systems_engineer --domain=autonomous_vehicles

Raakesh Raja Ramachandran

// Systems Engineer · Zoox  |  ECU Validation · Functional Safety · AI Tooling

6+ years building and validating software for electric and autonomous vehicles at Zoox, Lucid Motors, and NIO. I work at the intersection of hardware-in-the-loop testing, CAN/LIN protocols, and functional safety — and lately, I build AI-powered agentic tools that make the whole pipeline faster.

✉ Get in touch LinkedIn GitHub

Work

Projects & Contributions

🤖
AI-Powered Test Automation Agent

Built an end-to-end agentic pipeline using multiple MCP servers that autonomously monitors CI test failures, diagnoses root causes, generates targeted fixes, and opens pull requests to Git — all without human intervention. Drove a measurable ramp in PR velocity at Zoox and enabled developers to spin up consistent, reliable test automation for new features significantly faster.

MCP LLM integration Python Git automation CI/CD
⚡
Reserve Energy Monitor

Designed and owned full-cycle validation of Zoox's Reserve Energy Monitor. Developed an innovative CAPL-based test methodology to validate the monitor well ahead of production release, identified design gaps, recommended improvements, and ran 12V battery characterization tests to support fail-operational calibration.

CAPL CANoe Databricks Functional Safety
🔧
Active Suspension Safety Validation

Developed the full test plan for Active Suspension safety monitors and authored HiL system test cases in collaboration with Vehicle Systems Integration and firmware teams. Contributed to HARA analysis for suspension and robot modes, ensuring correct ASIL verification methodology was applied.

HiL HARA ISO 26262 Cross-team
📱
SplitSmart

Personal project — an AI-powered group trip planning app built with React Native, ChromaDB, and Ollama. Uses a local RAG pipeline to provide smart expense splitting and itinerary suggestions. A sandbox for experimenting with agentic UX patterns outside of the automotive world.

React Native RAG ChromaDB Ollama
🚗
Vehicle-Level Test Automation Framework

At Lucid Motors, pioneered a time-synchronized log collection framework covering AUTOSAR and non-AUTOSAR ECUs (syslog, slog2info, top, memory dumps). Built using Python and ECU-Test; adopted company-wide and cut regression cycle time by 40%.

Python ECU-Test AUTOSAR ADAS

Background

Experience

2022 — Present

Zoox · San Mateo, CA

Systems Engineer

  • AI-powered test agent using MCP servers — automated failure analysis, fix generation, and Git push
  • Full-cycle validation of Reserve Energy Monitor from pre-production through release
  • Active Suspension safety monitor test planning and HiL test case development
  • HARA analysis contributions for power systems, suspension, and robot modes
  • Databricks analysis identifying non-optimal DCDC converter operation
  • ZTF framework updates enabling shift-left validation for new supplier ECU versions
Sept 2019 — 2022

Lucid Motors · Newark, CA

Senior Engineer, Software Integration & Validation

  • Led initial ADAS ECU integration: front camera, short/long range radars, parking control unit
  • Pioneered vehicle-level test automation framework adopted across multiple teams
  • Reproduced SW bugs occurring as rarely as 1-in-5000 operation cycles
  • Executed functional safety test cases for low voltage power distribution
  • Mentored team on automation framework and SW versioning best practices
Jan 2019 — Aug 2019

NIO · San Jose, CA

Software Validation Associate

  • Automated Digital Cockpit ECU firmware validation in Python on Linux
  • CAN message spoofing with PCAN, CANoe, and CANalyzer
  • Built test suites covering acceptance, functional, and regression testing
Mar 2018 — Dec 2018

Michigan Tech · Vehicular Network Technologies Lab

Graduate Research & Teaching Assistant

  • Research on CAN, LIN, and Automotive Ethernet protocol attributes
  • Mentored graduate students in automotive microcontroller communication labs

Stack

Technical Skills

Languages

Python CAPL Bash JavaScript

Automotive Tools

Vector CANoe CANalyzer ECU-Test PCAN Wireshark PicoScope

Protocols

CAN LIN Automotive Ethernet UDS FlexRay

Safety Standards

ISO 26262 HARA ASIL AUTOSAR ASPICE

AI & Agentic

MCP LLM integration RAG ChromaDB Ollama

Dev & Data

Git Databricks JIRA PyTest React Native Linux

Let's talk

Get in Touch

✉ raakeshrajakr@gmail.com in linkedin.com/in/raakesh ⌥ github.com/raakesh ☏ 906-370-8293