Chief Engineer - Test and Development

Duties / Responsibilities 

Lotus Cars is set on an exciting development path with new Sports cars products, a wider product range and an increase in Engineering Consultancy services.

This is an opportunity for the T&D groups to play a key role in delivering these objectives. This role is key to ensuring that Lotus develop robust quality products that meet our customers’ expectations in an ever more complex technical environment.

The key purpose of the role is to lead and develop the Test and Development (T&D) group to deliver Lotus vehicle development and validation programmes across multiple projects.

The successful candidate will be confident, highly motivated with strong interpersonal, communication and team management skills.  You will have a broad and in depth knowledge of automotive engineering and vehicle development, gained over multiple vehicle programmes.

You will have a solid understanding of industry standard New Product Delivery Systems (NPDS) and typical automotive vehicle programme timing together with the ability to cost, plan and resource test and development projects.

Day-to-day responsibilities include;

  • Successful delivery of vehicle test and development projects to cost and time.
  • Oversee the correct planning and coordination of test activities to defined procedures and generate new procedures as required.
  • Generate and develop whole vehicle DVP's, test processes and procedures to deliver vehicle validation.
  • Provide input to the vehicle technical specification (VTS) and attribute targets.
  • Successfully manage and develop the T&D group including staff welfare and performance.
  • Provide reporting of Test and Development status to senior management especially at key project gateways.
  • Manage prototype build, rig testing and instrumentation groups to support test and development activities and manage the vehicle development fleet.
  • Set out a clear strategic direction for the vehicle test and development department.
  • Ensure that functional performance and durability targets are achieved and support aero/thermal, crash, vehicle safety and HVAC development

Qualifications and Experience 

  • Mechanical or Automotive Engineering Degree (2:1 and above)
  • Indepth knowledge of Automotive Engineering
  • Comprehensive knowledge of automotive test and development, including industry standard test processes and procedures
  • Specific experience in durability, functional performance and customer focused quality testing and assessment. 
  • Demonstrable experience of prototype build and rig testing. 
  • Effective timing and planning of automotive programmes, specifically within the test, development and validation remit. 
  • Knowledge of whole vehicle DVPs and the DVP process. 
  • A good level of driving and vehicle technical assessment skills

Well organised and confident, you take a methodical approach to problem solving, communicating clearly to your team and mentoring people to get the best out of them. 

Our offer

We offer you all the advantages of working for a prestigious high-tech automotive company. You will find a purpose-built facility, with all the tools and equipment you need to do an outstanding job. You will benefit from our fast-paced learning environment and our track record in designing and manufacturing thoroughbred sports cars over the last seven decades.

We offer a competitive salary, along with Private Medical Insurance and a yearly bonus. We have a strong pension scheme and offer free parking and WiFi on-site.