Validation Director

Forvia, a sustainable mobility technology leader

We pioneer technology for mobility experience that matter to people.

Your mission, roles and responsibilities

The Director of Validation leads the NAO validation organization and is responsible for defining and executing regional validation strategy to ensure products meet customer, regulatory, quality, and manufacturing requirements. This role oversees validation activities throughout the product lifecycle, manages validation risks and commitments, and develops the people, processes, and capabilities necessary to support business growth and performance.

• Define and deploy the NAO validation strategy, operating model, footprint, standards, processes, tools, databases, competencies, and governance.
• Ensure validation plans translate customer, legal, regulatory, product, process, and internal requirements into clear methods, samples, acceptance criteria, timing, cost, and evidence.
• Approve the validation approach and level of evidence for RFQs, programs, design or process changes, deviations, and serial-life actions.
• Ensure robust DV, PV, COP, reliability, performance, safety, comfort, NVH, durability, environmental, and other applicable validation deliverables for NAO-led projects.
• Own regional validation commitments at acquisition and program gates, including validation plans, statements of work, technical assumptions, timing, resource plans, and testing/simulation cost estimates.
• Establish and govern validation execution processes including DVP&R management, test readiness, requirement traceability, risk escalation, deviation management, evidence release, and production-part validation approval.
• Provide rapid technical leadership for failed tests, red alerts, COP nonconformities, customer concerns, and launch or serial-life validation issues.
• Ensure disciplined failure analysis, root-cause identification, correlation of physical testing with simulation, corrective-action verification, and lessons-learned reuse.
• Challenge weak conclusions, incomplete evidence, or noncompliant test execution and require repeat testing or additional analysis when needed.
• Develop and manage validation sourcing strategies across internal laboratories, global validation centers, and external providers while ensuring capability, capacity, quality, compliance, and cost effectiveness.
• Create effective working routines across Auburn Hills, Puebla, and global sites, with clear ownership, priorities, handoffs, and escalation paths.
• Act as the senior regional validation interface with customers and represent the organization in technical reviews, program gates, escalations, audits, and recovery discussions.
• Partner with design and program teams early to influence product architecture, design robustness, testability, sample strategy, and efficient validation sequencing.
• Maintain proactive communication of status, decisions, risks, recovery needs, and commitments through concise executive reporting and fact-based recommendations.
• Ensure validation teams are included early in program planning and that all regional validation spend and commitments are visible and controlled.
• Own departmental operating plans, budgets, capital planning, external testing spend, resource forecasts, workload allocation, and productivity improvement.
• Optimize internal versus external execution, sample reuse, test sequencing, subsystem approaches, simulation-to-test correlation, and automation to reduce lead time and total validation cost without reducing technical rigor.
• Deploy meaningful KPIs for safety, quality, delivery, cost, capacity, report right-first-time, test success, issue closure, and customer satisfaction.
• Ensure compliance with company quality, environmental, safety, information-protection, ethics, and management systems.
• Lead, develop, and retain a high-performing multi-site validation organization through talent management, succession planning, hiring, training, and coaching.

Your profile and competencies to succeed

Authorities:

• Approve regional validation strategies, DVP&R plans, test plans, statements of work, technical reports, and validation deliverables within delegated authority.
• Allocate and reprioritize validation workload across programs, sites, global resources, internal laboratories, and external suppliers.
• Escalate or stop validation activity when safety, compliance, sample integrity, test-method adherence, data quality, or technical evidence is inadequate.
• Recommend design changes, additional analysis, repeat testing, containment, deviation, or conditional release when validation evidence identifies risk.
• Approve departmental operating expenditures and recommend capital investments, organization changes, and staffing actions within company governance.

Knowledge / Skills:

• Strong leadership and project management skills
• Familiarity with automotive test methods, standards, and regulatory requirements
• Knowledge in design of seat components and mechanisms
• Team player with strong communication skills
• International mindset and minimum bilingual (English required)

Education / Experience:

• Minimum education level of a Bachelor’s degree (Master’s degree preferred) in Technical Engineering or relevant field
• Minimum 15 years of experience in the Automotive industry, with 4-5 years of experience in Product testing & validation being a plus.

What we can do for you

• At Forvia, you will find an engaging and dynamic environment where you can contribute to the development of sustainable mobility leading technologies.
• We are the seventh-largest global automotive supplier, employing more than 157,000 people in more than 40 countries which makes a lot of opportunity for career development.
• We welcome energetic and agile people who can thrive in a fast-changing environment. People who share our strong values. Team players with a collaborative mindset and a passion to deliver high standards for our clients. Lifelong learners. High performers. Globally minded people who aspire to work in a transforming industry, where excellence, speed, and quality count.
• We cultivate a learning environment, dedicating tools and resources to ensure we remain at the forefront of mobility. Our people enjoy an average of more than 22 hours of online and in-person training within FORVIA University (five campuses around the world)
• We offer a multicultural environment that values diversity and international collaboration. We believe that diversity is a strength. To create an inclusive culture where all forms of diversity create real value for the company, we have adopted gender diversity targets and inclusion action plans.
• Achieving CO2 Net Zero as a pioneer of the automotive industry is a priority: In June 2022, Forvia became the first global automotive group to be certified with the new SBTI Net-Zero Standard (the most ambitious standard of SBTi), aligned with the ambition of the 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Three principles guide our action: use less, use better and use longer, with a focus on recyclability and circular economy.

Why join us

FORVIA, a global automotive technology supplier, comprises the complementary technology and industrial strengths of Faurecia and HELLA.

With over 137 500 people, including more than 12,000 R&D engineers across 40+ countries, FORVIA provides a unique and comprehensive approach to the automotive challenges of today and tomorrow. Composed of 6 business groups and a strong IP portfolio of over 12,400 patents, FORVIA is focused on becoming the preferred innovation and integration partner for OEMs worldwide.

In 2025, the Group achieved a consolidated revenue of 26.2 billion euros prior to IFRS 5. FORVIA SE is listed on the Euronext Paris market under the FRVIA mnemonic code and is a component of the SBF 120 index.

FORVIA aims to be a change maker committed to foreseeing and making the mobility transformation happen. www.forvia.com