Vehicle Launch Engineer, Body Exteriors

We’re ALTEN Technology USA, an engineering company helping clients bring groundbreaking ideas to life—from advancing space exploration and life-saving medical devices to building autonomous electric vehicles. With 3,000+ experts across North America, we partner with leading companies in aerospace, medical devices, robotics, automotive, commercial vehicles, EVs, rail, and more. As part of the global ALTEN Group—57,000+ engineers in 30 countries—we deliver across the entire product development cycle, from consulting to full project outsourcing. When you join ALTEN Technology USA, you’ll collaborate on some of the world’s toughest engineering challenges, supported by mentorship, career growth opportunities, and comprehensive benefits. We take pride in fostering a culture where employees feel valued, supported, and inspired to grow. Workplace: On-site, 4 days per week. Fridays, Remote Location: Long Beach, CA You will be a key contributor within a world class automotive body exterior engineering team, responsible for driving exterior systems from design intent through prototype builds, pilot, and job one at the assembly plant. This role sits at the intersection of design release, manufacturing, and quality, and owns the launch readiness of exterior commodities including fascias, claddings, moldings, spoilers, roof systems, glazing, ornamentation, and sensor apertures. You will be the exteriors team's on the ground presence during build events, translating engineering intent into repeatable plant execution and closing issues fast enough to protect program timing. Responsibilities: • Own launch readiness for assigned exterior commodities across all build phases, from early prototype and integration builds through pilot, pre-production, and start of production • Lead build event support at the assembly plant and prototype shop, including part staging, first time build documentation, issue capture, containment, and daily issue review • Serve as the primary interface between exterior DREs, plant vehicle team, manufacturing engineering, STA, and quality on part availability, buildability, and process capability • Drive root cause and corrective action on exterior fit, finish, gap and flush, squeak and rattle, water leak, and craftsmanship findings discovered during build and validation • Manage the exterior launch issue list, prioritize by program risk, and drive closure through design change, tooling change, or process change with clear ownership and timing • Support tolerance and dimensional strategy execution, including fit to nominal execution, locator and datum verification, gap and flush measurement, and correlation of variation studies to build results • Coordinate part readiness with suppliers and purchasing, including tooling maturity, PPAP status, off tool and off process part timing, and escalation of at risk parts • Support DFM and DFA reviews on exterior components and assemblies, providing manufacturing and assembly feedback into the design during the release window • Track and report launch metrics and readiness status to program leadership, including open issue burn down, part readiness, and quality gate performance • Support engineering change execution during launch, verifying change implementation in the plant and confirming effectiveness on subsequent builds • Participate in buck reviews, teardown events, and vehicle audits, documenting findings and driving them into the appropriate engineering or manufacturing lane Required Skills: • Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Manufacturing, Industrial, or Automotive Engineering, or equivalent experience • 5+ years of automotive engineering experience with direct involvement in vehicle launch, prototype builds, or plant side product engineering • Hands on experience with exterior body commodities such as fascias, bumpers, claddings, moldings, spoilers, glazing, or ornamentation • Demonstrated ownership of launch issue resolution, including root cause analysis, corrective acti…