Where Are the Jobs for Autonomous Vehicle Engineers? GM and Google Top the List

Hardware and software engineers looking to work on autonomous vehicle technologies have lots of choices, according to an analysis by Indeed.com

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A cartoon of a self-driving car with a "Now Hiring" sign shows the autonomous vehicle industry is looking for software engineers
Illustration: Getty Images

It’s a good time to be an engineer with some expertise in autonomous vehicles, particular a software engineer.

That’s what Daniel Culbertson thinks. He’s an economist for Indeed.com, the web-based job search engine.

“This industry is on a steep line of growth right now, and I expect it to keep growing,” Culbertson said.

Culbertson recently took a look at all of Indeed’s job listings for autonomous vehicle engineers over the past year. Most of the tech jobs in the industry were for software engineers, he told me, and the most jobs were in Germany. Interestingly, he said, there is less interest from German job seekers in those German jobs than from U.S. job seekers in U.S. jobs, generally, he said, because the U.S. is leading in autonomous vehicle innovation, and engineers want to be where the most interesting technology is.

All signs point to continued growth in job postings, Culbertson said. “Looking at the list of top employers,” he said, “it is good for the industry that you have both new tech companies like Google and Uber as well as the older automotive companies. That shows that we’re not seeing a flash in the pan. You also see automotive suppliers, not just car manufacturers, hiring; that ancillary companies are starting to invest also speaks to the continuing growth of this industry.”

The top 15 companies, in terms of share of job postings for autonomous vehicle engineers from October 2015 to October 2016, were:

  1. GM: 11.30 percent
  2. Google: 9.4 percent
  3. Ford: 6.4 percent
  4. Bosch: 6.4 percent
  5. Atieva (now Lucid Motors): 5.5 percent
  6. Workbridge Associates: 2.7 percent
  7. Daimler AG: 2.4 percent
  8. BMW: 2.1 percent
  9. Valeo: 2.1 percent
  10. HERE: 1.8 percent
  11. Nvidia: 1.8 percent
  12. Elektronische Fahrewerksystem GmbH: 1.8 percent
  13. Delphi Automotive: 1.6 percent
  14. Continental: 1.5 percent
  15. BMW-Mini: 1.3 percent

Looking at worldwide trends, Culbertson considered just postings during the second quarter of this year. He did note that one posting does not necessarily always equate to one opening and can sometimes represent multiple openings, but said looking at postings can suggest general trends. The number of clicks, he indicated, shows the level of interest job seekers have in the industry.

This bar chart shows supply vs demand for autonomous vehicle engineering jobs around the world. The supply is highest in Germany but demand is lower than supply there.

Zeroing in on the U.S., Culbertson discovered that a spike in both job availability and interest in those jobs started about a year ago.

In this  graph tracking supply and demand of autonomous vehicle engineering jobs in the U.S. over time, both took a sharp upturn in 2015, and continue to climb dramatically

A quick check of Indeed.com’s listing shows that the slope, if anything has gotten steeper since Culbertson ran these numbers. Right now, the jobs site lists at least 76 openings at Silicon Valley companies alone.

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