Director, Sub-Domain Lead Advanced Audio & Innovation

About the Role

The Sub-Domain Lead, Advanced Audio & Innovation builds and leads a multidisciplinary team delivering innovative, best‑in‑class automotive audio technologies for her/his specific domain that expands and strengthens the in‑car audio portfolio. You drive end‑to‑end technology development for your sub‑domain—from research and competitive differentiation through integration readiness—with a focus on engineering efficiency, speed and close collaboration with cross‑functional teams to jointly shape the overall audio experience.

What You Will Do

• Technology development & integration : Deliver high‑performance, scalable audio technologies optimized for implementation across amplifiers, head units, and processing platforms. Define and align actionable plans, milestones, and progress traceability with product owners, scrum masters or release train engineers, with explicit attention to engineering efficiency, delivery quality, and speedy delivery.
• Innovation & differentiation : Drive innovation through competitive analysis and identification of differentiation opportunities. Create new IP while considering the patent landscape and legal constraints, and support collaboration with leading universities.
• Build and lead a high‑performing team : Hire, develop, coach, and retain top talent. Foster knowledge sharing, technical excellence, and the cultural transformation of the Automotive division.
• Technical documentation : Ensure clear, efficient documentation of technologies, requirements, and implementation concepts for sub‑domain responsibility.
• Cross‑functional collaboration & stakeholder management : Build strong relationships with global Automotive teams and key stakeholders to drive adoption. Partner closely with cross‑functional teams e.g., product, systems, HW/SW, tuning, UX to jointly create a compelling end‑to‑end audio experience.
• Business acumen : Balance ROI, near‑term research costs/risks, and long‑term productization value. Promote a value‑based mindset across the team.
• Execution & team collaboration : Communicate a clear vision, align teams, resolve conflict, and continuously improve engineering efficiency through pragmatic processes, tooling, and best practices. Embrace and foster continuous improvement.

What You Need to Be Successful

• Education/experience : Master’s degree in audio processing (or related) and 12+ years of relevant experience; typically 15+ years in advanced audio technology / R&D and innovation development.
• Technical expertise : Advanced audio processing expertise, including hands on experience on acoustics, psychoacoustics, benchmarking, sound quality, and related fields. Industry experience in Automotive, Professional, or Consumer Audio.
• Algorithms & software : Strong professional algorithm and software engineering background with 10+ years hands‑on experience in MATLAB or Python. Solid software architecture skills; experience with Agile development. C/C++ (DSP, object‑oriented) is a plus.
• Verification mindset : Experience validating results against requirements (e.g., unit testing, code coverage, virtual testing) and ensuring readiness before handover to other teams.
• Leadership : Proven people leader with a track record of building and developing expert teams; high integrity, structured execution, and strong coaching/mentoring skills.
• Communication : Ability to promote and explain technology initiatives to business leaders, external partners, and customers, and to align stakeholders across functions around a shared definition of the target audio experience.

HARMAN is proud to be an Equal Opportunity / AffMentative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard torace, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.