We’re ALTEN Technology USA, an engineering company helping clients bring groundbreaking ideas to life—from advancing space exploration and life-saving medical devices to building autonomous electric vehicles. With 3,000+ experts across North America, we partner with leading companies in aerospace, medical devices, robotics, automotive, commercial vehicles, EVs, rail, and more.
As part of the global ALTEN Group—57,000+ engineers in 30 countries—we deliver across the entire product development cycle, from consulting to full project outsourcing.
When you join ALTEN Technology USA, you’ll collaborate on some of the world’s toughest engineering challenges, supported by mentorship, career growth opportunities, and comprehensive benefits. We take pride in fostering a culture where employees feel valued, supported, and inspired to grow.
Position Overview
As a Prototype Development Engineer, you will support the development, configuration, commissioning, maintenance, and test readiness of advanced Labcars, HIL benches, and related prototype electrical test assets. You will combine hands-on hardware and software integration with disciplined configuration management, physical-to-BOM correlation, technical troubleshooting, and cross-functional build coordination to keep each asset aligned with the intended engineering configuration and ready for scheduled testing.
What You’ll Do
- Asset Bring-Up and Commissioning: Support the development, initial bring-up, commissioning, and re-commissioning of Labcars and other prototype electrical test assets following major hardware or software changes.
- Technical Execution:Oversee component installation, complex wiring, harness and module replacement, instrumentation setup, module software flashing, and network debugging across CAN, CAN FD, LIN, and Automotive Ethernet.
- Labcar Configuration Management: Maintain an accurate understanding of each assigned asset’s hardware architecture, electrical content, software configuration, build phase, current state, known limitations, and integration maturity.
- BOM and Physical-Asset Correlation: Compare engineering BOMs, Labcar-specific BOMs, configuration records, drawings, and the hardware physically installed on each asset. Distinguish among planned, documented, and physically verified configurations.
- Build-Phase Change Analysis: Identify newly introduced, revised, superseded, removed, or configuration-specific parts and requirements between engineering releases and build phases; determine the effect on assigned assets and define the required update work.
- System Diagnostics and Issue Resolution: Troubleshoot and triage electrical, network, hardware, software-configuration, and integration issues. Collect diagnostic evidence, isolate affected systems, resolve technical roadblocks, and coordinate specialized engineering support when required.
- Testing and Regression Validation: Develop or execute formal commissioning, smoke-test, regression, and readiness procedures with clear go/no-go criteria to confirm system stability across hardware and software iterations.
- Scheduling and Test Readiness: Coordinate installation, flashing, troubleshooting, maintenance, and validation activities around shared-asset schedules. Confirm required hardware, software, prerequisite work, and known issues before releasing an asset for testing.
- Documentation and Status: Maintain traceable records of installed hardware, BOM revisions, software and flash status, configuration changes, diagnostic findings, open discrepancies, completed work, validation results, and current test-readiness status.
- Continuous Improvement and Automation: Improve repeatability through standardized checklists, configuration controls, data validation, scripting, and automation of reconciliation or readiness reporting where practical.
Minimum Requirements
- Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Computer, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.
- Experience: 3+ years of hands-on experience in hardware-software integration, prototype vehicles, Labcars, HIL benches, board or system bring-up, manufacturing test, or comparable vehicle-systems engineering environments.
- Electrical Documentation: Proficiency reading electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, connector views, network topologies, harness documentation, PCB assemblies, and mechanical layouts.
- Vehicle Networks: 3+ years of experience with vehicle communication protocols, including CAN, LIN, and Automotive Ethernet, and familiarity with CAN FD.
- Diagnostic Tooling: 3+ years of experience using CANalyzer, CANoe, Wireshark, Vehicle Spy/VSPY3, Intrepid, Vector, or similar embedded networking and diagnostic tools.
- Flashing and Diagnostics: Experience supporting module programming, diagnostic activities, communication checks, controlled power-up, and post-flash verification.
- Test Methods: Experience writing and executing formal test plans, commissioning procedures, regression checks, or readiness checklists with clear go/no-go criteria.
- Embedded Systems: Strong understanding of embedded control modules, power distribution, grounding, I/O, network communication, and subsystem dependencies.
- Coordination and Documentation: Ability to manage competing shared-asset requirements, direct or coordinate technical work, track parts and open issues, maintain change history, and communicate readiness risks clearly.
- Physical Requirements: Ability to work hands-on around prototype vehicles and test assets, inspect components in confined locations, and safely handle typical vehicle electrical hardware.
Preferred Qualifications
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- Advanced Vehicle Architecture: Knowledge of modern electrical/electronic vehicle architectures, distributed control systems, zonal architectures, power distribution, and networked embedded systems.
- Prototype Asset Ownership: Experience owning or coordinating the configuration, availability, and technical readiness of Labcars, HIL benches, prototype vehicles, mule vehicles, breadboards, or similar assets.
- Change and Pedigree Awareness: Familiarity with engineering release data, build pedigrees, part revision levels, supersession, applicability, and change-control processes.
- Test Equipment: Experience with power supplies, electronic loads, DAQ systems, oscilloscopes, meters, signal conditioning, instrumentation, and safety interlocks.
- Data and Tracking Tools: Experience using Excel, Jira, SharePoint, or comparable systems to maintain structured asset, BOM, issue, parts, or readiness data.
- Automation: Experience with Python, Power Automate, scripting, APIs, or other automation tools used for configuration reconciliation, data validation, diagnostics, or reporting.
- Technical Leadership: Experience directing technicians, coordinating multi-discipline build work, leading design or readiness reviews, and communicating technical status to stakeholders.
- Working Style: A systems-thinking mindset, attention to physical and documentation details, strong written and verbal communication, and the ability to operate effectively as priorities and configurations change.
Salary Range: $115k - $130k
The actual salary offered is dependent on various factors including, but not limited to, location, the candidate’s combination of job-related knowledge, qualifications, skills, education, training, and experience
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, genetic information, or pregnancy.
Please beware of job seeker scams and see this important notice on our careers page for more information about our recruiting process.
Compliance Notice: Alten USA is a federal contractor subject to the requirements of the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) and Executive Order 11246. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.
Drug Screening Requirement: As a federal contractor, Alten USA maintains a drug-free workplace. All candidates selected for employment will be required to successfully complete a pre-employment drug screening as a condition of hire.
