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About This Role
Available in 2 locationsAvailable in 2 locations
Principal Energy Research Engineer
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Available in 2 locations
Raymond, Ohio, United States
Torrance, California, United States
Job ID: 12119
Raymond, Ohio, 43067
1st Shift
$101,100\.00 \- $126,300\.00
What Makes a Honda, is Who makes a Honda
Honda has a clear vision for the future, and it’s a joyful one. We are looking for individuals with the skills, courage, persistence, and dreams that will help us reach our future\-focused goals. At our core is innovation. Honda is constantly innovating and developing solutions to drive our business with record success. We strive to be a company that serves as a source of “power” that supports people around the world who are trying to do things based on their own initiative and that helps people expand their own potential. To this end, Honda strives to realize “the joy and freedom of mobility” by developing new technologies and an innovative approach to achieve a “zero environmental footprint.”
We are looking for qualified individuals with diverse backgrounds, experiences, continuous improvement values, and a strong work ethic to join our team.
If your goals and values align with Honda’s, we want you to join our team to Bring the Future!
Job Purpose
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- The Principal Research Engineer conducts research and development efforts for Charging and Energy Technologies.
- You will work with emerging, state\-of\-the art collaborators to find and progress new approaches to develop new value solutions.
- The role targets proof\-of\-value (PoV) demonstrations for consideration towards development in products.
- You will work with cross\-functional members from within the COE division, related function groups (regional or global) and regional business stakeholders to prepare and review PoVs.
Key Accountabilities
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- Independently define, lead, and execute advanced research initiatives in renewable energy integration, electrical infrastructure, advanced battery systems, and energy conversion methods.
- Continuously sense emerging technologies (energy generation, transmission, and distribution, vehicle charging, automation, etc.), consumer trends, and the NA market pertaining to charging and energy.
- Own end\-to\-end execution of complex research programs, from concept through proof\-of\-value (PoV), proof\-of\-concept, or MVP demonstration maintaining accountability for technical outcomes, timeline adherence, and research quality.
- Support in the design and implement prototypes for energy and charging systems, ensuring scalability, reliability, and security.
- Lead new technology from the research portfolio of themes for implementation into the Honda technical strategy through existing meeting structure and cadence
- Work closely with stakeholders, industry partners, and academic institutions to identify challenges and co\-develop solutions.
- Gain knowledge and expertise in emerging technologies, document findings, and inform others to grow the overall technical capability in NA
Qualifications, Experience, and Skills
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- Education: At least a Bachelors level degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Energy Systems / Renewable Energy or a related STEM field.
- At least 8\+ years of relevant industry xperience
- Proven experience of energy storage, conversion, or renewable integration projects.
- Good demonstrable knowledge of electrical grid infrastructure, V2X concepts, and connected infrastructure.
- Knowledge of battery technologies, fuel cells, and thermal management.
- Expertise in energy systems modeling and simulation tools, e.g. – Matlab, Simulink
- Proficiency in programming (e.g. \- Python) and data analytics.
- Familiarity with AI/ML frameworks for predictive modeling.
Workstyle
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This is an onsite job. One remote workday per week may be possible with prior departmental approval
What differentiates Honda and makes us an employer of choice?
Total Rewards:
- Competitive Base Salary (pay will be based on several variables that include, but not limited to geographic location, work experience, etc.)
- Regional Bonus (when applicable)
- Manager Lease Car Program (No Cost \- Car, Maintenance, and Insurance included)
- Industry\-leading Benefit Plans (Medical, Dental, Vision, Rx)
- Paid time off, including vacation, holidays, shutdown
- Company Paid Short\-Term and Long\-Term Disability
- 401K Plan with company match \+ additional contribution
- Relocation assistance (if eligible)
Career Growth:
- Advancement Opportunities
- Career Mobility
- Education Reimbursement for Continued learning
- Training and Development Programs
Additional Offerings:
- Lifestyle Account
- Childcare Reimbursement Account
- Elder Care Support
- Tuition Assistance \& Student Loan Repayment
- Wellbeing Program
- Community Service and Engagement Programs
- Product Programs
Honda is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected factor.
Salary Context
This $101K-$126K range is in the lower quartile for Research Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $207K across 63 roles with salary data).
View full Research Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
Research Engineers bridge the gap between research and production. They implement papers, build experiment infrastructure, optimize training pipelines, and make research prototypes production-ready. They're the engineers who make research work at scale.
The role sits at a unique intersection. You need to understand the math well enough to implement novel architectures correctly, and you need the engineering chops to make them run efficiently on distributed systems. When a research scientist has a breakthrough idea, you're the person who turns it from a notebook prototype into a training pipeline that runs on 256 GPUs.
Across the 4,317 AI roles we're tracking, Research Engineer positions make up 2% of the market. At American Honda Motor, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week involves: implementing a new attention mechanism from a recent paper, profiling and optimizing a training pipeline that's bottlenecked on data loading, building evaluation infrastructure for a new benchmark, debugging distributed training issues across a GPU cluster, and pair-programming with a research scientist on their latest experiment. The work is deeply technical.
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
Skills Required
Strong software engineering fundamentals plus ML knowledge. Python, C++, and CUDA experience are common requirements. You'll need to read papers and turn ideas into working code. Distributed systems experience (especially distributed training) is highly valued. Performance optimization skills separate great candidates from good ones.
Experience with large-scale training infrastructure (FSDP, DeepSpeed, Megatron), GPU programming (CUDA, Triton), and the internals of ML frameworks (PyTorch internals, custom autograd functions) is what makes candidates stand out. The best research engineers can debug issues that span the full stack from GPU memory management to numerical precision to algorithmic correctness.
Strong postings mention the team's recent research, the infrastructure scale, and the specific technical challenges. They often list the research areas you'd support. Look for roles that emphasize both implementation quality and research understanding.
Compensation Benchmarks
Research Engineer roles pay a median of $272,100 based on 227 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($113K) sits 58% below the category median. Disclosed range: $101K to $126K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($287,500) and AI Engineering Manager ($244,000). By seniority level: Entry: $110,000; Mid: $194,400; Senior: $227,400; Director: $274,554; VP: $241,000.
American Honda Motor AI Hiring
American Honda Motor has 1 open AI role right now. They're hiring across Research Engineer. Based in Raymond, OH, US. Compensation range: $126K - $126K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 15% (635 positions) offer remote work, while 3,657 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,650 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (1,335 roles, $265,000 median); Los Angeles (708 roles, $214,112 median).
Career Path
Common paths into Research Engineer roles include Software Engineer, ML Engineer, Research Intern.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Senior Research Engineer, Research Scientist, ML Architect.
This is one of the best entry points into AI research without a PhD. Build a strong engineering portfolio with ML projects, contribute to open-source ML frameworks, and demonstrate that you can implement complex ideas correctly and efficiently. The transition to Research Scientist is possible with published first-author work, which some research engineer roles support.
What to Expect in Interviews
Technical screens test both engineering skill and research understanding. Expect coding rounds with performance-critical implementations (GPU optimization, efficient data loading). Be prepared to discuss papers relevant to the team's research area and explain how you'd implement key ideas. System design questions focus on training infrastructure: distributed training, experiment tracking, and compute resource management.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings mention the team's recent research, the infrastructure scale, and the specific technical challenges. They often list the research areas you'd support. Look for roles that emphasize both implementation quality and research understanding.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 4,317 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 138 entry-level, 2,071 mid-level, 1,655 senior, and 453 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (635 positions). The remaining 3,657 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($287,500 median, 34 roles); Research Engineer ($272,100 median, 227 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($244,000 median, 23 roles).
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 4,317 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (3,004), Data Scientist (345), AI Software Engineer (309). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (138) are outnumbered by mid-level (2,071) and senior (1,655) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 453 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (635 positions), with 3,657 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $215,000. Top-quartile roles start at $266,300, and the 90th percentile reaches $320,790. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $287,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $145,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (2,249 postings), Aws (1,224 postings), Azure (938 postings), Rag (915 postings), Gcp (660 postings), Pytorch (640 postings), Prompt Engineering (624 postings), Kubernetes (559 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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