Principal Charging Software Engineer

Reports to Chief Engineer - Charging Hardware This role requires a full-time onsite presence in Durham, NC *We are only able to consider candidates who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents (green card holders) and who do not require current or future visa sponsorship of any sort.* **About IONNA** Welcome to IONNA, the joint venture founded by eight global automotive leaders: BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis and Toyota. At IONNA, we’re revolutionizing the EV charging landscape in North America by creating a high-powered charging network that’s set to redefine the way we drive. Our Mission: Make EV charging reliable, accessible, and convenient. With a commitment to deploying a minimum of 30,000 chargers across North America, we’re shaping the future of electric mobility, exceeding industry standards and leading the charge toward a sustainable, zero-emission tomorrow. **Position Summary** The Principal Charging Software Engineer owns charger software end-to-end: firmware quality, the charging-software roadmap, cross-cutting software architecture, and the full software development lifecycle (SDLC) with our charger vendor. As the charger portfolio grows and on-board software becomes increasingly complex, this role ensures software stops being the constraint on reliability, directly defending the uptime and first-plug-success metrics that drivers, OEMs, and third-party raters judge us on. The successful candidate brings a strong software-engineering background, deep familiarity with EV charging technology, and a proven track record leading software architecture and managing a vendor’s software delivery lifecycle at the scale of a public charging network. **Key Responsibilities** **Charging Software Architecture & Roadmap** - Own the architecture and technical direction for charger software and firmware across the EVSE portfolio, including functional safety, software FMEA, APIs, and state-machine design. - Define and maintain the charging-software roadmap and align it with the vendor’s roadmap; lead gap analysis to sequence features, quality improvements, and platform changes against IONNA’s KPI targets. - Ensure the charger software is fully interoperable across the broader IONNA ecosystem, embedding the V2G communications and OCPP stack to integrate seamlessly with IONNA's CPMS, payment systems, and Plug & Charge, keeping the stack scalable, maintainable, and reliable as the portfolio expands. **Charging System Vendor SDLC Leadership** - Lead the full charger software development lifecycle: requirements, design reviews, release planning, acceptance criteria, quality gates, and release notes and documentation. - Drive predictable, on-time software deliveries from the vendor; hold release governance and improve delivery cadence and quality. - Serve as the primary technical owner of the charger software relationship, partnering with the Charging Hardware Lead on combined HW/SW releases. - Maintain and manage a comprehensive set of charging-software requirements and acceptance criteria. **Quality, Reliability & Release Governance** - Own charger software/firmware quality outcomes, driving regressions and escaped defects toward zero and protecting uptime and 1^st^ attempt success. - Partner with the Testing & Technology Evaluation team to gate releases, validate firmware, and ensure testability is designed in from the start. - Lead root-cause analysis on software-driven field issues and support Tier-3 obligations to resolution. - Make major contributions to go/no-go release decisions and shape pilot strategy; manage, measure, and continuously improve software-related KPIs for the charging systems. **Cross-Functional Collaboration** - Work closely with Hardware, Testing, Product, Program Management, and Operations to align charger software with the broader roadmap and deployment plans. - Translate technical software findings into clear, actionable insights for engineering, product, and execu…