Job description
McLaren Advanced Projects
McLaren Advanced Projects (MAP) is a multidisciplinary engineering unit that works on many of the most ambitious technical challenges at McLaren Racing. The newly created function is designed to innovate and unlock performance across various racing series operating worldwide.
But racing is just the start. McLaren Advanced Projects also collaborates with McLaren Automotive on hypercars and supercars and undertakes projects on a wide range of scientific and engineering projects for our partners.
Within McLaren Advanced Projects, we assemble integrated teams to work across the full development process from concept to release, drawing on 60 years of continuous development in F1 and beyond. Team members bring a wide range of skills to bear on our projects, from aerodynamics and computational fluid dynamics to lightweight structures and composites, data science and advanced simulations.
Purpose of the Role
We are looking for a world-class Database Administrator to proactively deliver great performance from the wide variety of databases used by McLaren racing teams. As a DBA in McLaren Advanced Projects, you will be an expert in one or more of the core technologies that we use to store, transform, and serve data to application clients, including SQL Server, MySQL, Postgres, and MongoDB, and will have practical experience of working with Kafka streaming infrastructure and Kubernetes. You will proactively ensure that our databases operate at peak efficiency through tuning and optimisation, will partner with platform engineering to ensure the highest standards of operational excellence for our database platforms including monitoring, alerting, and problem resolution, and will work closely with engineering teams to optimize data models and queries, propose indexes to improve performance, and work with McLaren Enterprise IT teams on capacity planning and management.
Accountabilities and Responsibilities
- Partner with application engineering to develop flexible data models to meet current and future needs, ensuring optimal performance across relational, NoSQL, streaming, and data lakes.
- Design and optimise data processing pipelines for real-time analysis, enabling quick and effective decision-making. Implement tools and platforms for advanced data analysis, visualization, and reporting.
- Continuously monitor data systems and processes, identifying and implementing improvements to enhance efficiency, reduce latency, and support scaling efforts.
- Develop and maintain robust disaster recovery plans and backup systems. Ensure compliance with data protection regulations and best practices to safeguard sensitive information.
- Work with teams to evaluate application use cases and available technologies, to provide the best tool for the job that will deliver optimal performance and cost efficiency.
- Provide technical guidance and leadership in database technologies, staying abreast of trends and best practices. Mentor and support team members in data-related tasks and projects.
- Communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders to gather requirements, deliver updates, and translate complex data concepts into actionable insights.
- Lead data engineering projects, from planning and budgeting to execution and delivery. Ensure projects are completed on time, within scope, and meet the high-quality standards required by the team.
Job requirements
Knowledge, Skills, and Experience
Technical
- Relational Databases: Deep understanding of relational database technologies such as SQL Server, MySQL, or Postgres. Ability to create and optimize data models, indexes, stored procedures, access, and scalability.
- Non-Relational Data Systems: Experience of working with NoSQL, streaming, graph, timeseries, or edge databases such as MongoDB, Kafka, Neo4J, InfluxDB, or Duck/MotherDuck. Understanding of binary encoding and compression approaches for complex data structure storage and retrieval.
- Data Storage Solutions: Familiarity with data storage options, including NAS, SAN, and DAS, and understanding of on-premises, cloud, and edge deployment models. Ability to work across teams to select the most appropriate solution based on use case and requirements.
- Data Pipeline Design and Implementation: Experienced in designing and implementing data pipelines (ETL/ELT/streaming) for robust data ingestion, transformation, and distribution, ensuring access to reliable data for analysis and decision-making. Experience of working with streaming ingestion built on Kafka is ideal.
- Operations: Deep experience in maintaining database platforms and infrastructure including monitoring, alerting, and issue resolution. Ability to manage backup and restore, high-availability, disaster recovery, and scale-out topologies on one-or-more key technologies.
- Security and Compliance: Awareness of data security practices, compliance standards, and regulatory requirements to ensure data privacy and security across all data architecture designs.
Personal
- Effective communication, both written and verbal. Excellent presentation skills. Able to explain complex concepts to all levels of the business. Able to navigate difficult conversations professionally.
- Open mindedness to ensure high flexibility and the capacity to manage and lead others through rapid and profound changes of scopes, development directions and processes.
- Aptitude to learn from others and highly skilled at sharing your knowledge effectively. Experience with mentoring/coaching others in the team both technically and personally.
- Flexible approach to working hours and occasional travel.
What McLaren Can Offer
We strive to provide a fun, innovative, collaborative and open culture where everyone’s input is welcome, and everyone feels part of our achievements. We work hard to create a culture of continuous improvement and support with a proactive approach to management and personal development.
McLaren Advanced Projects is based at the iconic McLaren Technology Centre on the edge of Woking. Our large campus includes a gym, restaurant and indoor and outdoor break-out areas, as well as direct access to park land. MTC is connected to Woking mainline station via regular shuttle buses, from which London Waterloo is a 30 min train ride.
We encourage hybrid working patterns to give you options to balance your home life and hobbies with your work and offer a comprehensive package of benefits including private healthcare, car schemes, life insurance and generous pension contributions.