Preparation at Aeva requires a balance of technical competence and soft-skill proficiency. You should be prepared to discuss your past projects in granular detail, focusing on how you navigated complexity and ambiguity.

Technical Fluency

• You must demonstrate a deep understanding of the technical domain you are applying for. Be ready to explain the technical trade-offs you have made in past projects and how those decisions impacted the final product.

Structured Problem-Solving

• Aeva interviewers value clarity. When faced with a hypothetical case or a behavioral question, use a structured approach to frame your response, ensuring you address the problem, your action, and the resulting impact.

Stakeholder Management

• This role requires you to lead through influence. Prepare specific examples of how you have negotiated with engineering teams, managed expectations with leadership, and resolved inter-departmental friction.

The interview process at Aeva is designed to be rigorous and multi-faceted, reflecting the high-stakes nature of the hardware industry. You will begin with a screening phase, typically led by a hiring manager, which serves as a dual-purpose evaluation of your technical background and your cultural alignment with the firm. Following a successful screen, you will progress to a panel interview.

This panel stage is where the process intensifies. You will meet with a cross-functional group, including other Project Managers, Engineering Managers, and potentially other technical leads. Expect these sessions to be intellectually demanding, focusing heavily on your ability to handle technical nuance while maintaining project momentum. The process is remote-first, relying on video conferencing, so ensure your ability to communicate clearly and manage a virtual room is polished.

This visual timeline outlines the progression from your initial screening to the final panel evaluation. Use this to pace your preparation, ensuring you have enough time to review both your technical case studies and your behavioral narratives before the panel stage.

Technical Project Management

This area evaluates your command of project management methodologies within a technical context. You are expected to demonstrate how you manage the lifecycle of a product from prototype to production.

Be ready to go over:

• Risk Mitigation – How you foresee bottlenecks before they become critical.
• Resource Allocation – Balancing team capacity against project milestones.
• Cross-functional Communication – Translating technical jargon into actionable project updates.

Example scenarios:

• "Walk me through a project where the initial technical specs changed midway."
• "How do you track progress when working with dispersed engineering teams?"

Stakeholder Influence and Leadership

Because you work between teams, your ability to lead without direct authority is paramount. Strong candidates demonstrate empathy for the engineering perspective while remaining firm on project goals.

Be ready to go over:

• Conflict Resolution – Navigating disagreements between product and engineering teams.
• Negotiation – How you reconcile competing priorities for limited engineering resources.

Example scenarios:

• "Describe a time you had to convince a skeptical engineering lead to adopt a new process."
• "How do you manage stakeholders who have unrealistic expectations for a launch date?"

As a Project Manager at Aeva, you are the primary driver of project health. Your day-to-day will involve maintaining detailed project schedules, facilitating stand-ups, and managing the documentation that keeps complex engineering efforts aligned. You will be expected to own the "truth" regarding project status, ensuring that potential issues are surfaced early to the right stakeholders.

You will work closely with Module Engineering and Operations to ensure that designs are not only functional but also manufacturable. This requires a proactive approach to identifying supply chain or technical risks. You will often act as the primary point of contact for project status, requiring you to synthesize technical details into high-level summaries for leadership.

A strong candidate for Aeva brings a mix of domain-specific technical knowledge and proven project management rigor.

• Must-have skills:

  • Proficiency in project management tools and methodologies (e.g., Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid).
  • Strong technical background, ideally in hardware, optics, or manufacturing.
  • Demonstrated ability to manage multi-million dollar budgets or complex, multi-stakeholder timelines.
  • Exceptional verbal and written communication skills for cross-functional alignment.

• Nice-to-have skills:

  • Experience in the automotive or LiDAR industry.
  • Familiarity with ERP or PLM systems.
  • Deep understanding of hardware-software integration cycles.

Q: How long does the interview process typically take? The process varies, but most candidates move from the initial screen to the final panel decision within a few weeks. Consistency in your communication with the recruiter will help keep the process moving efficiently.

Q: What is the biggest differentiator for successful candidates? Successful candidates are those who balance "big picture" strategy with "in the weeds" technical detail. If you can explain the technical trade-offs of your previous projects while also articulating the business impact, you will stand out.

Q: Should I prepare for technical coding or algorithms? For Project Manager roles, deep coding is generally not required. However, you must be technically literate enough to understand the engineering constraints of the team you are supporting.

Q: How should I approach the panel interview? The panel is likely to include people from different departments. Tailor your communication style; be technical enough for the engineers but business-focused enough for the management team.

• Own your numbers: If you discuss a project, have the data ready. How much time did you save? What was the budget impact?
• Master the STAR method: Use the Situation, Task, Action, Result framework to keep your behavioral answers concise and impactful.
• Show curiosity: Ask thoughtful questions about Aeva’s manufacturing strategy or how they handle cross-team dependencies.
• Be prepared for ambiguity: Hardware development is rarely linear. Show that you can remain calm and productive when requirements shift.

The Project Manager role at Aeva is a critical position that demands both technical depth and exceptional organizational leadership. By focusing on your ability to manage complex, hardware-centric projects and demonstrating your capacity to influence cross-functional teams, you will position yourself as a top-tier candidate.

Your preparation should focus on articulating your specific contributions to technical projects and demonstrating your structured approach to problem-solving. Use the insights provided here to refine your narratives and prepare for the rigors of the panel interview. You are ready to showcase your expertise—now, focus on clearly communicating your value and alignment with Aeva’s mission.

The salary data provided reflects the competitive ranges for various Project Manager tracks at Aeva. Use these figures to benchmark your expectations and ensure your compensation discussions are aligned with your experience level and the specific demands of the role.