Costing Methodology & Standardization Expert (m/f/d)

Mission

Own and govern the methodology, standards and assumptions for vehicle-level manufacturing technologies that are applicable across multiple domains (e.g., stamping, die-casting, machining and injection molding), while ensuring these generic technologies are appropriately tailored to the technical and costing specifics of each subdomain and consistently applied across complete-vehicle analyses. Drive harmonization across subdomains and establish the technology calculation guidelines, acceptance criteria, quality assurance and validation tools and reference databases and governance needed to deliver reliable and consistent outputs.

Tasks & Responsibilities

1. Vehicle-level technology costing methodology

• Own the methodology, standards and costing principles for vehicle-level manufacturing technologies that are not specific to a single part type or subdomain, such as stamping, die-casting, machining, injection molding and other cross-domain technologies.
• Define and maintain the common rules, assumptions, calculation approaches and application guidelines for these technologies, ensuring consistent representation and use across complete-vehicle analyses.
• Own the tailoring of generic vehicle-level technologies to the specific technical, manufacturing and costing characteristics of each subdomain with support of subdomain leads, while preserving common principles, traceability and comparability across domains.
• Act as the methodological reference and decision authority for technologies and cost drivers spanning multiple domains, resolving cross-domain methodology questions and ensuring alignment between generic standards and subdomain implementation.

2. Standards, databases and reference data governance

• Own and govern the reference databases used by Costing & Insights for methodology application, including material, equipment and work centers.
• Define data structures, ownership rules, update cycles, validation requirements for databases.
• Ensure reference data is accurate, current, traceable and consistent.
• Coordinate with domain experts and relevant stakeholders to identify required database updates resulting from new technologies, materials, manufacturing processes or market changes.

3. Quality methods and vehicle level consistency

• Define and continuously improve quality-control methods to review technology calculations, material assumptions and their consistency at complete-vehicle level.
• Establish vehicle-level quality gates, checks and exception criteria that identify inconsistent assumptions, outliers and methodology deviations.
• Be accountable for the overall consistency of technology application and material definition across the entire vehicle.
• Drive root-cause analysis and corrective actions for recurring methodology or consistency issues, converting lessons learned into updated standards, controls or reference data.

4. Cross-domain integration and consistency

• Own cross-domain consistency across the complete vehicle, ensuring that interfaces and shared assumptions between domains are coherent and do not create gaps or overlaps.
• Ensure consistency of commodity costing principles across domains.
• Ensure alignment between domain final assembly assumptions so that vehicle-level results are consistent.
• Facilitate cross-domain reviews and arbitrate methodology topics where different domain approaches need to be harmonized.
• Partner with cost engineers and Methodology & Innovation stakeholders to deploy standards and ensure effective adoption.

5. Methodology deployment and continuous improvement

• Maintain clear documentation of standards, calculation rules, quality methods and database governance, ensuring changes are communicated and understood by internal and external users.
• Support training, onboarding and knowledge transfer on vehicle-level methodologies and cross-domain standards.
• Monitor application of standards, collect feedback from users and projects, and prioritize improvements based on quality impact, scalability and business needs.
• Contribute to the evolution of Costing & Insights methodologies and tools by translating recurring integration challenges into structured improvement requirements.

Key measures & indicators (main KPIs used in the role)

• Consistency of costing results of main technologies across entire vehicle costing.
• Methods and tools created for consistency and quality assurance.
• Completeness and timely update of shared material, equipment and methodology databases.
• Reduction in recurring cross-domain inconsistencies, methodology deviations and quality findings.
• Timely resolution of methodology and integration issues identified.
• Adoption of updated standards, databases and quality methods across Costing & Insights teams.

Requirements

Education and Professional Background

• Master's degree in engineering or a comparable technical discipline.
• 8+ years of experience in automotive engineering, cost engineering, manufacturing engineering, benchmarking, value engineering or a related technical environment.
• Strong experience working across complete-vehicle systems and multiple automotive domains rather than within only one component or commodity family.
• Demonstrated experience defining or governing engineering/costing methodologies, technical standards, reference data or quality processes.
• Experience with vehicle costing, manufacturing processes, materials and final assembly is strongly preferred.

Skills & Abilities

• Strong understanding of vehicle architecture and the interactions between major domains such as Powertrain, Electronics, Exterior & Battery, and Interior.
• Broad knowledge of automotive technologies, materials, manufacturing processes, equipment and cost drivers at vehicle level.
• Ability to translate complex technical topics into clear, scalable calculation rules, standards and quality checks.
• Strong analytical mindset with the ability to identify inconsistencies, challenge assumptions and perform structured root-cause analysis.
• Strong data-governance discipline, with attention to traceability, version control, validation and reference-data quality.
• Ability to influence and align cross-functional experts without relying solely on formal authority; comfortable arbitrating technical differences and driving convergence.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to document methodologies and explain them to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Professional level in English; additional languages are an advantage.
• Advanced Excel skills; familiarity with costing tools, databases, BI/data-analysis tools or scripting is an advantage.
• High attention to detail combined with a systems-level view of the complete vehicle.