Head of Customer Engineering

Sonatus is a well-funded, fast-paced, and fast-growing company whose technologies and software help automakers build dynamic software-defined vehicles. With two generations of solutions already on the road with a top global OEM, our vehicle and cloud software solutions are at the forefront of the digital transformation of vehicles. The Sonatus team is a talented and diverse collection of technology and automotive specialists hailing from many of the most prominent companies in their respective industries.

As the Sonatus “Head of Customer Engineering”, you will build and lead a Customer Engineering team that provides technical guidance to customers for both the Integration of Sonatus’ embedded and cloud software platforms and to overcome design challenges post integration. You will work cross functionally with software development and marketing to generate collateral for existing and new product offerings, and drive innovation by providing insightful feedback to other internal teams to continuously improve products and processes. The Customer Engineering team will support key customers directly and provide engineering expertise as needed throughout the sales process, having lab access to address the challenges associated with integrating Sonatus leading edge embedded firmware and cloud software products. 

Duties and Responsibilities

• Build a professional Customer Engineering team in the US, EMEA, and APAC which is responsible for making sure all new customers are enabled for a successful product rollout.
• Provide technology leadership and foster engineering excellence within the Customer Engineering Team.
• Technical ownership of issue resolution: Driving and directing internal teams and driving communication to customers directly and/or through FAE and sales teams as needed.
• Maintain close relationships with key accounts with visits as needed to ensure that the company’s products are meeting their requirements.
• Manage project-based contract and outsourced software development vendors.
• Prepare product training materials, best practice documentation, conduct product demos, develop POCs and product modifications as required for successful integration of Sonatus’ offerings.
• Review and follow-up on outstanding issues with the customer, work closely with cross functional teams and bring open issues to closure.
• Provide technical leadership in understanding of critical / blocking issues if any faced by customer and provide timely support with advice to unblock.
• Build strategic professional relationships across new and existing customers and act as a customer facing liaison responsible for identifying and developing strategic plans that improve the engagement level.
• Maintain Release Notes by documenting new services, fixes and setup configuration details. 

Qualifications and Experience

• Strong academic and technical software background in computer science and/or computer engineering. At minimum, a Bachelor’s in CS/CE is required, MS/PhD is preferred.
• 10+ years’ experience in customer facing software integration and support, preferably at the embedded level within the Automotive market.
• 5+ yrs’ experience managing a team of customer facing applications/integration engineers
• Professional attitude with the ability to prioritize a dynamic list of multiple tasks, plan and prepare for customer meetings in advance, and work with minimal guidance and supervision.
• Entrepreneurial, open-minded behavior and can-do attitude. Think and act with the customer in mind!
• Independent and self-motivated Technical Hands-on Leader with a passion for software development.
• Executive presence and proven ability to communicate professionally with executive teams.
• Demonstrable success leading, inspiring, and empowering a high-performance team.
• Experience of working in a high growth environment with an appreciation of how the dynamics of growth affect corporate culture and in-place processes and systems.

Technology Requirements

• Experience with networking technologies such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, HTTP, etc.
• Understand how ECUs interconnect and work within a vehicle.
• Experience with network security and network monitoring tools
• Hands-on development and troubleshooting experience with embedded targets
• Solid programming experience in C++
• Familiarity with software configuration management tools, defect tracking tools and peer review
• Experience with Embedded Linux, RTOS, Android, and/or other embedded operating systems
• Proficient in Python or other scripting languages
• Experience with automotive product development a plus (e.g. CAN, AUTOSAR, etc.) 

Sonatus is a tight-knit team aligned around a unified vision. We put progress ahead of politics and are not afraid of asking tough questions. Sometimes we get too busy to say it, but you can be confident that you and your contributions will matter every day. We embrace diversity in all regards because respect is ingrained in our every fiber.

Other benefits Sonatus offers include: *

Competitive compensation and stock option offerings

Time off (national holidays and statutory annual leave provisions apply)

Health care plan (Medical, dental)

Income protection and Life insurance benefits

Pension plan

Life Assurance Benefits

Fitness Allowance

Phone & internet reimbursement

IT Equipment allowance

 Snack and drinks in office

*(Subject to change as necessary. Sonatus reserves the right to assess the benefit offerings on a periodic basis).