Vehicle Engineering Lead

The vehicle engineering lead is the front-line technical leader who is responsible for complete vehicle technical correctness. Vehicle leads are deployed to motorcycle programs to own the technical delivery of high impact products through the definition of engineering requirements, design integration of all systems, and validation of the full vehicle to ensure our customer's expectations are exceeded.

In addition to the standard responsibilities listed below, this position will work closely with H-D's external development and manufacturing partners to ensure that new models meet the performance and quality expectations of Harley-Davidson branded products. The Vehicle Engineering Lead will collaborate with internal and external/off-shore engineering teams to evaluate designs against PRD requirements and H-D technical standards - this may require occasional international travel and meeting virtually outside core business hours.

• Program Scope
  
  
  
  • Collaborate with the product line engineering and motorcycle management teams to translate program requirements to the ideal vehicle scope to satisfy customer and business needs.
  • Define and document planned destinations and vehicle configurations by market to ensure conformance to the various government requirements applicable to our products.
  
  
  
  
• Vehicle-Level Requirements
  
  
  
  • Document product expectations via measurable technical requirements to define the most critical customer facing attributes such as look, sound, feel, performance, weight, and accessibility to inform systems development.
  
  
  
  
• Vehicle Architecture, Design, and Integration
  
  
  
  • Support the development and implementation of new system or vehicle architectures.
  • Partner with integration leads, system architects, and design engineers to optimize component design and system interactions to deliver the vehicle requirements, while balancing program and portfolio objectives, to deliver an awesome end product.
  • Guide system integration at the vehicle level leveraging H-D guidelines and best practices as informed by industry standards and product development history.
  • Lead the process of translating key visual design objectives to refined motorcycle scope and requirements that maintain the visual intent while balancing technical risk, cost, complexity, and delivery timing.
  • Influence designs across the vehicle to achieve robust design for assembly, manufacturing, and service objectives.
  • Coordinate vehicle level mock-ups, demonstrations, and subjective evaluations to drive stakeholder alignment of vehicle requirements, performance and other functional attributes.
  • Lead formal vehicle level design reviews at various phase gates within H-D's product development process highlighting technical results, key risks, and associated mitigation plans.
  • Organize and lead cross-functional teams to resolve vehicle level technical issues.
  • Own developmental vehicle bill of material correctness, including software configurations at the vehicle level.
  
  
  
  
• Vehicle Verification & Validation
  
  
  
  
  • Define and execute vehicle level validation plans confirming chassis, powertrain, electrical, and software functions achieve our demanding customer expectations.
  • Define and oversee the program's vehicle engineering development fleet usage to ensure critical validation activities are accomplished when required.
  • Confirm full vehicle compliance to applicable regulatory requirements and publish design compliance documentation in support of the vehicle homologation process.
  
  
  
  

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, or related field is Required

• Minimum of 8 years of relevant engineering experience.
• Ability to effectively communicate technical subjects in a clear, concise manner to multiple levels of the organization and work with diverse global teams both internally and externally.
• Ability to lead engineering teams through issue resolution from data collection, data analysis, root cause identification, solution set generation, and selection of optimal solution.
• Demonstrated success in leading system/component design and development from concept to production implementation.
• Experience mentoring others not under direct supervision.
• Experience authoring requirements, developing test-cases, and establishing traceability to test completion within a formal product development process.
• Experience utilizing formal engineering quality tools and processes such as DFMEA and PFMEA.
• Experience using 3D CAD systems (PTC Creo/Parametric, CreoView, PLM or equivalent) to manipulate and work within full vehicle assembly models.
• Familiarity with typical vehicle level performance attributes including ride and handling, braking, powertrain performance, aerodynamics, and ergonomics as well as the systems that deliver these attributes.