The Advanced Design to Cost & Value Engineering Specialist supports vehicle programs by driving cost optimized design decisions from early concept through hardware and software readiness. This role partners closely with Advanced Design Engineering, Product Development, and Cost Engineering to embed Design to Cost and Value Engineering principles directly into vehicle architecture, system design, and component development.
Operating within the Cost Engineering & Total Production Cost organization, the specialist ensures that cost targets, functional value, and design intent are aligned early, enabling competitive vehicles without sacrificing performance, quality, or customer value.
Key Responsibilities
Design to Cost & Value Engineering Leadership
- Lead Design to Cost and Value Engineering activities from early Advanced phases through Tooling KickOff (TKOM), ensuring cost is treated as a design parameter, not a post design constraint.
- Identify high‑impact commodities, systems, and architectures for Value Engineering loops (Loop 1 & Loop 2), focusing on functional optimization, design simplification, and material/process efficiency.
- Facilitate cross-functional Design to Cost workshops that generate actionable design changes tied to function, performance, manufacturability, and supplier capability.
- Drive Value Analysis activities, challenging over‑design, redundancy, and cost drivers while preserving customer‑relevant features.
Design Convergence & Technical Collaboration
- Partner with Advanced Project Engineering, Product Development Engineering, Manufacturing, Purchasing, and Suppliers to translate Value Engineering proposals into feasible design solutions.
- Actively challenge designs to improve cost‑to‑function ratios, including architecture choices, part integration, material selection, tooling strategy, and manufacturing processes.
- Support design convergence by ensuring cost‑driven trade studies and alternatives are evaluated early and documented for leadership decision‑making.
Cost Targeting & Benchmark‑Driven Design
- Support development of Total Production Cost (TPC) targets based on competitive benchmarking, reference vehicles, and “Best in Class” architectures.
- Translate competitive benchmarks into clear, component level and system level cost guidance for engineering teams.
- Promote a value based benchmarking mindset, focusing on how competitors achieve similar or better functionality at lower cost.
Program Economics & Decision Support
- Collaborate with the Project Economics Manager to:
- Monitor Design to Cost savings and track Value Engineering implementation.
- Provide cost based insights for Chief Vehicle Engineer arbitration and major design decisions.
- Support project convergence on vehicle TPC and vendor tooling investments.
- Bring structured cost and value insights to stakeholders to provoke early action and informed design trade‑offs.
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor of Science in Engineering or related education field(Degrees in Accounting, Finance, or Business considered with strong engineering exposure)
- A minimum of 8 years of experience in the automotive industry, advanced manufacturing or related industries
- Strong understanding of automotive systems, vehicle architectures, and production processes
- Proven ability to lead cross‑functional, technical discussions and influence design outcomes
- Data driven mindset with strong analytical skills and attention to detail
- Advanced proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Outlook, and Word
Preferred Qualifcations:
- Direct experience in Design to Cost, Value Engineering, and Value Analysis
- Experience linking functional requirements to cost drivers
- Background in vehicle cost, product engineering, or manufacturing engineering
- Ability to synthesize complex technical and cost data into clear recommendations for leadership
Skills Required
- Bachelor of Science in Engineering or related education field
- Minimum of 8 years of experience in the automotive industry or advanced manufacturing
- Strong understanding of automotive systems and production processes
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional technical discussions
- Advanced proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Outlook, and Word
Stellantis Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Stellantis and has not been reviewed or approved by Stellantis.
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Pay Growth & Progression — Contract-driven increases lifted hourly wages roughly 25% over 4.5 years and restored cost-of-living adjustments, pushing top rates near $42 per hour by the end of the agreement. Union hourly positions appear to have benefited most since the 2023 deal.
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Affordable Benefits — UAW-represented hourly workers pay no premiums and about 3% of total healthcare costs while receiving comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and wellness coverage. This creates materially lower out-of-pocket costs for represented hourly roles.
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Retirement Support — Post-2007 hourly hires receive a 10% employer 401(k) contribution and legacy workers saw defined-benefit improvements with retiree bonuses. Salaried roles also cite a 401(k) with employer match and contribution up to a maximum of 8%.
Stellantis Insights
What We Do
Our storied and iconic brands embody the passion of their visionary founders and today’s customers in their innovative products and services: they include Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, DS Automobiles, Fiat, Jeep®, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram, Vauxhall and mobility brands Free2move and Leasys. Powered by our diversity, we lead the way the world moves – aspiring to become the greatest sustainable mobility tech company, not the biggest, while creating added value for all stakeholders as well as the communities in which we operate.
