with input from reliability and design teams
• Lead the execution of validation test plans according to project milestones (DVP&R, PVP&R) to ensure the reliability of the design for mass production
• Own test coverage reports and analysis
• Provide early feedback to design engineers regarding design decisions and their testability
• Develop and present Design for Testability (DFT) reports for ECU designs
• Plan and lead technicians during durability, electrical, and functional validation testing for component-level ECU testing
• Coordinate test resources and own validation schedules to communicate status with upper management and cross-functional teams
• Lead cross-functional root cause analysis of non-compliance test results during validation cycles, leveraging data analysis to identify and address underlying issues

Education & Experience

• BS/MS or equivalent work experience in Electrical Engineering or related field
• 5+ years of experience in electronics characterisation and validation testing
• Hands-on experience in design verification and validation testing
• Experience using lab instrumentation: oscilloscopes, power supplies, electronic loads, digital multimeters, etc.
• Experience using thermal chambers and vibration tables
• Experience in data analysis and report generation using Python

Knowledge & Skills

• Experience using SQL
• Experience in Databricks or similar environment
• Experience with automated test equipment

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