Brief Role Description

This position is a career level 29L, and is located in San Jose, CA with a role classification of Fully On-Site.

The Manager benchmarking & User Experience (Autonomous Driving Technologies) plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of autonomous mobility by driving user experience excellence tailored to the U.S. market. This position is responsible for implementing and leading benchmarking initiatives that evaluate competitive solutions and emerging technologies, with a specific focus on user experience in autonomous driving. Through these efforts, the manager ensures that Audi's offerings meet and exceed customer expectations while remaining at the forefront of innovation.

To understand the nuanced needs of U.S. customers, the role requires the execution of both primary and secondary research, including the collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative market data. These insights inform product strategy and help identify trends that influence the development of ADAS and Human-Machine Interface (HMI) requirements. The manager leads a data-driven, customer-centric approach to define technical characteristics and user interaction models that enhance the in-vehicle experience.

Collaboration across cross-functional teams-including engineering, design, product management, and marketing-is essential to translate customer insights into actionable product features. The ultimate objective of this role is to deliver best-in-class user experience solutions for autonomous driving technologies, ensuring Audi's leadership in the U.S. market through strategic benchmarking and continuous refinement.

This individual interacts with various internal (AoA//VWGoA/AUDI AG/Volkswagen AG / Porsche AG / CARIAD SE) and strategic external stakeholders to ensure best alignment and fit.

Possible Tasks within this Role

Benchmarking (30%)

• Define and lead the benchmarking strategy focused on user experience in autonomous driving technologies
• Analyze competitor solutions and emerging innovations to identify best-in-class practices
• Translate benchmarking insights into actionable ADAS and HMI requirements
• Monitor global and U.S.-specific trends related to ADAS product and UX strategy
• Support strategic decision-making with data-driven evaluations and comparisons.
• Drive continuous improvement of user experience through structured benchmarking cycles

User experience strategy and concept (30%)

• Develop highly sophisticated UX Vision and Mission for autonomous driving functions within the US market. Set specific and measurable goals for the team in order to achieve improvement for the holistic user experience of assisted and piloted features
• Oversee the user centered design process and enable an iterative development approach for autonomous driving interfaces
• Lead interdisciplinary concept development considering HMI software engineering, design and research
• Lead rapid HMI prototyping activities to ensure quick reality checks of US HMI product solutions
• Utilize analytics and user data to steer sustainable UX decisions
• Formalize US requirement process with stakeholder
• Own the end-to-end current and future-state ADAS HMI customer journey for Audi of America

Market research and analytics (20%)

• Lead primary and secondary research projects to generate a data base for autonomous driving
• Conduct qualitative and quantitative research to understand US user needs and derive market specific requirements
• Conduct competitive analysis to identify strength and weaknesses of competitors. Derive market opportunities and threats based on competitive landscape
• Develop Audi driving characteristics for autonomous driving solutions based on market specific road scenarios
• Lead market trend analysis to identify technology trends and create future vision for ADAS_AD
• Define research cooperations with universities and represent Audi of America in the academic environment

Leadership (20%)

• Represent the Audi brand NAR in the field of ADAS in meetings and committees on board / top management level.
• Influence team of 2 FTE within digital, connection, data and product department to align on strategic direction, priorities, and execution.
• Be comfortable with managing small teams of less than 10 people

Qualification requirements

Education

• Bachelor Degree in Psychology, Market research, Engineering or Management

Desired

• Master/PhD
• Extensive knowledge of internal OEM processes to drive decisions
• Extensive knowledge of autonomous driving development (ADAS_AD)

• 10+ years of experience in User experience development with focus on Human Machine Interfaces
• 10+ years of experience in market analytics - qualitative and quantitative research
• 10+ years of in-depth understanding of the worldwide Volkswagen business and engin