Team Lead Vehicle Controls & Integration (m/f/d)

Join Quantum-Systems and help bring autonomous ground systems into real-world operations. As Team Lead Vehicle Controls & Vehicle Interface, you will own the critical layer between motion planning and vehicle hardware: the vehicle controls software and the Drive-by-Wire (DBW) interface for our own Mandrill UGV and for vehicles from truck OEM partners.

This is a leadership position in which you will build, enable and lead a high-performing, flexible, and experienced team while staying hands-on in specification, software development, and integration. You will work at the intersection of the autonomy software stack, vehicle manufacturers, and our SW Factory, making sure our vehicle controls are robust, safe, and reliably deployable.

What is your Day to Day Mission:

Team Leadership

• Build, lead, and enable a high-performing, flexible, and experienced Vehicle Controls & Vehicle Interface team with headcount and budget ownership.
• Set priorities, ensure delivery quality, and establish best practices for specification, development, testing, and review.
• Stay hands-on: you challenge the design, review and code yourself, and debug alongside your team.

Vehicle Controls & Vehicle Interface Ownership

Ensure that you and your team:

• Own the specification of the Drive-by-Wire (DBW) interface for all primary and secondary vehicle functions, for our own vehicles and for OEM platforms.
• Design and integrate the Board Support Package (BSP) for each hardware architecture.
• Develop the vehicle controls software that sits behind the motion planner and executes trajectories produced by both a modular autonomy stack and an end-to-end ML autonomy stack.
• Design, implement, and tune the vehicle control functions themselves: lateral and longitudinal control, vehicle dynamics, and state estimation.
• Own SW/HW integration on the target vehicles and drive issues to resolution: strong troubleshooting, triaging, and integration discipline.
• Apply robust software development practices across all parts of the stack the team is responsible for.
• Build and run VnV setups for vehicle controls and the DBW interface, from bench and rig testing to vehicle-level testing.
• Establish automated testing and deployment in strong alignment with the SW Factory (target CI).
• Treat safety and security as first-class requirements throughout development and integration.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Communication

• Work hand-in-hand with the Motion Planning, Autonomy and ground operations teams to align interfaces, timing, system behavior and data driven feedback cycles.
• Collaborate closely with truck OEM partners and our internal vehicle manufacturing teams on DBW interfaces, integration, and joint testing.
• Represent vehicle controls topics credibly towards OEMs and internal leadership.

What you bring to the team:

• Engineering degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a comparable field.
• 10+ years of experience in vehicle controls and software development infrastructure for embedded systems in safety and security relevant environments in field robotics; 2+ years in a leadership or team lead role. Defense experience is a plus.
• Deep expertise in Drive-by-Wire interfaces and vehicle control functions (primary and secondary), ideally across multiple vehicle platforms.
• Hands-on experience designing and integrating Board Support Packages for different hardware architectures.
• Strong background in vehicle control design (lateral and longitudinal control, vehicle dynamics, state estimation) and in control software behind motion planners, with a solid understanding of modular and end-to-end ML autonomy stacks.
• Strong programming skills in modern C++ (and Python for tooling); hands-on experience with CAN / CAN-FD, automotive Ethernet, ROS 2 or comparable middleware, and embedded Linux / RTOS targets.
• Experience with HIL and SIL test environments for vehicle controls and DBW interfaces.
• Proven track record in robust software development practices: automated testing, CI/CD, deployment on embedded targets, and SW/HW integration.
• Outstanding troubleshooting, triaging, and software integration skills on real vehicles.
• Strong technical communication: you distill crisp action items from complex discussions and translate them into team priorities and plans; comfortable towards OEMs and internal leadership.
• Fluent in German and English.
• Player-coach mindset: high ownership, pragmatic, and thriving in a fast-paced environment.

Your Benefits:

• Direct impact: See your contributions rapidly integrated from cutting-edge research into industrialized products, flying in the field within short development cycles.
• Culture & Environment: A dynamic, fast-paced, and collaborative startup environment with flat hierarchies, efficient collaboration, and a strong emphasis on continuous learning opportunities.
• Work-life Balance: We offer flexible work schedules, and 30 days of paid vacation each year to support your personal and professional life.
• Lunch Benefit: We promote healthy eating and the well-being of our employees with a monthly lunch budget.
• Health & Wellness: We support your physical well-being with a company-subsidized eGym Wellpass membership, giving you access to thousands of gyms and sports facilities.