Lead Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) Engineer

Mountain View, CAHybridFull TimeLead$230,000–$284,000 /yrPosted 2 months agoVisa sponsorship available

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Required skills

NVH
Noise, Vibration, and Harshness
CAE
FEA
SEA
Nastran
Optistruct
Abaqus
Hypermesh
Simlab

Nice to have

driveline whine
brake noise
battery pack isolation
global automotive NVH regulations
door seals
cabin interior trims

Role summary

Waymo is seeking a Lead NVH Engineer to define and implement the full vehicle NVH strategy, ensuring a quiet and reliable vehicle experience. This role involves leading the integration of NVH for the Self Driving System, utilizing advanced CAE tools for analysis and optimization, and planning/executing NVH tests. The engineer will also drive adoption of new NVH technologies, lead root cause analysis for complex issues, and collaborate with internal teams and OEM partners. A Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering with 12+ years of automotive NVH experience, deep knowledge of acoustics and vibration, and expertise in NVH CAE and testing tools are required. Experience with EV NVH challenges and regulations is preferred.

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the world's most trusted driver. Since its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has focused on building the Waymo Driver—The World's Most Experienced Driver™—to improve access to mobility while saving thousands of lives now lost to traffic crashes. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo’s fully autonomous ride-hail service and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over ten million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving over 100 million miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 15+ U.S. states.

Our vehicle engineers work with the cars of the future every day. We touch every part of the vehicle — electrical and thermal systems, chassis and interiors, power and energy storage and beyond — as we add self-driving power to existing auto designs and create new systems of our own. Our goal: To build a new generation of high-performing vehicles that are comfortable, reliable and safe.

This role follows a hybrid work schedule and you will report to a Lead Mechanical Simulation Engineer.

You will:

Full Vehicle NVH Architecture: Define and implement the complete vehicle NVH strategy, from top-level vehicle requirements to component-level targets, end-to-end engineering including tracking and delivery of targets

Design and Integration: Lead the implementation of the NVH strategy for the integration of the Self Driving System and the base vehicle platform. Where necessary influencing all elements of the integration and vehicle/system design to ensure a quiet and calm environment for our end users, including: body structure, powertrain mounts, suspension, tires, acoustic treatments, isolations etc

Simulation and Analysis: Utilize advanced CAE tools (e.g., finite element analysis (FEA), statistical energy analysis (SEA)) to predict, analyze, and optimize NVH characteristics throughout the product development cycle

Testing and Validation: Plan, execute, and analyze vehicle and component-level NVH tests (e.g., sound quality, road noise, wind noise, powertrain contribution) both in the lab and on the road

Technology leadership and Problem Solving: Stay current with and drive the adoption of emerging NVH technologies, materials, and measurement techniques, develop innovative solutions like utilizing cabin noise and induced sound through speakers to predict mechanical failures, lead root cause analysis and develop robust engineering countermeasures for complex NVH issues identified during virtual and physical validation

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Waymo internal design teams and OEM partners to ensure NVH solutions are compatible with all other vehicle attributes and develop detailed NVH models for the Waymo components in collaboration with the CAE team

You have:

Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering with minimum 12 years of experience in automotive NVH engineering with increasing responsibility, including significant experience in full vehicle design/analysis and target setting.

Deep theoretical and practical knowledge of acoustics, vibration, modal analysis, and sound quality metrics.

Expertise in NVH CAE tools like Nastran, Optistruct and Abaqus, NVH signal processing tools, and familiarity in model building with tools like Hypermesh, Simlab and Ansa.

Proficiency in NVH test equipment and software (e.g., B&K, Simcenter Testlab, VIacoustics) and expertise in performing NVH tests

We prefer:

Experience with electric vehicle (EV) NVH challenges, including driveline whine, brake noise, and battery pack isolation

Familiarity with global automotive NVH regulations and standards

Experience in the selection and application of door seals, cabin interior trims, thermal ducts materials, and other acoustic materials for NVH

The expected base salary range for this full-time position across US locations is listed below. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors, including exact work location, experience, relevant training and education, and skill level. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the role location or, if the role can be performed remote, the specific salary range for your preferred location, during the hiring process.

Waymo employees are also eligible to participate in Waymo’s discretionary annual bonus program, equity incentive plan, and generous Company benefits program, subject to eligibility requirements.

Salary Range$230,000—$284,000 USD

Sample Waymo interview questions

1
Design a data ingestion system
system designmedium
2
Design a simulation-based regression detection system for code changes
system designhard
3
Longest Substring with Two Distinct Characters Find the longest substring with at most two distinct characters. Input: s = "ccaabbb" Output: 5 Explanation: The substring "aabbb" contains exactly two distinct characters and has a maximum length of 5.
codingmedium
4
Alien Dictionary Order Derive the alien dictionary order from a sorted list of alien words. Input: words = ["z","x","z"] Output: "" (Empty String) Explanation: The letter 'z' cannot come before 'x' and then suddenly after 'x', creating a cycle and making the dictionary invalid.
codingmedium
5
Palindrome After Deleting One Character Determine if a string can be a palindrome after deleting at most one character. Input: s = "abc" Output: FALSE Explanation: Deleting any single character leaves either "ab", "bc", or "ac", none of which result in a valid palindrome.
codingmedium

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