Technical Consultant, OEM Customer Engineering, Part-Time
Role Description
Technical Consultant, OEM Customer Engineering (HVAC & Electrical), Part-Time
Location: Michigan remote
Job type: Part-time, contract
Pay: $40 to $50 per hour, plus a $20,000 to $30,000 annual guarantee
A global automotive electronics and systems supplier is establishing its North American presence and is looking for an experienced technical consultant to work with its customer engineering activity on a part-time, contract basis.
The client is well established in China and Europe, with existing production business with a North American OEM. Its product range covers electrical systems, sensors and control units, washer systems, and moulded plastic components. In North America it is building from a standing start.
This is a peer-to-peer engineering engagement, not a sales role. There is no quota, no territory and no cold calling.
What you'll do
- Maintain and build technical relationships within HVAC and electrical engineering functions at GM, Ford or Stellantis
- Review incoming technical RFQs and help structure the response
- Engage OEM engineering contacts engineer to engineer, diagnose requirements and open early technical conversations
- Work alongside the client's sales executives on live opportunities, providing the technical read
What you'll need
- Background as a Design Release Engineer, Chief Engineer, Commodity Engineer or engineering manager at GM, Ford or Stellantis, or at a Tier 1 supplying them
- Specialist domain experience in automotive HVAC and electrical systems
- An active network inside OEM engineering
- Comfortable working independently with minimal structure
- Advantage: able to communicate directly with China-based engineering and commercial teams
What's on offer
- $40 to $50 per hour, depending on experience
- A $20,000 to $30,000 annual guarantee, paid on top of the hourly rate
- Genuinely flexible, low hours
- Remote
How to apply
Apply through this advert with a current resume. All applications are handled in confidence by Thornley Corporate Solutions. The client is not named at this stage and will be disclosed to shortlisted candidates.
Thornley Corporate Solutions is acting as an employment business in relation to this vacancy. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other protected characteristic.
About Forward Deployed Engineering
Forward Deployed Engineers are embedded directly with customers to build custom solutions, integrate products into existing infrastructure, and bridge the gap between product engineering and customer success. The role combines deep technical skills with the ability to operate in client environments and translate business requirements into working software.
Originally pioneered by Palantir, the FDE model has spread across AI, enterprise SaaS, and cloud infrastructure companies. FDEs write production code, architect integrations, train customer teams, and feed product insights back to the core engineering organization. At companies like OpenAI, Salesforce, and Databricks, FDE teams are treated as elite engineering units that can ship custom solutions in days rather than quarters.
Typical FDE stack: Python, TypeScript, SQL, REST/GraphQL APIs, cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure), and increasingly LLM APIs and AI orchestration frameworks. Strong communication and the ability to context-switch between technical and business conversations are as important as coding ability.
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