Brief Role Description

The Lead Safety Driver is responsible for coordinating the activities of a team of safety drivers who monitor and operate an autonomous vehicle within the Volkswagen Group’s Autonomous Driving, Mobility and Transport (ADMT) business unit. This role is critical to ensuring the safe, efficient and compliant testing of AV technologies in real-world and public-road environments. 

You will collaborate closely with the technology developers, test engineers and other partners to refine test requests into vehicle operations ensuring clear and proper test execution while following applicable processes. You will coordinate with other Lead Safety Drivers to develop shift plans and assign tests that are aligned with individual driver experiences and availabilities. You will communicate these objectives to the safety drivers via start of shift briefs that include required safety advisories as well as daily traffic and weather events. 

You will ensure that road tests are monitored through various communication channels. At the end of the test, you will ensure that the team complete all post processing activities adequately and collaborate with the test owners that their objectives are fulfilled.  

You will also coach and mentor safety drivers and, if needed, you will personally provide vehicle operations and related support services.

Possible Tasks within this Role

Driver management & Coordination – 40% of time 

• On-site coordination of assigned safety driver team (up to 10 drivers) in planning test execution in an efficient manner that maximizes outcomes and utilization of people and assets 
• Participate in regular meetings with engineers for test planning 
• Plan weekly schedules, deliver safety briefings, assign drivers to vehicles for test execution 
• Complete quarterly spot checks on driver performance to training guidelines 
• Provide timely updates to test requestors on test progress and results 

Test Preparation and Planning – 30% of time 

• Reviewed assigned test request tickets, for completeness and clarity and plan routes for efficient test execution - collaborate with engineers, suppliers, and partners as needed. 
• Plan and execute shift plan, adjust schedules as needed in accordance with vehicle and driver experience and availabilities. 
• Conduct daily safety and planning briefs, including announcements, driver assignments, weather predictions, and safety advisories. 
• Perform pre-mission vehicle inspections, vehicle startup procedures as needed. 
• Lead demo event planning, develop and improve routes for management, customers, external stakeholders and events. 
• Mentor and support new safety drivers in their development 

Test Execution - 20% of time 

• Execute shift plan with the assigned team of safety drivers, adjust schedules as needed in accordance with vehicle and driver availabilities 
• Act as the first point of contact for incident response, if assigned and notify impacted stakeholders in case of such events. 
• Monitor and act on communication through the shift (Teams, Slack, email, etc.). 
• Support or operate vehicle for the execution of non-standard vehicle tests, or when using new or special software releases on public roads. 
• Support or execute vehicle acceptance tests to determine new prototype vehicle readiness. 
• Support or execute special demo drives with top company leadership, external stakeholders and other critical events. 

Post-processing of Test Data – 10% of time 

• Ensure that test data collection post-processing is performed adequately and support safety driver team as needed. 
• Update test ticket point of contact on status of mission at end of day - communicate test results to test engineering, mapping team, suppliers, and partners
• Support safety drivers as needed on vehicle shutdown protocols, test data upload, triage of collected test data, etc. 

Qualification requirements

Years of Relevant Experience

• 5 years of experience professionally operating a vehicle with a clean driving record
• 2 years of experience testing a vehicle equipped with ADS or ADAS

Education

Skills

• People management skills to lead, coach and motivate a team of safety drivers 
• Clear and effective communication skills 
• Attention to detail and sound judgment necessary to handle public road testing  
• Professional and courteous manner 
• Flexible mindset to test new workflows and logistics pertaining to commercial pilot operations 
• Strong interest in technology and software and the ability to adapt to its ever-changing developments and improvements
• Possess a valid driver’s license with a clean DMV report
• Possess a valid US Passport

Specialized Skills

Work Flexibility

• Physically able to drive a vehicle for an extended period 
• Ready and able to travel (international and domestic) to remote offices, training facilities or other testing cities if the need arises
• Ability to adhere to a flexible work schedule which may include varying shift times that may include weekends with advance notification