Trim Validation Engineer

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.

Workplace: On-site, 5 days per week

Travel: As needed to suppliers in Michigan and Modesto, CA

Location: Foster City, CA

Salary: $120-130k

We are building an autonomous vehicle from the ground up, and the trim that defines its interior and exterior must perform through every mile and environment. We're looking for a mechanical engineer to own the validation of trim components — developing test plans, traveling to suppliers to verify they are correctly running the tests, finding where parts fail, and verifying that each component meets durability, environmental, and regulatory requirements before it reaches production. This is a role with real room to grow, but will not be primarily hands-on.

Responsibilities

• Own validation of interior and exterior trim — including plastic trim, painted and coated surfaces, and surfacing quality.
• Develop and write test plans, defining methods and acceptance criteria tied to program and regulatory requirements.
• Plan and oversee durability, environmental, and performance testing, and interpret the results.
• Contribute to DFMEA and use failure analysis to drive root cause and corrective actions.
• Support test design and instrumentation, including sensors and measurement setups.
• Work with suppliers through build and validation — some travel to supplier and test sites (Michigan, Modesto CA).
• Partner cross-functionally with design, manufacturing, suppliers, and quality to reach production readiness.

Required Qualifications

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent degree and experience.
• Experience in automotive trim, interior, or body validation
• Hands-on validation and test experience, with data-driven failure analysis.
• Working knowledge of plastic injection molding and automotive painting and surfacing.
• Understanding of relevant FMVSS and regulatory requirements.
• Grounding in manufacturing processes, materials, and environmental failure modes.
• Proficiency with CAD (CATIA and/or SolidWorks).

Preferred Qualifications

• Component design experience in trim or interior/exterior systems.
• Familiarity with Polarion and Jira for requirements and issue tracking.
• Test experience such as metrology or color swatching.
• Experience in a new-program or new-product-introduction environment.

Salary Range

• $120,000 - 130,000
• 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.