Automotive Seat cost engineer

Job Description

Your Role

As an Automotive Cost Engineer, you will be responsible for should costing of Carpet systems, Acoustic Insulation components, Wheel Arch liners, and Hood insulation assemblies including sub-components. You will ensure effective supplier quote review, DCW approval, and competitor benchmarking, along with supporting RFQ/RFI planning through strong cross-functional collaboration.

In this role, you will:

• Develop bottom-up should-cost models covering carpet, insulation, wheel arch, and hood insulation, including process mapping, cycle time estimation, and regional labor/machine rate benchmarking.
• Validate cost drivers such as raw materials, conversion costs, and margins, and build Excel-based models with assumptions and analysis.
• Perform supplier cost analysis by identifying gaps vs should cost, highlighting cost inflation, and supporting negotiations with structured outcomes.
• Challenge supplier assumptions on labor, materials, overheads, and eliminate non-value-added costs.
• Manage program cost including piece cost, tooling, ED&D, and drive gap closure plans.
• Drive Value Engineering (VA/VE) through design simplification, material optimization, and process improvements with quantified savings.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Purchasing, Manufacturing, and Supplier teams for design-to-cost, sourcing strategy, and feasibility validation.
• Perform cost benchmarking across regions and architectures to establish best-in-class references.
• Prepare governance dashboards and executive reports highlighting risks, opportunities, and negotiation strategies.
• Manage BOM and cost breakdowns while identifying key cost drivers.
• Identify and control risks such as cost overruns and inconsistencies with corrective actions.
• Drive Polaris-based costing processes and ensure PLM (Teamcenter) excellence including DCW and benchmarking activities.
• Continuously monitor supplier quotes and DCW approvals for cost accuracy.

Job Description - Grade Specific

Your Profile:

• Demonstrate ownership in leading end-to-end cost control across the complete program lifecycle, ensuring governance compliance across engineering, supply chain, and manufacturing functions.
• Drive excellence in PLM systems (Teamcenter), including effective management of costing BOMs, review of design changes (D-notes), and support for DCW activities and benchmarking (A2Mac1 or equivalent tools).
• Provide strategic costing insights and decision-making support, including cost monitoring, risk identification, and effective escalation management when required.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams (Engineering, SCM, Manufacturing, and Suppliers) while maintaining strong stakeholder engagement and clear communication.
• Lead and implement process improvements, automation, and digitalization initiatives to enhance operational efficiency and ensure standardization across processes.
• Take accountability for delivering and validating complex cost targets, ensuring closure through optimized solutions aligned with program objectives.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement by leveraging knowledge capitalization, capturing lessons learned (REX), and implementing best practices across programs.
• Exhibit strong project management capabilities, with expertise in KPI governance, performance tracking, and driving continuous improvement initiatives.

Tools knowledge:

Teamcenter, Space vertex, Polaris, Excel, Power point, Power BI, A2Mac1

Expertise:

Expertise in passenger car carpet, acoustic insulation, wheel arch, and hood insulation systems across the complete product development lifecycle, including design, development, VAVE, and benchmarking, with Tier-1 supplier experience as an added advantage.