Application Engineer (Trucking)

Join our team as an Application Engineer (Trucking) and play a key role in leading a strategic autonomy program with a major automotive OEM customer in Japan. You will be the day-to-day point of contact for the customer, build trusted relationships, drive milestone delivery, and support autonomy demonstrations for prospective customers. This role requires strong systems thinking, excellent communication skills, and a solid technical foundation in software systems.

• Lead a strategic autonomy program with a major automotive OEM customer in Japan, from development through real-world on-road deployment.
• Serve as a day-to-day point of contact for the customer and the technical bridge to Applied’s engineering teams, building trusted relationships with customer engineers and leadership.
• Drive milestone delivery, build the customer’s in-house capability through a structured knowledge transfer program, and align internal teams across autonomy, systems, hardware, and operations.

• Strong systems thinking and the ability to weigh engineering trade-offs against customer outcomes and timelines
• Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or related field
• A track record of managing stakeholders across functions, organizations, and cultures, in both individual contributor and leadership capacities
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including presenting to customer leadership and explaining complex technical topics simply
• 3+ years of experience leading customer-facing technical programs, systems integration, or complex engineering projects
• Comfort operating in ambiguous environments and driving delivery under tight timelines and complex constraints
• A solid technical foundation in software systems, with the ability to dig into technical issues alongside engineers
• Professional proficiency in Japanese, and experience working closely with Japanese companies
• Experience in application engineering, technical program management, technical sales, or consulting in the autonomy or simulation space
• Background working with automotive OEMs or Tier 1 suppliers
• Experience planning or running technical product demonstrations for executives or prospective customers
• Experience designing or running technical training or knowledge transfer programs
• Familiarity with autonomous vehicle or robotics system development, including perception, localization, planning, or vehicle integration
• Willingness to travel to Japan for onsite customer engagement and demos
• Baseline knowledge in working with software systems, Linux, Git and cloud