Senior Payload Integration Engineer - UGV Platforms (m/f/d)

Join Quantum-Systems and help bring autonomous ground systems into real-world operations. As Senior Payload Integration Engineer, you will own the payload integration across our UGV platforms: the electrical, electronic, and mechanical integration of a wide range of mission payloads into our own Mandrill UGV and partner vehicle platforms. Your goal is a payload-agnostic platform with scalable, reusable interfaces instead of one-off solutions, so we can adapt quickly to evolving mission needs without redesigning the vehicle for every new configuration.

This is a senior individual contributor role with real ownership. You drive the integration architecture end to end, from interface definition through bring-up and commissioning to the point where the complete E/E system is proven to work on the vehicle. You will work at the intersection of vehicle hardware, autonomy and MOSAIC orchestration software, mechanical engineering, suppliers, and manufacturing.

What is your Day to Day Mission:

Payload Integration Architecture and Ownership

• Define and own the electrical, electronic, and mechanical integration concept for various payloads across our UGV platforms, ensuring scalable and reusable interfaces instead of one-off solutions.

• Design, specify, and validate payload interfaces: power supply, signal routing, communication interfaces, connectors, mounting concepts, cooling, grounding and shielding, and serviceability.

• Enable a payload-flexible vehicle platform that supports a wide range of customer-specific payloads (power profiles, environmental conditions, data interfaces) without major redesigns for every new configuration.

• Electrical, Electronic and mechanical Integration

• Integrate payloads into the vehicle power, network, compute, and control architectures: schematics, harnessing, connectors, fusing, diagnostics, and interface documentation.

• Work with vehicle communication buses (CAN, automotive Ethernet) to bring payload data and control interfaces cleanly into the vehicle architecture.

• Own the health of the complete E/E system: systematic cross-domain troubleshooting across payload, harness, power, compute, and software.

• Drive payload mounting together with internal vehicle teams and external suppliers: brackets, packaging, accessibility, vibration robustness, environmental protection, maintainability, and manufacturability.

Bring-up, Commissioning and Validation

• Plan and execute payload bring-up and commissioning on vehicle prototypes and demonstrators: mechanical fitment, electrical integration, software provisioning (flashing, configuration, diagnostics), troubleshooting, and validation up to full system commissioning where the complete E/E system is proven to work.

• Define acceptance criteria, build and run system-level test setups, automate recurring integration and regression tests with scripts and test tooling, and support field testing.

• Translate integration findings into design improvements for vehicle and payload interfaces, and feed validated test workflows into our CI and test infrastructure together with the HW integration and SW Factory teams.

• Work directly with payload suppliers: clarify requirements, review technical documentation, align interface specifications, and drive issue resolution.

Cross-Functional Collaboration and Documentation

• Create clear interface control documents, integration guides, test reports, lessons learned, and reusable standards for future payload integrations.

• Actively support build-ups, rework, payload installation, and vehicle-level commissioning in the workshop during prototype and customer-specific integration phases.

What you bring to the team:

• Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, vehicle systems, or a comparable technical field.

• 5+ years of hands-on experience in field robotics, vehicle, or mechatronic system integration; you have brought complex E/E systems to life on real vehicles or machines.

• Strong E/E integration expertise: power distribution, signal interfaces, connectors, wiring harnesses, grounding, shielding, diagnostics, and vehicle-level troubleshooting.

• Hands-on experience with vehicle communication buses (CAN, ideally CAN-FD or automotive Ethernet), including reading and debugging bus traffic during integration.

• Solid mechanical integration understanding: mounting concepts, packaging, tolerances, vibration, environmental robustness, accessibility, and serviceability.

• Practical software skills for integration work: Linux, scripting (e.g. Python or Bash), software provisioning and configuration of embedded devices, and issue tracking tools. You are comfortable automating recurring integration tests.

• Experience defining and running validation setups from bench and rig level up to vehicle-level testing, with a quality-first mindset and the discipline to design reliable, repeatable test setups.

• Strong integration mindset: systematic in debugging, structured in documentation, and able to turn unclear payload requirements into practical engineering solutions.

• Hands-on mentality: comfortable working directly on vehicles, prototypes, harnesses, brackets, and payload installations in the workshop.

• Strong communication skills across engineering teams, suppliers, procurement, and program stakeholders.

• Fluent in German and English.

• 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.