The current automobile industry is no longer just about “making cars”, but also about manufacturing intelligent terminals that can carry out human-computer interaction and are constantly iteratively upgraded. In the “15th Five-Year Plan” outline, intelligent connected new energy vehicles are listed as strategic emerging industries along with new generation information technology, robotics, aerospace, etc. According to industry experts, the supply and demand of talents in the new energy automobile industry are undergoing structural changes, showing the characteristics of expanding salary advantages, continuous rising thresholds, and differentiation of in-demand positions. High value-added positions such as intelligent driving, three-electronics R&D, and vehicle-mounted systems continue to expand.
How to seize the golden track of intelligent connected new energy vehicles and find jobs and development opportunities that suit you? Recently, reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily interviewed a number of experts and scholars in related fields, as well as a number of recent graduates of automobile-related majors, to analyze the development prospects and industry trends of the intelligent network-connected new energy automobile industry.
Comprehensive automotive talents are scarce
What kind of talents does the intelligent networked new energy automobile industry need now? It is generally believed in the industry that car companies need to attract talents who "know both cars and software." According to Li Fei, a senior technical expert at Great Wall Motors, although this statement is not wrong, it is too broad and general. "In the new era of software-defined cars, the most sought-after talents in the industry are neither pure software engineers nor pure mechanical engineers, but system engineers who can break the boundaries between software and hardware and take into account algorithm capabilities and vehicle dynamics knowledge." Li Fei said that Great Wall Motors' R&D investment has exceeded 10 billion yuan for four consecutive years, and it has 27,000 engineering R&D personnel, accounting for a quarter of the total number of employees.
He explained that currently, car companies are extremely short of three types of core talents: the first type is interdisciplinary talents, who are proficient in vehicle dynamics principles, proficient in control algorithms, and can use AI to carry out big data analysis; the second type is scenario-oriented product talents, who can clearly identify the real needs and false needs of users; the third type is safety and compliance composite talents, who are deeply involved in the three major areas of functional safety, expected functional safety, and data security.
"The most important thing is the compound talents who have deep roots in the field and can collaborate across fields." Li Fei concluded that such talents not only need to be familiar with the entire process of automobile research and development, but also need to have a thorough understanding of domestic and foreign regulatory requirements and embed compliance logic in the product definition stage in advance, rather than fixing leaks after the product development is completed.
Combining many years of front-line work experience, Li Fei found that the fresh graduates recruited by the company every year are generally flexible, eager to learn and motivated, and have a solid professional foundation. However, there are not many people who can quickly adapt to the position and get started with the work. The core shortcomings are concentrated in weak engineering practical ability and lack of cross-domain compound ability.
On one side, companies are complaining that they are short of people, and on the other hand, graduates are complaining that it is difficult to find a job. Some people believe that there is currently a surplus of fresh college graduates in automobile-related majors. According to Zhu Bing, dean of the School of Automotive Engineering of Jilin University, the current job market in the automotive industry shows a clear structural differentiation, not a surplus of talent. The so-called talent saturation in the industry refers to low-end repetitive positions and technical positions that can only operate a single software and are proficient in a single algorithm.
Cultivate talents who can control mobile intelligence
The disruptive changes in the industrial structure have directly promoted the comprehensive upgrade of the positioning, curriculum system, and training direction of automotive majors in colleges and universities. Zhu Bing introduced that the training goal of automotive talents in colleges and universities has advanced from the traditional "mechanical car manufacturing" to cultivating high-level compound talents "who can define future cars and control mobile intelligence."
At the National Key Laboratory of Automotive Chassis Integration and Bionics at the School of Automotive Engineering of Jilin University, autonomous driving test equipment operates at high speed, and the intelligent chassis simulation system calculates data in real time. A set of automotive intelligent chassis systems that integrate algorithms, chips, and electronic control technologies are iteratively upgraded through repeated debugging by teachers and students. Ten years ago, this laboratory focused on research on vehicle dynamics, chassis simulation and power matching of traditional fuel vehicles. Today, the laboratory's research focus has shifted to new energy wire-controlled chassis integration and engineering bionic original design.
The mechanical barriers of traditional fuel vehicles have been broken. At present, electrification, intelligence, networking, and sharing are deeply integrated. Intelligent networked new energy vehicles have entered a new stage of development with multi-technology crossover and multi-field integration. Zhu Bing explained that new energy sources will reshape the core of automobile power, intelligent networking will reconstruct the automobile brain and perception system, and embodied intelligence will upgrade the automobile into a mobile intelligence that can autonomously perceive, think intelligently, and coordinate with each other.
In the era of intelligent connected new energy vehicles, the upstream, mid-stream and downstream industrial chains of automobiles have also changed accordingly. Li Gang, dean of the School of Automotive and Transportation Engineering of Liaoning University of Technology, said that the upstream is mainly the production of parts and materials, such as batteries, vehicle chips, sensors, electric drive systems, vehicle operating systems, etc.; the midstream is mainly vehicle manufacturing, including vehicle assembly, chassis, electronic control systems, etc.; the downstream is mainly the after-sales market, digital marketing, Internet of Vehicles data operations, and charging and swapping systems.
Every link in the industrial chain is changing, and the industry needs compound talents who understand the entire chain and have practical capabilities. Because of this, colleges and universities regard practice as a top priority in the process of cultivating automotive talents. At Jilin University and Liaoning University of Technology, the Formula Racing Team has become a high-quality platform for improving the engineering practical ability and comprehensive quality of automotive students. In Li Gang's view, students are involved in the entire process of racing design, research and development, assembly, debugging, and testing while in school. Students who have participated in a racing team have outstanding practical abilities, pressure resistance, and problem-solving abilities, and are more popular with car companies.
It is understood that in the recruitment of car companies, the evaluation standard for practical experience in competitions and projects is no longer "medals first". Companies pay more attention to students’ actual participation in projects and competitions, problem-solving abilities, system debugging abilities and program iteration thinking. In this regard, Zhan Shuai, a recent master's degree graduate from the School of Automotive Engineering of Jilin University, who has signed a contract with FAW Hongqi R&D Institute, has deep feelings about this. While in school, he joined the school's Jizhi driverless formula team and was responsible for the software and hardware development of the wire-by-wire chassis steering system of the driverless racing car. High-intensity competition preparation, cross-professional collaboration, and emergency troubleshooting... this process helped him complete the transformation of his thinking from textbook theory to engineering practice.
Zhang Tianqi, a recent undergraduate graduate from the School of Automotive and Transportation Engineering of Liaoning University of Technology, has joined the Nanjing Branch of Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd. as a vehicle road test engineer. In her opinion, being able to enter the company of her choice is inseparable from her experience in the school’s Wind Tram Innovation Team. During her time in the team, she served as the team manager and a member of the transmission team, participating in practical operations such as parameter calculations, simulation drawings, and system assembly, and was proficient in using a number of professional engineering software.
Graduates with different academic qualifications have diverse growth paths
"Our majors are set up according to the ever-changing positions in the automotive industry." Qi Pan, dean of the Smart Automotive College of Guangzhou Vocational and Technical University, believes that this professional design logic can focus on the cultivation of high-end skills and compound talents in real time, accurately filling the technical talent gap in the automotive industry.
Qi Pan introduced that Guangzhou is building a trillion-dollar "smart car city", and regional car companies continue to have strong demand for talents with skills such as intelligent production line design, intelligent equipment operation and maintenance, vehicle testing, three-electricity integration, and intelligent cockpit debugging. The average starting salary for core positions in the field of intelligent connected new energy vehicles is RMB 150,000 to RMB 250,000 per year.
Last year, Guangzhou Vocational and Technical University relied on the advantages of the automobile industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to open two undergraduate majors: New Energy Vehicle Engineering Technology and Intelligent Connected Vehicle Engineering Technology to directly meet the needs of regional industries. The two undergraduate majors have clear job positioning: the new energy vehicle engineering technology major focuses on vehicle manufacturing process optimization, three-electric system integration, core component testing and other positions; the intelligent connected vehicle engineering technology major focuses on cutting-edge practical positions such as intelligent cockpit system debugging and assisted driving system adaptation development.
When applying for college entrance examination, Liang Guinan chose the Smart Automotive College of Guangzhou Vocational and Technical University. In his view, the intelligent networked new energy vehicle industry is on the rise. After enrolling, he passed selection and entered the order class of GAC Research Institute. Relying on the targeted selection and school-enterprise joint training mechanism, in his junior year, he went to the company for internship and received training in a real production and R&D environment, and his hands-on practical ability continued to improve. Recently, as a fresh graduate of the order class, Liang Guinan has joined the GAC Research Institute.
In early July, the market recruitment salary big data research group of the China Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences released "Salary Data for Popular Positions and Typical Positions Based on Market Recruitment Salary Big Data (2nd Quarter 2026)". Relevant data shows that in the second quarter of this year, among the typical positions in the new energy vehicle industry, the average monthly recruitment salaries for automotive test engineers, automotive assembly process engineers, automotive general layout engineers, automotive electronics engineers, and power system engineers were 9,700 yuan, 9,700 yuan, 19,100 yuan, 17,600 yuan, and 17,800 yuan respectively. The difference in salary levels reflects the differentiated requirements for professional abilities in different positions in the industry chain, and also provides diversified choices for graduates with different academic qualifications and professional backgrounds.
In Li Fei’s view, the competition in future intelligent connected new energy vehicles has escalated to a comprehensive contest between “AI native architecture” and “vehicle intelligence”. The core of competition lies in whether car companies can complete the transformation from traditional manufacturing to AI technology companies. The car of the future is no longer a simple stack of functions, but a travel partner that can proactively sense, think and serve. This also requires car companies to complete all-round reshaping from the underlying electronic and electrical architecture to the computing platform.
How can graduates with different academic qualifications find their own employment opportunities in the field of intelligent connected new energy vehicles? The industry experts interviewed above said that both undergraduate and postgraduate students have broad room for development, but their job levels and growth paths have different focuses. After receiving system engineering training, undergraduate students can be qualified for positions such as product development, test verification, process optimization, and project management. High-end R&D positions such as intelligent chassis R&D, autonomous driving algorithms, core electronic control design, and power battery R&D require extremely high requirements for system modeling, scientific research innovation, and original problem-solving capabilities. The advantages of students with graduate degrees and scientific research experience will be more obvious.
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Wang Peilian Source: China Youth Daily
