Sr. Product Engineer

RIDE Mobility • Lancaster, CA

2d • $120,000 - $160,000

About The Position

RIDE is seeking a Senior Product Engineer to support the definition, development, launch, and continuous improvement of truck products for the North American market. The role translates customer needs, operating requirements, and competitive insights into product specifications and engineering solutions. Working with North American teams and headquarters R&D, the engineer drives assigned truck products and features from requirements through development, validation, production readiness, and launch.

The position requires substantial automotive engineering experience, hands-on involvement in physical product development, and the judgment to balance vehicle performance, quality, cost, manufacturability, and customer value. Responsibilities span product requirements, market assessment, vehicle integration, validation, production readiness, cross-functional execution, and lifecycle support.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Automotive Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent technical education and demonstrated engineering experience.
• At least 7 years of relevant engineering experience in the automotive industry, including work for a vehicle manufacturer or automotive supplier.
• Direct experience in automotive product development, vehicle integration, or subsystem engineering, including hands-on technical ownership rather than solely project scheduling or reporting.
• Responsibility for a vehicle or automotive subsystem through at least one development cycle spanning design, prototype build, validation, and production launch.
• Experience leading cross-functional engineering activities and resolving technical issues with manufacturing, quality, suppliers, and customer engineering teams.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with electric buses, trucks, commercial vehicles, or other heavy-duty vehicle platforms.
• Experience integrating batteries, high-voltage systems, electric powertrains, thermal systems, or charging interfaces.
• Experience with automotive launch and quality processes, including APQP, PPAP, DFMEA, or DVP&R.
• PMP certification.
• Mandarin proficiency for collaboration with Mandarin-speaking teams and suppliers.

Responsibilities

• Gather and evaluate requirements from fleet customers, sales, service teams, and other stakeholders to define truck applications, features, specifications, and configurations.
• Translate operating needs—including payload, range, duty cycle, charging requirements, body compatibility, and serviceability—into measurable product requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Maintain product specifications and track requirement changes, ensuring alignment across engineering and business teams.
• Evaluate competing truck products, customer feedback, and application needs to identify product gaps and improvement opportunities.
• Recommend feature priorities and configuration improvements based on technical feasibility, customer value, cost, and market requirements; provide engineering input to product roadmaps and new product proposals.
• Lead assigned product development activities from concept and requirements definition through design reviews, prototype builds, validation, engineering release, and production launch.
• Coordinate vehicle layout, packaging, and system interfaces with engineering teams, including chassis, cab, battery, electric powertrain, thermal management, and electrical systems.
• Review design trade-offs affecting payload, weight distribution, performance, reliability, manufacturability, and service access.
• Coordinate with body builders and suppliers on chassis interfaces, installation requirements, and application-specific integration needs.
• Work with engineering, quality, manufacturing, and compliance specialists to establish validation plans, track results, and resolve issues before release.
• Support design risk assessments, engineering change reviews, prototype evaluations, and production readiness activities.
• Coordinate product compliance requirements and supporting documentation with responsible specialists.
• Drive technical issue resolution through root-cause analysis, corrective actions, and verification of effectiveness.
• Coordinate product deliverables, technical decisions, and milestones across North American teams, headquarters R&D, suppliers, and manufacturing.
• Assess proposed changes for their impact on product requirements, cost, schedule, quality, and customer commitments.
• Support customer technical reviews, vehicle evaluations, product introductions, and field issue investigations.
• Use production and field feedback to recommend improvements, cost reductions, configuration standardization, and feature upgrades.
• Communicate product readiness, open issues, risks, and recommended actions to management, and provide technical guidance to other engineers.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior