The McLaren name is synonymous with motorsport. The story across five decades of racing at the pinnacle of global motorsport is of restless technical development with characters of passion and true grit, all with a single-minded determination to succeed. The trophy cabinet at McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) tells a thousand stories of world champions, great drivers, constructor titles and of all those individuals who have stood on the sport’s global stage to make their invaluable contribution in making that difference: that extra thousandth of second off a lap time.
With a backdrop of continued growth and success, McLaren Automotive is now consolidating its motorsport strategy with specific aims; enriching the customer’s experience on and off track, broadening the McLaren brand appeal to a wider global audience and delivering motorsport experiences that are best in class.
As we begin this exciting journey we are looking for a Senior Performance & Traction Control Engineer to join our Motorsport Engineering function and help deliver our future championship winning GT cars.
Purpose of the role:
The Senior Performance & Traction Control Engineer is responsible for managing tools / resources for the optimisation of the performance of the McLaren Motorsport vehicles on the track during tests and race events against targets.
As part of the Motorsport team you will also be tasked with knowledge sharing on Motorsport Technologies and how we can transfer this knowledge into our future road cars.
Principal accountabilities:
- Utilisation of proper combination of sims-tool outputs, data-analysis, performance-indicators, feedbacks from drivers & perfo-engineers during test/race events to meet programme targets
- Defining the high level plan for test and race events to fully support vehicle understanding and development in term of:
- Traction control setting, development and optimisation
- Transmission behaviour and setting
- Aerodynamics setting and best usage
- Powertrain, systems and brake cooling setting
- Chassis setup optimisation
- Tyres behaviour and best usage
- Driver comfort & best delivery
- Responsible for pre-, on- and post-event reporting in the specific area of given responsibility
- Define attribute DVP and work in continual collaboration with Vehicle Development and the Vehicle Validation Coordinator to plan and ensure delivery of DVP activities
- Support with the continual development of the Chassis Vehicle Technologies car-models and testing methodologies to reduce development times, improve realism and test data accuracy and correlation of our tools and increase the level of cross-function/attribute integration
- Support developing relationships with academia, software and hardware suppliers and key consultancies.
Knowledge, skills & experience:
- Proven experience of performance-engineering in GT and/or formula racing-cars or direct OEM experience in automotive industry
- Experience of Motorsport testing & racing programs is highly recommended
- Mechanical / Automotive Engineering degree, with high knowledge and understanding in vehicle-dynamics
- The required skills and knowledge for this role:
- Traction control systems
- Knowledge of full vehicle, components and systems (function, goal, behavior, interactions) for optimizing the overall car’ performance on track and giving feedback to colleagues for further understanding & development
- Usage of Simulation tools and telemetry-data reader
- Testing measurements, data postprocessing and model correlation
- K&C and 7post testing and data post-pro
- 1D systems modelling of cooling circuits: AMESim, GT Power, MATLAB/Simulink
Personal attributes:
- Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to operate within a team environment (team spirit) are vital requirements to succeed in this role
- Proactive collaboration with all other units in Motorsport & Automotive
- Creativity and ability to develop ideas from first principle together with independency and intrinsically self-motivation
- Strong verbal and written and oral presentation skills together with ability to communicate at all levels
- Delivery focused, with demonstrable track record of on-time delivery
- Capable of representing a world class automotive brand
We recognise that we can only achieve our vision with the dedication and collaboration of our world class employees. It is our aim to become the employer of choice within the global automotive industry.
At McLaren Automotive we are constantly looking to improve. To become the employer of choice we are always looking to develop our employee offerings. We currently offer a range of benefits to employees at all levels of the business including Private Healthcare, Contributory Pension Scheme, Life Assurance and Personal Lease Car Scheme. We also offer a range of discounts with our partner organisations.