Sami Dakhli - Management/Strategy Consulting: Reorganization and Optimization of the R&D Division with Focus on Software Development

Taskforce leadership for development of a central ECU for autonomous driving levels 2, 3 and 4

• Advise on setting up a new business unit for mechatronic systems in battery management systems
• Conduct an inventory across different product divisions based on interviews with management and project members
• Document and present the inventory, derive consolidation actions
• Develop an overall software/electronics strategy including recruiting, define a PEP development process, set up the development toolchain and a product release process
• Define requirements for R&D, purchasing, sales, quality and production
• Ensure compliance with APSICE, functional safety and cybersecurity requirements
• Align the strategy with involved divisions and corporate management
• Support the HR team in candidate selection and interviews
• Coordinate external partners: research institutes, universities, partner companies and suppliers
• Prepare an overall cost estimate including detailed planning for approval and budgeting
• Support sales in acquisition and component cost calculation
• Advise the industrialization team on software, electronics and supply chain matters
• Provide regular reports to the managing director and corporate management

• Taskforce deployment and advisory for project reorganization
• Design project organization, identify stakeholders, build interfaces and transition the project out of taskforce mode
• Lead an interdisciplinary team of 25–35 employees at three sites (HW development, software development, data center setup for HIL/SIL farm, system testing, system analysis, network specialists)
• Define and document system architecture as well as requirements and change management
• Introduce methods for resource planning and project controlling
• Strategically advise management and derive measures to achieve goals
• Create transparency around product maturity, resources and collaboration, initiate optimization measures
• Work closely with software development and involved FOs (object detection, object tracking, basic functions, algorithm development, LIDAR optical module)
• Manage six suppliers for proprietary software and hardware scopes
• Advise on setting up reporting to the customer and organizing the taskforce
• Advise on developing a validation strategy to secure the lidar sensor
• Responsible for developing HIL/SIL infrastructure and setting up a data center at three global sites
• Plan Data Center Level 1 and 2 support including SLA creation
• Provide daily tracking and reporting to management and top management on the customer side
• Conduct resource and budget planning with standard project methods
• Develop validation and release concepts for HIL/SIL including data center
• Rebuild requirements management and resolve conflicts with internal and external stakeholders
• Ongoing risk management and documentation of work processes according to ISO 26262 and ASPICE

• Leading a team of 30 software integrators in Germany, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine
• Planning, scheduling, and monitoring all software integration activities in the development cycle
• Creating a protocol for integration build & release management
• Setting up and supervising continuous integration processes
• Establishing and enforcing process protocols for configuration management of software artifacts
• Coordinating software package contents and schedules with internal and external suppliers
• Change management for internal/external CRs and coordination with error management
• Aligning architecture and deciding on the integration sequence of software packages
• Responsible for software testing and validation, leading the test instances
• Coordinating activities at remote sites
• Creating and approving software release documentation

• Embedded software development in a multiprocessor architecture
• Leading a globally distributed development team of about 100 experts in Singapore, Hungary, Czech Republic, Mexico, and Germany
• Coordinating requirements engineering, test management, software quality assurance, error management, functional specialist groups, platform development, configuration management, HMI development, and software architecture
• Budget planning and coordination with management, supporting bid calculation
• Reporting to the business unit head and top management
• Acting as central contact person for the customer in meetings and workshops
• Software delivery and series release
• Continuous risk management and central scheduling
• Leading the core team and CCB rounds, monitoring change management

• Development of a battery system for EV vehicles and stationary applications
• Benchmarking current Li-ion storage technologies
• Analysis of possible system topologies and definition of system architecture
• Detailed planning of system architecture and required control units
• Creation of a networking concept and circuit design
• Design of the mechanical packaging concept
• Conducting FMEA and functional safety analysis

• Technical project leadership for the infotainment variant tree in a multi-project environment
• Responsibility for head unit variants for different vehicle series and markets
• Main point of contact for module scopes within the VW Group
• Support of various product generations (3G, 3G+, MIB I, MIB II)
• Leading and coordinating design, wiring harness, EMC, robust design, system testing, HILs, and network boards
• Creating schedules and coordinating with suppliers
• Managing system suppliers from Japan/Belgium and Germany/USA
• Creation and coordination of control unit specifications
• Planning and managing control unit qualification with external service providers
• Series release and BOM maintenance
• Conducting D-FMEA and design reviews at suppliers

• Defining test scopes for artificial aging of specimens
• Studying aging effects on capacity, internal resistance, and performance
• Analysis of maximum load capacity regarding temperature, charge/discharge cycles, and output performance
• Setting up the test arrangement, conducting tests, and evaluating results

• Conducting audits at electronics manufacturers according to APQP methodology
• Initiating and tracking optimization measures
• Performing P-FMEA and approving production lines
• Regular inspection of ongoing series productions and collection of quality data
• Creating quality statistics and approving goods for shipment