Lead, TPL – Cost & Governance

Responsibilities

• Lead program execution, issue resolution, and cross-functional alignment across the entire vehicle program
• Develop bottom-up cost calculations across vehicle main system teams and departments
• Assess and validate the plausibility of budget requests
• Consolidate and communicate approved budgets across MSTs and departments
• Drive cost forecasting activities and track actual spend against approved budgets
• Perform ongoing budget risk assessments to identify deviations and trends
• Establish and enforce financial governance and accountability with senior stakeholders
• Support resource allocation decisions aligned with project scope and timing
• Monitor and track progress against Top Goals and KPIs
• Identify cost-driven risks and trade-offs to support data-driven decision-making
• Support the preparation of financial reporting, dashboards, and leadership materials
• Act as a central coordination point for cost and governance topics

Requirements

• 12+ years of professional experience in the automotive industry (program finance, cost engineering, controlling, or program management)
• Bachelor's degree in engineering
• Proven experience developing bottom-up cost estimates and managing program budgets
• Strong understanding of automotive program financial structures
• Demonstrated ability to assess budget plausibility and challenge assumptions
• Experience managing financial forecasting and actuals tracking
• Proven ability to drive accountability across senior stakeholders
• Experience in resource planning and allocation
• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication skills for presenting financial insights to leadership
• Proficiency with financial planning tools and advanced Excel
• Solid understanding of cross-functional automotive development processes
• Demonstrated AI literacy for enhancing forecasting and reporting
• High attention to detail regarding accuracy and governance

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in automotive controlling, cost engineering, or program finance leadership
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification
• Experience in Agile or hybrid development environments
• Experience in EV architectures or software-defined vehicle platforms
• Understanding of the Volkswagen PEP product development system

About the Company

Scout Motors is reviving an iconic American brand by electrifying and digitizing it, creating rugged SUVs and trucks for the future of transportation.