Senior Staff Customer Engineer - Automotive AI Engineer

Sonatus is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California with international locations in Ireland, France, Germany, Poland, Korea, China, India, Taiwan and Japan. This is a(n) hybrid position at our Korea location. You will report to Customer Engineering Director.

Sonatus is at the forefront of the automotive industry’s transformation into a software-defined future, where vehicles are continuously evolving platforms rather than static products. This shift creates a unique opportunity to work on cutting-edge technologies that directly impact how OEMs design, deploy, and enhance their vehicles. At Sonatus, employees are empowered to innovate, collaborate with leading automakers, and solve complex, real-world challenges at scale. It’s an environment where forward-thinking engineers and leaders can shape the next generation of mobility while growing alongside a company driving meaningful change across the industry.

Sonatus is seeking a highly motivated Senior/Staff AI Engineer to join our Customer Engineering (CE) team and help deliver AI-driven solutions for automotive OEM and Tier-1 customers.

In this role, you will work directly with customers to understand real-world challenges in their vehicle environments and translate those challenges into practical solutions using Sonatus AI technologies.

A key responsibility of this role is to own the integration and deployment of AI capabilities on the Sonatus AI platform across cloud environments (Sonatus or customer-managed) and vehicle systems, ensuring reliable, scalable, and seamless interaction between vehicle-side data and cloud-based intelligence.

This role operates in a forward-deployed engineering model, partnering closely with customer teams to define problems, build solutions, and drive production deployment and adoption end-to-end.

• →Own end-to-end delivery of AI-driven solutions, from problem definition and use case shaping to production deployment, adoption, and measurable customer impact
• →Lead and own customer engagements and project execution, particularly for Korea-based programs, driving alignment, execution, and successful delivery across customer and internal teams
• →Partner directly with OEM and Tier-1 customers to identify ambiguous problems, challenge assumptions, and drive high-leverage technical and business outcomes as a trusted advisor
• →Design, build, and deploy AI/ML solutions across vehicle, edge, and cloud environments, including data pipelines, model development, system integration, and continuous iteration based on real-world data
• →Lead system integration across vehicle and cloud ecosystems, ensuring reliable data flow, interoperability, and seamless interaction between in-vehicle systems and backend platforms
• →Drive technical decision-making and alignment, clearly communicating trade-offs, constraints, and long-term architectural implications to both technical and executive stakeholders
• →Own production deployment, scaling, and reuse, ensuring solutions are successfully adopted and expanded across vehicle programs, platforms, and regions
• →Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, AI Platform, and Engineering teams to influence platform evolution and improve scalability, reliability, and usability based on field learnings

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (Master’s or PhD preferred)
• 15+ years of experience in AI / Machine Learning, Data Engineering, or related domains
• Solid understanding of machine learning, data analytics, and AI-based systems, including practical experience delivering real-world solutions
• Experience designing and working with data pipelines, analytics workflows, and model-driven systems
• Experience integrating platform-based solutions with external systems, data pipelines, and APIs
• Strong hands-on experience developing, integrating, and deploying AI/ML-based solutions in production environments
• Proven ability to influence customer direction and drive technical decision-making in customer-facing engagements
• Experience leading technical discovery, shaping ambiguous problem spaces, and proposing scalable solution approaches
• Proven ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly and persuasively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Ability to operate effectively in ambiguous environments and drive clarity, alignment, and execution
• Experience in customer engineering, solution engineering, or forward-deployed engineering roles is highly preferred
• Familiarity with modern AI methodologies such as Agentic AI, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), or data-driven automation is a plus
• Experience in automotive software, vehicle systems, or mobility-related domains (nice to have)