Embedded firmware engineers. A modern car's dashboard, cameras and control units run on software inside them. Firmware engineers write it in C and C++ on embedded Linux, RTOS and QNX, with CAN bus and automotive Ethernet, to the AUTOSAR architecture and the ASPICE and ISO 26262 standards. Many build Android for the car itself, with AOSP and the Android framework. Harman hires the most, followed by the car-electronics supplier Aptiv and Visteon, with the video fleet-safety company Lytx and the rail-technology company Wabtec. Firmware engineers are more than three times as common here as at a typical product company, and they take the most juniors here.

Test engineers. Every screen, voice command and dealer system is tested before it reaches a car or a showroom. Test engineers work at Harman and Solera above all, in Java and Python with Selenium, Appium and Robot Framework, and many on embedded and mobile testing. They are a little above their usual weight.

Java backend and full-stack engineers. The claims and dealer platforms, the transit-fare systems, the dealer-software company Tekion and Uber run on Java services. Java engineers build them in Spring Boot on AWS, with Kafka and PostgreSQL. Java is less common here than at most product companies, and it is hired almost entirely with experience.

.NET engineers. Solera builds much of its platform on the Microsoft stack, and it hires most of the .NET engineers here, in C# with React, SQL Server and Entity Framework. Lytx and Harman hire the rest. .NET engineers are above their usual weight.

Mobile engineers. The car's screen is increasingly an Android device. Mobile engineers build apps for it in Kotlin and Java with the Android framework and Jetpack Compose, mostly at Harman and Visteon. Uber hires mobile engineers for its own apps. Mobile engineers are more than three times as common here as elsewhere, and they are hired almost entirely with experience.

Cloud and DevOps engineers. Harman, Solera and Uber hire cloud engineers, in Python with Kubernetes and Terraform on AWS. They are below their usual weight.

GenAI engineers. Tekion, Visteon and Solera hire most of the GenAI engineers here, building assistants for dealers, drivers and claims handlers in Python and Java with LangChain, LangGraph and MCP. GenAI is less common here than at most product companies.

Data engineers. Solera, Uber, Harman and Lytx hire data engineers, in Python with Kafka, Spark and Flink. They hold about their usual place.

Go engineers. The ride-hailing platforms, like Uber, Ola and Rapido, and the fleet-management company Motive build their services in Go. Go holds about its usual place overall, and it is several times as common in ride-hailing.

Also present. C/C++ systems engineers at the infotainment and electronics makers, like Harman, Visteon and Aptiv, frontend engineers, generalist software engineers at Wabtec and Solera, ML engineers for computer vision at Harman and the video fleet-safety companies, like Lytx and Netradyne, generalist software engineers in Automotive and mobility at Uber, Node engineers at the charging network ChargePoint and the car-auction companies, like Copart and ACV Auctions, fintech software engineers, SAP developers and Software Engineer, Security roles.

Rare here. Salesforce and VLSI work barely appear.