Staff Engineer, EMI-EMC

Cariad, Inc.•Mountain View, CA

4d•$166,561 - $241,355•Remote

About The Position

We are CARIAD, an automotive software development team with the Volkswagen Group. Our mission is to make the automotive experience safer, more sustainable, more comfortable, more digital, and more fun. To achieve that we are building the leading tech stack for the automotive industry and creating a unified software platform for over 10 million new vehicles per year. We’re looking for talented, digital minds like you to help us create code that moves the world. Together with you, we’ll build outstanding digital experiences and products for all Volkswagen Group brands that will transform mobility. Join us as we shape the future of the car and everyone around it. The Staff EMI/EMC Engineer is the technical authority for emissions and immunity compliance across assigned hardware platforms and ECUs, owning EMC strategy from early architecture through certification. This role defines platform-level requirements, technical standards, and risk management approaches; leads data-driven mitigation with design teams and suppliers; and drives readiness decisions across development milestones. The role balances hands-on technical depth with broad cross-functional influence to improve product predictability, accelerate issue resolution, and raise EMC capability across the organization.

Requirements

Strong analytical and conceptual thinking; structured problem solving in ambiguous, cross-functional environments.
Executive-ready communication skills (interpersonal, presentation, and written) with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Ability to define priorities, align stakeholders, and drive outcomes across multiple programs in a fast-paced and rapidly changing environment.
Strong organizational skills; able to manage complex validation plans, technical risks, configurations, and decision logs.
Collaborative mindset with the ability to influence across design, validation, supplier, regulatory, and program management teams.
Demonstrated technical leadership, mentorship, and capability-building across engineering teams.
Deep hands-on expertise with automotive EMC instrumentation and setups: EMI receiver/spectrum analyzer, LISN, near-field probes, current probes, RF amplifiers, signal generators, antennas, and grounding/bonding practices in chamber and bench environments.
Experience defining EMC strategies for hardware platforms and ECUs, including allocation of requirements, risk identification, milestone gating, and design-for-compliance approaches from concept through certification.
Ability to review schematics, PCB layouts, harness/mechanical designs, and system architectures to identify EMC risks and drive mitigation decisions (return paths, filtering, shielding/termination, cable routing, connector strategy, partitioning, and grounding strategy).
Expert working knowledge of applicable automotive EMC standards and criteria (e.g., CISPR 25, ISO 11452, OEM requirements) and ability to translate requirements into verification strategies, test plans, and pass/fail criteria.
Experience creating, governing, and continuously improving an EMI/EMC Control & Verification Plan, including correlation between in-house pre-scan and certification setups and lessons-learned feedback into future designs.
Proven track record leading debug-to-fix activities to closure with design owners, suppliers, and test partners, including root cause analysis, tradeoff evaluation, and mitigation validation.
Experience establishing technical standards, best practices, and reusable design guidance for EMC across multiple programs or product lines.
Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline (or equivalent experience).

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting multi-region regulatory approval contexts (e.g., FCC / RED / SRRC) as they intersect with EMC deliverables and documentation expectations.
Familiarity with infotainment, connectivity, compute, and driver assistance systems and common EMC risk areas in high-speed digital and mixed-signal automotive electronics.
Experience collaborating within VW Group engineering / validation ecosystems (processes, stakeholders, ways of working).
Experience mentoring engineers or leading technical working groups in EMC, validation, or hardware system design.
Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline.
Advanced training or demonstrated expertise in EMC, RF, signal integrity, or power integrity disciplines.

Responsibilities

Define and own EMC compliance strategy across hardware platforms and ECUs from concept through certification, including requirement allocation, milestone criteria, and risk retirement plans.
Translate applicable internal, regulatory, and customer requirements into platform-level verification strategies, design guardrails, and program-specific test plans.
Lead EMC readiness assessments across EVT/DVT/PVT and provide clear go/no-go recommendations with risk-based mitigation paths.
Drive alignment across design, validation, regulatory, and supplier teams on compliance priorities, tradeoffs, and execution plans.
Lead complex debug-to-fix investigations for EMC failures, including hypothesis-driven experiments, root cause analysis, mitigation tradeoff evaluation, and validation to closure.
Review schematics, PCB layouts, harness/mechanical designs, and system partitioning to identify risk areas early and influence design decisions before chamber entry.
Oversee in-house pre-compliance scans, bench assessments, and third-party lab activities; ensure strong configuration control, technical rigor, and actionable reporting.
Improve correlation between in-house setups and external certification labs to increase predictability and reduce late-stage surprises.
Develop and maintain EMC design standards, control plans, reusable checklists, and lessons learned that scale across multiple programs.
Mentor engineers and influence technical decision-making across hardware, mechanical, systems, validation, and supplier teams.
Communicate technical status, risks, and mitigation recommendations to leadership through concise updates, decision briefs, and post-test reviews.
Support audits, compliance reviews, and continuous improvement of EMC processes, documentation, and organizational capability.