Technical Specialist, Motion Controls Architecture

Lucid Motors•Newark, NJ

About The Position

The Motion Controls Architecture team develops scalable control-system architectures that coordinate propulsion, braking, steering, suspension, chassis, and supervisory control functions to achieve vehicle-level performance, safety, and drivability goals. The Technical Specialist is a senior individual contributor and technical authority responsible for defining, developing, and guiding complex controls architectures spanning software components, ECUs, vehicle subsystems, sensors, and actuators. This hands-on technical leadership role leads controls design initiatives, develops technically defensible solutions, mentors engineers, and influences decisions across Motion Controls and partner organizations. The specialist may coordinate other engineers’ technical activities during project execution while remaining directly engaged in architecture development. The role collaborates with internal engineering teams, external technology partners, and suppliers to define interfaces, resolve system dependencies, support sensor and actuator selection, and pursue overall control-system performance and robustness.

Requirements

8+ years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree; 6+ years with a master’s degree; or a PhD with 3+ years of related experience.
Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Controls Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, Automotive Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
Demonstrated experience designing and implementing complex controls architectures spanning multiple software components, ECUs, communication interfaces, sensors, actuators, and vehicle subsystems.
Deep knowledge of classical and modern control theory, dynamic systems, digital controls, signal processing, system identification, state estimation, sensor fusion, numerical methods, and data-driven engineering.
Experience developing production controls in areas such as vehicle motion control, propulsion, braking, steering, suspension, driveline dynamics, vehicle state management, actuator coordination, or supervisory vehicle control.
Strong understanding of physical-system behavior, including actuator dynamics, delays, bandwidth, saturation, hysteresis, uncertainty, disturbances, noise, tolerances, thermal behavior, and failure modes.
Proficiency with model-based controls development and analysis tools, including MATLAB, Simulink, Stateflow, and Python.
Experience with embedded software development, production code generation, controller integration, and software architecture distributed across multiple software components and ECUs.
Familiarity with programming and development tools such as C/C++, Embedded Coder, Git, Jira, Confluence, Jama, and 3DX.
Working knowledge of automotive communications protocols, diagnostics, controller hardware, sensors, actuators, and tools such as CANoe, CANalyzer, CANape, or equivalent platforms.
Knowledge of ISO 26262 and experience contributing to functional safety concepts, technical safety concepts, HARA, FSR and TSR development, software FMEAs, safety mechanisms, degraded operation, or fallback strategies.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical topics, advocate for recommendations, report progress, and communicate with engineers, managers, senior leadership, partners, and suppliers.
Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers, lead complex technical initiatives, manage personal priorities, make evidence-based decisions, and resolve ambiguous system-level problems.

Nice To Haves

Experience with longitudinal or lateral vehicle dynamics, driveline dynamics, ride, handling, NVH, integrated vehicle motion control, or control allocation.
Experience with robust control, nonlinear control, adaptive control, state estimation, sensor fusion, or model predictive control.
Experience developing fail-safe, fail-operational, redundant, or degraded-mode control architectures.
Experience designing safety monitors, plausibility checks, fault-detection and isolation logic, controlled-stop functions, or fallback strategies.
Experience with rapid prototyping, model-in-the-loop, software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, replay, simulation, or representative system-development environments.
Familiarity with AUTOSAR, Automotive SPICE, model-based systems engineering, software architecture, requirements traceability, and production release processes.
Experience collaborating with internal engineering organizations, external technology partners, Tier 1 suppliers, sensor suppliers, actuator suppliers, or vehicle subsystem suppliers.
Experience leading complex technical investigations from initial problem definition through root-cause identification, architecture resolution, implementation guidance, and production closure.

Responsibilities

Own the design and development of complex, system-level controls architectures spanning software components, ECUs, vehicle subsystems, sensors, actuators, and communication interfaces.
Apply control theory, dynamic-system analysis, signal processing, estimation, and system-level reasoning to develop robust and scalable Motion Controls solutions.
Lead technical initiatives from problem definition through realization, including architecture development, requirements elicitation, design, implementation guidance, integration support, and issue resolution.
Develop and maintain logical, physical, and software architecture views defining system allocations, interfaces, states, dependencies, assumptions, and failure responses.
Facilitate controls design and help engineers evaluate alternatives, understand tradeoffs, identify failure modes, and select technically defensible solutions.
Define and review system, software, controls, interface, diagnostic, and safety requirements, maintaining consistency and traceability between vehicle objectives, architecture, software implementation, and technical evidence.
Contribute to functional safety activities, including Item Definition, HARA, FSR and TSR reviews, software FMEAs, safety-mechanism design, degraded-operation concepts, and fault-response strategies.
Provide technical mentorship and facilitate structured problem solving.
Work with managers and technical teams to scope initiatives, establish technical plans, identify risks and dependencies, track progress, and communicate status and recommendations.
Collaborate with internal teams across Motor Controls, Battery Controls, Active Chassis Controls, Autonomy Controls, Functional Safety, Systems Engineering, Chassis Electronics, Software, Vehicle Integration, Calibration and Validation, Vehicle Dynamics, and program teams.
Collaborate with external technology partners and suppliers to define interfaces and improve sensor, actuator, controller, and subsystem capability, including diagnostics, latency, bandwidth, controllability, reliability, and fault handling.
Identify gaps in architecture methods, engineering processes, development tools, and technical-review practices, and lead improvements that increase quality, consistency, and team productivity.