CARIAD, Inc. · 1 hour ago
Sr Director, Autonomous Driving & Machine Learning
Mountain View, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Director/Executive
$281K/yr - $408K/yr
20+ years expCARIAD is an automotive software development team with the Volkswagen Group, aiming to enhance the automotive experience. The Senior Director of Engineering – Autonomous Driving & Machine Learning will lead the technical and strategic direction for the E2E Autonomous Driving domain, overseeing architecture, execution, and delivery of machine-learning-driven solutions.
AutomotiveInformation TechnologySoftware
No H1B
U.S. Citizen Only
Responsibilities
Define and evolve the long-term technical roadmap for E2E autonomous driving systems
Set architectural standards, engineering principles, and quality bars across teams
Own key technical tradeoffs and serve as final escalation point for complex system decisions
Build, lead, and scale a high-performing engineering organization
Develop senior managers and technical leaders; drive succession and capability growth
Own hiring strategy, organizational design, onboarding, and talent development
Ensure predictable delivery of complex, cross-functional programs
Own engineering outcomes related to system performance, reliability, safety, and readiness
Maintain accountability for integration, validation, demo readiness, and on-road testing
Partner closely with Product, Safety, Validation, and Business leadership
Coordinate with CARIAD SE and global stakeholders on strategy, risks, and execution
Represent the E2E ADAS domain in senior technical and planning forums
Provide executive-level review of critical design decisions and risk areas
Establish governance for technical reviews, metrics, documentation, and continuous improvement
Qualification
Required
20+ years in autonomous driving or ADAS systems
8+ years in ML/AI system development at production scale
6+ years leading large, multi-disciplinary engineering teams including managing senior managers and technical leaders
M.S. in Computer Science, Electrical/Robotics Engineering or related field
Ownership of end-to-end AV stack architecture across perception, prediction, planning, and control
Deep expertise in ML/DL architectures for AV (CNNs, transformers, multi-modal fusion, foundation or policy models)
Experience operating cloud-based ML platforms for large-scale training and data management
Strong background in embedded deployment and real-time performance optimization
Knowledge of functional safety, SafeAI principles, and regulatory considerations for autonomous systems
Ability to define long-term technical strategy and translate it into execution
Deep understanding of end-to-end ML system lifecycles (data, training, evaluation, deployment, monitoring)
Strong judgment in technical tradeoffs, risk management, and prioritization under real-world constraints
Excellence in scaling teams, processes, and platforms for sustained delivery
Preferred
Experience with simulation-first development and closed-loop validation
Familiarity with large-scale dataset governance, labeling strategies, and compliance
Practical experience with imitation learning (IL) and reinforcement learning (RL) for driving policies
Benefits
Medical
Dental
Vision
401k with employer match and defined contribution plan
Short and long term disability
Basic life and AD&D insurance
Employee assistance program
Tuition reimbursement and student loan repayment plans
Maternity and non-primary caregiver leave
Adoption assistance
Employee referral program
Vacation and paid holidays
Unique vehicle lease program that covers registration and insurance fees
Company
CARIAD, Inc.
For generations, Volkswagen AG has included a collection of legendary brands.
201-500 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageLeadership Team
Scott Runner
Chief Executive Officer
Julian Christopher Zeug
Director IT Security, Chief Information Security Officer
Recent News
2026-01-07
2026-01-05
2025-11-28
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