Senior/Staff Closures Engineer

Job description

Job responsibilities

• Serve as the technical owner and subject matter expert for the complete closures system. Understand how every component interfaces within the system and with the rest of the vehicle, and anticipate interdependencies…
• Set and defend the closures architecture across current and future vehicle programs - mechanism topology, load paths, sealing and water-management strategy, actuation and state-detection strategy, tolerance and…
• Own the closures requirements set and its rationale, and improve the flow of testing from component through subsystem to full-vehicle level so the DV plan retires the risks the architecture creates.
• Personally own the design of critical closures components and mechanisms - latches, hinges, actuators, seals, glazing interfaces, or equivalent - through concept, DFMEA, sourcing, tooling, PPAP, validation, and launch,…
• Size and check your own designs using section-capacity and inertia calculations, SimSolid (or equivalent) FEA pre-processing, and Python/MATLAB mechanism and mechatronic modeling.
• Influence decisions at executive leadership levels, mentor engineers new to closures and to Zoox, initiate and lead projects across functions, and act as the technical point of contact for current and prospective…

Job requirements

• BS in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related field.
• 10+ years of professional experience in mechanical engineering (or 8+ years with an advanced degree), with a focus on automotive closures, complex mechanisms, or robotics.
• Demonstrated ownership of a closures system — or an equivalently complex, integrated vehicle system — at the architecture level, including the requirements set, the integration strategy, and the trade-off decisions.
• Proven record of taking closure systems or complex mechanisms through the full vehicle development cycle (design → sourcing → validation → launch), with mass-production experience.
• Expert-level fluency in 3D CAD, preferably CATIA 3D experience, with the ability to personally release production-quality parts.
• Deep experience designing automated sliding or hinged doors, liftgates, trunks, decklids, or charge-port mechanisms. Demonstrated expertise in kinematic synthesis and mechanism load-path design.
• Strong knowledge of Design for Manufacturability, GD&T, dimensional engineering, and manufacturing processes (casting, stamping, injection molding, extrusion).
• Able to hold a credible technical conversation with EE, firmware, CAE, manufacturing, quality, and service, and to arbitrate between them.