The Role
Leads requirements engineering methodology and process standardization across KOSTAL’s global automotive development organization. Elicits, analyzes, structures, and traces customer, system, subsystem, hardware, and software requirements through verification and validation. Facilitates workshops, manages changes, supports audits and Automotive SPICE assessments, and advises international engineering teams. Requires strong systems engineering knowledge, automotive requirements experience, and familiarity with DOORS, Jira, ISO 26262, and ISO/SAE 21434.
Summary Generated by Built In
Company Description
We are KOSTAL Group, a global, independent family-owned company headquartered in Germany, developing and manufacturing high-tech electronic and mechatronic products. Across 47 locations in 21 countries, more than 19,000 employees work flexibly, competently, and close to our customers.
Join KOSTAL and shape the requirements engineering backbone for KOSTAL's European development organization!
Job DescriptionWe are looking for an experienced Lead Requirements Engineer (m/f/d). In this position, you will actively contribute to the methodological development, standardization, and implementation of a company-wide requirements engineering approach. You will use your extensive experience to further develop existing practices and embed them within global development processes. Your area of responsibility will cover all levels of requirements engineering – from customer requirements through the system, subsystem, hardware, and software levels to verification and validation.
Contribution to Methodology and Process Development
- Actively contribute to the development of a company-wide requirements engineering methodology
- Help shape and standardize processes, roles, responsibilities, and work products
- Contribute to the development of guidelines for the elicitation, analysis, specification, alignment, verification, and validation of requirements
- Support the implementation of the requirements engineering approach within the global development process
- Contribute to harmonizing existing practices across projects, development locations, and product areas
- Develop and continuously improve templates, guidelines, checklists, and quality criteria
- Contribute to establishing a consistent requirements lifecycle across all development phases and levels of abstraction
- Support the definition of governance, review, and approval mechanisms
- Identify process gaps and develop and implement improvement proposals
- Advise project teams and engineering managers on methodological and technical requirements
- engineering topics
- Role boundary: Responsibility for the company-wide methodology and process development does not lie with this position. The successful candidate will make a significant contribution to its development and implementation.
Operational Requirements Engineering
- Elicit and analyze customer, stakeholder, system, safety, and regulatory requirements
- Structure and derive requirements across the various technical levels
- Transform customer requirements into verifiable system requirements
- Derive and align subsystem, hardware, and software requirements
- Ensure that requirements specifications are clear, consistent, complete, and testable
- Facilitate requirements workshops with internal and external stakeholders
- Align technical requirements with international development, product management, quality, and project teams
- Ensure bidirectional traceability between customer requirements, system requirements, technical requirements, test cases, and verification results
- Support the planning and execution of requirements reviews
- Evaluate and manage change requests from a requirements perspective
- Monitor the impact of changes on systems, subsystems, hardware, software, testing, schedules, and risks
- Support the verification and validation of requirements
- Analyze and improve the quality of requirements and requirements baselines
- Document and track decisions, assumptions, open issues, and dependencies
Collaboration with Development Organizations
- Work closely with Systems Engineering, Software Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Functional Safety, Cybersecurity, Test, and Quality Assurance
- Integrate requirements engineering into existing development and project structures
- Support international projects in applying the defined processes in practice
- Advise project teams and engineering managers on methodological and technical matters
- Promote a consistent understanding of requirements engineering across the organization
- Support assessments, audits, and maturity evaluations, particularly in the context of Automotive SPICE
Professional Qualifications:
- University degree in Electrical Engineering, Automotive Engineering, Mechatronics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a comparable technical discipline
- At least 5 years of professional experience in requirements engineering within the automotive industry
- Extensive experience with complex international automotive development projects
- Proven experience in requirements engineering across multiple technical levels
- Excellent knowledge of the complete requirements lifecycle
- Experience with customer requirements and system requirements, including their derivation at subsystem, hardware, and software level
- Experience contributing to the introduction, standardization, or improvement of requirements engineering processes
- Good knowledge of requirements traceability through to verification and validation
- Experience working with global automotive manufacturers and their development, quality, and documentation requirements
- Good knowledge of Automotive SPICE, ISO 26262, and ISO/SAE 21434
- Good knowledge of agile development methods and Scrum
- Solid knowledge of Systems Engineering
- Practical experience with IBM DOORS or DOORS Next
- Experience using Jira in a development or requirements management environment
Personal Skills:
- Strong analytical and structured approach to work
- Ability to present complex technical interrelationships in a clear and structured manner
- Confident interaction with international stakeholders and customers
- Excellent communication and facilitation skills
- Ability to structure conflicting interests and drive sustainable decisions
- Strong sense of responsibility and a pronounced implementation-oriented mindset
- Willingness to not only understand standards, but also help embed them sustainably in projects
- Ability to work independently in an international and interdisciplinary organization
Language Skills
- Business-fluent English, both written and spoken, is essential
- German language skills are an advantage
What We Offer:
- employment contract
- flexible working hours
- challenging role with diverse projects and the opportunity to bring your own ideas to life
- friendly, collaborative international work environment.
- comprehensive benefits package, including:
- private medical care,
- Multisport cards,
- lunch cards.
Skills Required
- University degree in Electrical Engineering, Automotive Engineering, Mechatronics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a comparable technical discipline
- At least 5 years of professional experience in requirements engineering within the automotive industry
- Extensive experience with complex international automotive development projects
- Proven experience in requirements engineering across multiple technical levels
- Excellent knowledge of the complete requirements lifecycle
- Experience with customer and system requirements, including derivation at subsystem, hardware, and software levels
- Experience contributing to the introduction, standardization, or improvement of requirements engineering processes
- Good knowledge of requirements traceability through verification and validation
- Experience working with global automotive manufacturers and their development, quality, and documentation requirements
- Good knowledge of Automotive SPICE, ISO 26262, and ISO/SAE 21434
- Good knowledge of agile development methods and Scrum
- Solid knowledge of Systems Engineering
- Practical experience with IBM DOORS or DOORS Next
- Experience using Jira in a development or requirements management environment
- Business-fluent English, written and spoken
- German language skills
KOSTAL Group Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about KOSTAL Group and has not been reviewed or approved by KOSTAL Group.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is often described as fair for the job, with overtime and shift premiums boosting total earnings in some roles and regions. U.S. operations in particular are cited for competitive base pay.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as comprehensive in multiple locations, with offerings such as medical and dental plans and insurance partnerships. This breadth contributes to positive sentiment around total compensation.
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Flexible Benefits — Flexible working hours, flexitime, and remote-work options are commonly offered for eligible roles. These arrangements support work-life balance alongside core pay and benefits.
KOSTAL Group Insights
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The Company
What We Do
KOSTAL Group is a global, independent, family-owned company based in Germany that develops and manufactures technologically complex electronic and mechatronic products.
