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Editorials How Hyundai Motor Group Is Winning Tomorrow’s Tech Talent by Showing Them the Future
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From keynotes on its vision to live robotics demonstrations and one-on-one career interviews, Hyundai Motor Group’s first Tech Talent Forum merged a recruiting event with a showcase of the technology shaping its future.
A four-legged robot patrols a few feet from a career counseling table. An all-electric robotaxi sits parked steps from a resume review. Meanwhile, a hydrogen fuel cell system lies just beyond a job interview. At the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in Silicon Valley this September, Hyundai Motor Group (the Group) blurred the line between a recruiting event and a technology showcase, aiming to attract top talent by giving them a glimpse of the innovations they could develop.
The inaugural HMG Tech Talent Forum was the Group’s first large-scale technology recruiting event in the United States. Held under the theme “Go Beyond Together,” the Forum was hosted by nine Group affiliates: Hyundai Motor Company, Hyundai Motor America (HMA), Kia Corporation, Kia America, Hyundai America Technical Center, Inc. (HATCI), Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA), Boston Dynamics, Motional and 42dot.
Roughly 380 people attended over the two days, bringing together outstanding talent from across North America with the Group’s leaders, giving the Group a rare chance to lay out its technology vision directly to the professionals who might one day help build it.
Rather than a single keynote, four of the Group’s leaders took to the stage in relay, taking turns to answer the same question — “why Hyundai?” — from a different angle: business strategy, engineering, physical AI and recruitment. The relay approach echoed the Forum's “Global One Team” message, highlighting how the Group’s affiliates are increasingly building the future together.
“Hyundai is becoming a technology and physical AI company. We are building robots, deploying autonomous vehicles, and developing software to make it all work seamlessly,” said José Muñoz, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, emphasizing the shift in the company’s identity. He added that the Group has “the financial firepower and scale to achieve our ambitious vision.”
Manfred Harrer, President and Head of the R&D Division, followed with the engineering case.
“The question is not physical versus virtual — it’s how we combine decades of real-world engineering experience with the speed of virtual development and AI,” he said. “This is where I want this organization to lead, not follow.”
Minwoo Park, President and Head of the Advanced Vehicle Platform (AVP) Division and CEO of 42dot, pointed to the Group’s scale — 7 to 8 million vehicles produced annually — as the foundation for a physical AI system that never stops learning. “We’re building a world-class physical AI organization, powered by real-world experience, real-world deployment and real-world impact,” he said.
It fell to Hae In Kim, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, to close the relay by highlighting the opportunities on offer. “Why Hyundai? Technology. Scale. People,” she said. “The technology to work on some of the most important challenges ahead. The scale to turn ideas into real-world impact. And the opportunity to work alongside people who will challenge you, teach you, and make you better.”
If the keynotes set out the vision, the Leaders Panel Talk put it to the test. Held under the banner “Technology Shaping What’s Next,” the session brought together leaders from the Group and its affiliates to discuss how AI might reshape mobility, manufacturing and robotics over the next decade.
Panelists discussed how core technologies, including physical AI, are being applied to real-world products and environments, along with the Group’s role in these developments over the coming years. One idea dominated the room — the “data flywheel” cycle connecting real-world data with AI training and service improvements. Panelists framed it as the key differentiator separating the companies that will lead the next decade of AI from the ones that will merely follow it.
The session wrapped up with a Q&A which opened the floor to participants to ask Group leaders about everything from real-world tech developments and large-scale implementation to career opportunities.
The exchange left an impression. One participant said the Forum made clear that the Group is “actively investing in securing global tech talent and creating practical hiring opportunities,” offering a concrete look at the direction the company is heading. Another came away with a simpler takeaway: that the event underlined how much the company “values talent with technical expertise.”
Beyond the main stage, the Forum included six Tech Sessions covering AI, robotics, autonomous driving, smart manufacturing, SW/IT and hydrogen/energy/battery technologies. A total of 36 speakers took the stage, 27 of them Group employees and executives alongside nine external presenters, to discuss the latest tech advancements with representatives from companies including NVIDIA, Lucid, Rivian and Tesla.
The first day set the stage, with Group leaders and affiliate experts walking through real-world developments across the six technical areas, including talks on physical AI, E&E architecture and electrification technology.
Day two went deeper. Participating companies presented project case studies on topics including robot deployment strategy, end-to-end autonomous driving systems, next-generation architecture for software-defined vehicles (SDVs) and battery research, followed by an extended Q&A.
Talk only carries a vision so far. The Forum backed up its sessions with an exhibition themed “Moving Beyond Mobility, Transforming What’s Next,” organized across three zones: Beyond the Vehicle, Beyond the Road and Beyond the Industry. This gave attendees the chance to witness first-hand the technologies discussed throughout the event.
On the floor, the Group exhibited a host of innovations including Boston Dynamics’ quadrupedal robot Spot, the Group’s MobED mobile robot platform and its CODA E&E architecture for SDVs — all of which were also demonstrated live. The exhibits also featured Motional’s IONIQ 5 Robotaxi, the Hyundai CRATER concept and a hydrogen fuel cell system from the all-new NEXO.
Beyond the physical exhibits, the Group showcased core technologies including a mock-up of Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot Atlas and the LLM-based in-vehicle conversational assistant Gleo AI.
The exhibition was a gateway to the work being done today across the Group, providing tangible evidence of the vision discussed earlier. While a slide about physical AI can be abstract, a robot walking past a recruiter's table is proof. For tech talent, that's often the difference that counts — not being told a company is innovative, but being handed the evidence.
The insights didn’t stop when the exhibition floor closed. A networking dinner allowed attendees to trade perspectives on their fields, career paths and the technical problems they were facing, before the evening wound down with a performance from Spot and a raffle.
For many attendees, the technology on display was only half the draw — the other half was the chance to talk about where they might fit in at the Group.
A dedicated “HR Coffee Chat” initiative paired attendees directly with hiring managers for career conversations. On-site interviews were also held for candidates in the HMG Global Tech Talent Recruitment program, the Group’s first integrated global recruitment effort which began in April.
That access left a mark on how attendees saw the Group. “It was eye-opening to see just how much Hyundai Motor Group is investing and pushing forward,” one said. “I also came away realizing that the company is even bigger and more influential than I had originally thought.”
Another pointed to the unique opportunity to connect with the Group’s leaders: “Having the opportunity to discuss the technology in depth with the leaders and engineers who actually developed it made the Tech Sessions especially valuable and engaging.” A third left with a new professional network in hand: “I was able to connect with several members of the leadership team and had some great opportunities to share ideas.”
For one attendee, the forum changed their perception of the company: “I thought of Hyundai as a motor company. However, it opened my eyes that Hyundai has a lot of innovations outside of just the vehicle itself — and the great work they’re doing with applied AI.”
The choice of venue said as much as anything on stage. By hosting the Forum in Silicon Valley, the Group signaled its ambition to compete for outstanding talent on the same ground as the world’s other leading automotive and technology companies.
“Above all, it was meaningful that talented individuals from various technology fields resonated with the Group’s tech vision and showed interest in our growth potential,” said Mi Hyung Kim, Senior Manager of Hyundai Motor’s Talent Acquisition Team 1. “On top of that, by facilitating talks between employees and participants, we could clearly convey the message that Hyundai Motor Group is a place where you can build a tech-focused career alongside wonderful colleagues.”
Kim’s last point was central to CEO José Muñoz’s closing message. “By now, you probably realize it’s all about the people,” he said. “Because people are the ones who create the corporations. No matter which direction you get from the top, if you don’t have the right people, you don’t achieve the right objectives, the right goal.”
For Hyundai Motor Group, San Jose was the opening chapter of a longer exchange with the global technology community — one the Group intends to keep expanding as it positions itself in the race for the engineers who will shape what mobility becomes next.
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