Triage / Root Cause & Development Engineer – Automotive Infotainment & Connectivity

Job Title

Triage / Root Cause & Development Engineer – Automotive Infotainment & Connectivity

Job Location

Auburn Hills, MI

Job Duration

6 months on W2

Description

The Triage / Root Cause & Development Engineer is responsible for end-to-end investigation, reproduction, root-cause identification, and software-level resolution of complex automotive infotainment and connectivity issues reported from customer vehicles, warranty claims, validation fleets, and production programs.

This role combines system-level triage, embedded software debugging, log analysis, source-code analysis, and hands-on development capability. The engineer is expected to drive an issue from customer symptom through technical root cause, corrective action, and validation.

The role requires strong cross-domain knowledge across Android Automotive / Android infotainment, embedded software, vehicle networks, connectivity, audio, projection, USB, power management, OTA/FOTA, and vehicle interfaces.

The role requires an engineer who can bridge development, integration, validation, field quality, and warranty engineering and independently drive high-impact issues to technical closure..

Core Responsibilities

• Customer Issue Triage & Root Cause Analysis
• Analyze customer complaints, warranty claims, and field incidents
• Translate customer symptoms into reproducible technical failure scenarios.
• Build chronological event timelines using logs from multiple system domains.
• Identify the first point of deviation from expected system behavior.
• Determine whether the issue originates from:
• Application / HMI
• Android Framework / Services
• Middleware / HAL
• Linux / Kernel
• MCU / Vehicle interface
• Network / external ECU
• Develop hypothesis-driven investigation plans and validate root cause with evidence.
• Distinguish primary root cause from secondary symptoms or recovery behavior.
• Perform read-across analysis across software versions, vehicle variants, and programs.
• Support critical warranty, customer escalation, and warroom activities.
• Typical issues may include(but not limited to):
• HU restart, freeze, ANR, crash, or black screen
• Delayed startup / display activation
• Audio loss, volume, routing, or source-switching issues
• CarPlay / Android Auto failures
• Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular, Ethernet, or USB issues
• VHAL / CAN signal processing failures
• Power-state / suspend-resume problems
• OTA / FOTA update failures
• Navigation, cluster, or HMI synchronization issues

2. Source Code Analysis & Development

• Review C, C++, Java, Android, Linux, or QNX source code associated with the failure
• Trace execution from application through framework, middleware, HAL, kernel, and vehicle interfaces
• Correlate runtime logs with source-code execution paths.
• Identify defects such as:
• Race conditions
• Incorrect state handling
• Timeout / retry failures
• IPC / Binder failures
• Synchronization issues
• Memory/resource problems
• Develop corrective software patches or prototype fixes where applicable.
• Add diagnostic logging or instrumentation to isolate intermittent failures.
• Support code review, regression assessment, and fix validation.
• The engineer is expected to provide code-level corrective recommendations, not only identify the suspected component.

3. Vehicle & Bench Reproduction

• Reproduce issues using:
• Production/development vehicles
• Infotainment benches
• HIL/VHIL systems
• Component-level test setups
• Validate software level, vehicle configuration, coding, and calibration.
• Simulate ignition, sleep/wake, suspend/resume, remote start, and other vehicle states.
• Reproduce intermittent and timing-sensitive conditions through controlled testing.
• Compare failed behavior with known-good systems.
• Validate corrective fixes under original failure conditions.

4. Log, Trace & Diagnostic Analysis

• Capture and analyze data including:
• Android logcat / bugreport / dumpsys
• ANR traces / tombstones / native crashes
• dmesg / kernel logs / pstore / ramoops
• CAN / CAN-FD / LIN traces
• Automotive Ethernet
• MCU and vehicle logs
• Wi-Fi / Bluetooth / cellular traces
• USB enumeration and power-control logs
• TCP/IP and packet captures
• Typical tools include:
• ADB, Linux shell, tcpdump, Wireshark, CANoe/CANalyzer, GDB, Git/Gerrit, Jira, Jenkins, Android Studio, ip, netstat/ss, and diagnostic utilities.
• The engineer must be able to correlate events across multiple ECUs and logging sources into a single end-to-end failure sequence.

Qualifications

• Minimum Qualifications
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Embedded Systems, or a related technical discipline.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in embedded software development, automotive infotainment, system integration, debugging, or technical root-cause analysis.
• Strong programming and debugging skills in C/C++ and/or Java, with the ability to review existing code, trace execution paths, and develop or recommend corrective software changes.
• Hands-on experience debugging Android, Embedded Linux, and/or QNX-based systems.
• Strong understanding of embedded system fundamentals, including process/thread behavior, IPC, synchronization, state machines, watchdogs, crash handling, and system startup/shutdown.
• Working knowledge of automotive communication and diagnostics, including CAN/CAN-FD, UDS, Automotive Ethernet, ECU communication, and vehicle integration.
• Understanding of vehicle power-state management, including ignition, startup/shutdown, sleep/wake, suspend/resume, and related ECU interactions.
• Proven ability to analyze and correlate complex system logs, traces, crash data, and software execution sequences across multiple components.
• Strong troubleshooting skills with the ability to distinguish software, hardware, configuration, integration, and timing-related failures.
• Ability to develop hypotheses, identify required diagnostic evidence, reproduce issues, and independently drive complex technical problems from initial triage through validated root cause and closure.
• Strong technical communication and documentation skills, with the ability to clearly present failure sequence, supporting evidence, root cause, corrective action, and validation results.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Android Automotive / Android infotainment platform development or debugging, including Android Framework and native components.
• Hands-on experience with one or more Android platform areas such as CarService, VHAL, Binder IPC, HIDL/AIDL, Audio Framework/HAL, SystemServer, or native services.
• Experience with automotive SoC/platform environments such as Qualcomm, Client, NXP, Renesas, or similar embedded platforms.
• Experience integrating or debugging Apple CarPlay and/or Android Auto, including wired and wireless projection.
• Strong knowledge of one or more connectivity domains, including Bluetooth/BLE, Wi-Fi, USB, TCP/IP networking, Automotive Ethernet, cellular, or telematics.
• Experience troubleshooting automotive audio, multimedia, display/HMI, navigation, or power-management systems.
• Experience with OTA/FOTA software update architecture, update engines, flashing, recovery, and failure analysis.
• Exposure to AUTOSAR, MCU software, vehicle abstraction layers, or low-level ECU interfaces.
• Experience with debugging tools such as ADB, Wireshark/tcpdump, CANoe/CANalyzer, Android bugreport/dumpsys, kernel logs, tombstones, and ANR traces.
• Experience supporting warranty, field-quality, production, or customer escalation investigations.
• Experience working cross-functionally with OEMs, Tier-1/Tier-2 suppliers, platform vendors, development teams, validation teams, and vehicle integration teams.
• Demonstrated experience applying structured problem-solving methods such as 8D, 5-Why, Fault Tree Analysis, or hypothesis-driven debugging.