Irene Perali works as Staff Systems Engineer at Cruise since 2020. She holds a PhD in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. Her expertise spans across multiple engineering domains, such as requirements and test management, system level analysis, safety and model-based systems engineering and architecture.

The Pop in Your Job – What drives you? Why do you love your topic?
Autonomous vehicles are an extremely complex system and Systems Engineering is essential to ensure safety. What I love about being a Systems Engineer in the AV space is that it's a multi-disciplinary field and allows me to collaborate with individuals with diverse backgrounds. This is a relatively new fields in the industry where processes and frameworks have been evolving year after year. I’m passionate about defining those processes and developing the frameworks to execute them in the most efficient way possible. Not only is this an engineering challenge, but it must take into account how working dynamics have changed with remote work. Establishing effective processes is key to prevent errors and guarantee a successful deployment of a product.

Cruise is building the world’s most advanced self-driving vehicles to safely connect people with the places, things, and experiences they care about. Cruise is the only self-driving company with fully integrated manufacturing at scale, building all-electric, zero-emission, self-driving vehicles that will help save lives, reimagine cities, reduce carbon pollution, redefine time in transit, and restore freedom of movement for individuals who live in dense urban settings.