Autonomy Test & Validation Engineer

Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc. is a leading global manufacturer of golf cars, utility and personal transportation vehicles, professional turf-care equipment, and ground support equipment. Textron Specialized Vehicles markets products under several different brands. Its vehicles are found in environments ranging from golf courses to factories, airports to planned communities, and theme parks to hunting preserves.
Responsibilities:

• Develop scenario-based validation strategies covering nominal, degraded, and edge-case operating conditions.
• Verify autonomous system performance within defined Operational Design Domains (ODDs) while measuring system-level KPI's.
• Execute safety validation activities and support hazard analysis and risk assessment activities.
• Support integration, commissioning, and validation of autonomous vehicles during prototype builds and field deployments.
• Capture high-quality structured datasets for continuous ML model improvements.
• Perform root-cause investigations across perception, localization, planning, and controls subsystems.
• Provide clear validation reports and insights to accelerate development.
• Develop best practices and protocols to ensure safe, valuable testing for autonomous vehicles.
• Work with technical development team to solve and troubleshoot problems in real-time during field testing.

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Mechatronics, Electrical, Mechanical, Software Engineering or other related field required.
• Years of Experience: 2+ years of relevant experience required.
• Software Knowledge: Python, C++, or similar programming languages required.

Additional Requirements:

• Required Skills: Experience in vehicle testing, robotics validation, or autonomous systems. Strong understanding of sensors (LiDAR, camera, GPS, IMU) and vehicle dynamics and control behaviour. Ability to design structured test plans and analyse complex system performance. Experience with data logging, telemetry capture, and analysis tools. Hands-on, field-based debugging mindset with strong problem-solving skills.
• Preferred Skills: ROS2 systems and autonomy stacks. Autonomous navigation and control concepts. AI/ML systems in real-world environments. Simulation tools (Isaac Sim or similar). Basic scripting (Python) for data analysis and automation.

Travel Requirements

• ~40% travel required to support field testing, KPI validation, safety testing, data collection, pilot deployments, and customer acceptance activities.
• Valid driver's license required.