Technical Expert Driver Behavior - Threat Management Principles

Who are we?
Volvo Cars is a company on a mission; to bring traditional car manufacturing into a connected, sustainable and smart future.
Since 1927, we have been a brand known for our commitment to safety, creating innovative cars that make life less complicated for our consumers. In 2010, we decided to transform our business, resulting in a totally new generation of cars and technologies, as well as steady growth and record sales. Today, we’re expanding our global footprint in Europe, China and the US, and we’re on the lookout for new talent.
We are constantly pushing our own skills and abilities to drive change in the automobile industry like never before. We are looking for innovative, committed people to join us in this endeavour and create safe, sustainable and connected cars. We believe in the power of people and will challenge and support you to reach your full potential. Join us and be part of Volvo Cars’ journey into the future.

What’s in it for you?
We are looking for a Technical Expert within Driver Behavior - Threat Management Principles with a genuine interest in traffic and vehicle safety to join our Safety Centre at Volvo Cars Headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden. 

At Volvo Cars Safety Centre, 190 highly skilled professionals strive every day to make the world a safer place for car drivers and everyone else on the road. We are proud of our track record including numerous world's firsts, all based on real world research and knowledge.

The future challenges and opportunities are exciting and through advanced technology and research we are developing safety with regards to injury prevention and collision avoidance, which in recent years has seen an extensive expansion into areas such as Autonomous Drive, User Experience, Perceived Safety and Driver Behavior. 

What you’ll do 
The general role of a Technical Expert at Volvo Cars is to deliver scientific and strategic input within your area of expertise, as well as addressing key issues and providing insights into customer needs and perform benchmarks relevant to the area. In addition, you are also expected to increase the organizational competence through coaching and teaching within your area of specialty.

As a Technical Expert in Driver Behavior Threat Management principles, you will lead our research into how to make VCC’s Collision Prevention systems the most user friendly and effective they can be; all with the goal of securing Volvo Cars Vision of Zero Collisions and a leading position in Safety. Or put slightly differently, for any collision prevention system to be successful, it must be designed in such a way that when used to warn the driver and/or intervene with vehicle controls, it has a very high level of driver acceptance and compliance. Only when drivers act according to system design and intentions and appreciate the system input can its full safety potential be realized.

The role provides thought leadership on experimental design and execution as well as analysis and conclusions for studies of which interaction design principles should be applied for time critical warning and intervention systems in order to achieve the highest levels possible of compliance and acceptance. A new and critical challenge in this regard is how to go beyond laboratory experiments toward what can be referred to as fleet insights, i.e., how to shift from experiments in controlled settings toward analysis based on how regular drivers interact with ADAS in daily driving. 

You and your skills
First and foremost, you share our genuine interest in traffic safety! We also believe you have a master’s degree or higher within relevant area, as well as knowledge and experience of threat management principles, including various approaches to achieve high acceptance of, and compliance with, collision prevention warnings and interventions. 

You have knowledge and substantial experience of collision prevention systems within automotive safety, as well as deep knowledge on how drivers respond to both consciously and unconsciously perceived stimuli, such as sound, haptic or visual in-vehicle warnings, in particular in critical situations. Experience of statistical analysis and advanced safety technology development is a plus.

You are research focused and motivated but can still keep a customer focus, in the sense that research at Volvo Cars in the end is intended to create safer and better products and therefore has to support product development in the way it is performed. 

The role is broad, and teamwork is required to succeed. You therefore need to have a collaborative mindset and believe that teamwork is a stronger driver of results than solo acts. Also, you need to have the pedagogical skill and engagement required to present and explain insights to an audience who might not know your area very well, and doing this in such a way that they easily can apply your learnings in their own areas of expertise of product development. You will also be expected to contribute to external exposure of Volvo’s safety leadership (e.g., through expert groups, scientific articles, and public outreach).

How to learn more and apply
For questions about the position, please contact Hiring Manager Mattias Robertson at +46733334544 or mattias.robertson@volvocars.com. For questions regarding the recruitment process, please contact Recruiter Maria Kihlgren at maria.kihlgren@volvocars.com. We want your application at the latest April 26, 2022. Please note that due to GDPR applications via email will not be accepted.