productaivity

4+years in Volkswagen Group R&D

5international teams led

~20%working hours saved through automation

€250k+cut from an annual department budget

Profile

From the test bench to the data platform

I started on roller dynamometers and homologation tests at SEAT, and every role since has moved me closer to data and AI. Today, as Cluster Lead at CARIAD SE, I build internal chatbots, a RAG assistant and Databricks jobs and pipelines, and work with streaming vehicle telemetry.

I have brought automation and AI into powertrain, homologation, navigation and data collection. I care about the people side too: I lead teams across Asia and North America and work directly with customers, functional areas and authorities.

I am most interested in agentic AI, small language models, reasoning models and industrial AI.

Experience

Sep 2025 – today

Cluster Lead – AI, Data & Automation

ALTEN, assigned to CARIAD SE (Volkswagen Group) · Ingolstadt

Built production AI: internal chatbots, a RAG assistant and workflow automation with GitHub Copilot, Databricks and Microsoft Copilot, cutting ~20% of working hours.
Lead 5 development and test teams across Asia and North America with agile methods: epics, user stories, task allocation.
Delivered the international rollout of a Volkswagen Group vehicle data product in Asian markets, defining requirements with stakeholders and local authorities.
Built data platforms on Databricks (Delta tables, catalogs, jobs, pipelines, dashboards) and worked on streaming ingestion of vehicle telemetry.
Set up Volkswagen Group test benches (MEB, PPE/PPC) remotely for teams abroad; automated end-to-end test cases with Robot Framework.

Databricks · RAG · Python · SQL · Kafka · Azure · Robot Framework · GitHub Copilot

Apr 2025 – Oct 2025

Navigation Engineer & Test Driver

ALTEN, assigned to CARIAD / Audi (Volkswagen Group) · Ingolstadt

Tested, integrated and validated vehicle systems on MEB and PPE, including international test drives; built Python automation that simulates navigation signals.
Captured and analysed traces from infotainment and connectivity ECUs and assigned issues to the responsible teams.
Led the project for 3 months while my team lead was away, and supported the navigation rollout across MEB, PPE, PPC and MQB.

Python · DLT · ADB · ODIS · Idex

Jan 2024 – Apr 2025

Certification Engineer, ML & Data Analyst

Bertrandt Group, assigned to SEAT S.A. · Martorell

Developed and validated ML models that predict fuel consumption from vehicle configuration, with accuracy close to 100%.
Followed the WLTP homologation process end to end in Europe and international markets, and digitalised it with full traceability.
Assisted the Key Account Manager on a multi-million-euro budget and found efficiencies worth €250,000+ a year.

Python · MATLAB · scikit-learn · WLTP

May 2023 – Jan 2024

Research Engineer & Software Developer

RDT Ingenieros, assigned to SEAT S.A. · Martorell

Built a maintenance management system (CMMS) from scratch, plus apps for power-curve data and test-bench booking.
Ran homologation tests on roller dynamometers, manual and robot-driven; automation saved hundreds of hours of admin work a week.

MATLAB · Simulink · AVL Concerto · ETAS INCA

Mar 2021 – Apr 2023

Co-founder & Engineer

Ineedthispart · Barcelona

Owned custom automotive parts end to end: 3D scanning, CAD, production, quality control and material selection.
Ran an international supply chain: designed in Spain, made in China, sold in Spain.

SolidWorks · 3D scanning

Projects

Selected work

CARIAD SE · 2026

RAG assistant and internal AI chatbots

Designed and shipped a RAG-based assistant and internal chatbots that automate the team's daily workflows, owned end to end.

About 20% of team hours freed for test quality and scope.

CARIAD SE · 2026

International rollout of a vehicle data product

Rolled out a Volkswagen Group vehicle data product in several Asian markets, meeting local legal requirements.

Five teams in five countries, one rollout.

CARIAD SE · 2026

Streaming vehicle telemetry ingestion

Near real-time ingestion of vehicle telemetry into a production data platform, built for reliable delivery.

CARIAD SE · 2025

End-to-end test automation

Automated test cases with Robot Framework, plus remote test-bench setup so teams abroad could work without local hardware support.

SEAT S.A. · 2024–2025

Fuel consumption model for WLTP

A machine learning model that computes fuel consumption from vehicle configuration inside the homologation process, using thousands of parameters.

Accuracy very close to 100%.

SEAT S.A. · 2023–2024

CMMS and test-bench apps

A maintenance management system built from scratch, an AVL Concerto app for power curves and a booking tool for test cells.

Hundreds of admin hours saved each week.

Personal project

SEO and GEO audit tool

An audit process for how websites rank in classic search and in AI-generated answers, backed by an LLM and RAG tool built on the Claude API.

Ineedthispart · 2021–2023

Custom automotive parts

Co-founded a company making custom parts from 3D scan to finished product, with design in Spain and manufacturing in China.

Building in public next

PlannedWLTP-open · CO₂ prediction on the public EEA dataset, served with FastAPI and Docker
PlannedTraceAgent · an agent that diagnoses synthetic ECU logs and finds the root cause, with evals
PlannedRegRAG · question answering over the EU AI Act and UNECE R155/R156 with article-level citations

Expertise

AI and language models

LLM and RAG systems, chatbots in production, machine learning with scikit-learn. Currently deepening PyTorch, Hugging Face, LangChain and agentic AI.

Data and cloud

Python, SQL, Databricks (jobs, pipelines, Delta tables), Apache Kafka, Microsoft Azure, Git. Currently deepening Docker and MLOps.

Automotive engineering

Vehicle and telemetry data, digital twins, test and integration on Volkswagen Group platforms, ECU trace analysis, WLTP homologation.

Leadership

Agile delivery, five international teams with more than ten people, communication with stakeholders and authorities, budget optimisation.

Education

MSc, Artificial Intelligence2025 – Jul 2026Universidad Internacional de Valencia (VIU), online alongside full-time work

BSc, Mechanical Engineering2018 – 2024Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Erasmus at Vilnius Gediminas TU

Machine Learning SpecializationDeepLearning.AI, Stanford · 2024
Fabric Foundations and Environment ManagementMicrosoft · 2026
Building Secure Automotive IoT ApplicationsPackt · 2026
Mastering Digital TwinsUniversity of Michigan · 2023
Overview of Automotive SPICEEDUCBA · 2026
Testfahrerqualifikation CDEKRA · 2025

Spanish, Catalan native English C1, Cambridge CAE German B2, telc

Contact

Open to senior roles in AI, data and automation

ericserretvalde@gmail.com