Director, Vehicle Architecture

As the Director of Vehicle Architecture, you will report to the Head of Program Engineering and lead the Craftsmanship, Dimensional, Vehicle Packaging, and Ergonomics teams to drive cross-functional excellence across the full engineering discipline. You will sit / meet daily with the leads of each engineering team and company executives to deliver strategic developments on future vehicle projects, as well as cost-saving and quality- improvement activities on existing groundbreaking products. You will be a figurehead of engineering and academic excellence and be able to communicate at a fundamental first-principles level.

The Program Engineering team is responsible for aligning direction of each vehicle product for design, attributes, cost targets, and lead cross functional teams to achieve defined goals. You will be a decision maker for concept freezes, engineering changes and sourcing with engineering sign-off responsibility for the change management process.

This role is open to engineers who have proven technical excellence and management experience of small-medium sized teams. This role will be filled by someone who is passionate about working together to make groundbreaking products with amazing innovation and a collaborative spirit.

You Will:

• Contribute to the forming of a new Vehicle Architecture department, lead the definition of the organizational structure, and define roles/responsibilities of the team.
• Maintain a level of engineering excellence and drive/mentor the same across the engineering verticals in a matrixed organisation.
• Cross-functionally pull teams together to design and develop a singular cohesive product vision.
• Drive issue resolution from initial review through concepting, ultimate change management approval and implementation.
• Represent and report technical program status in executive reviews, sourcing councils and issue tracking meetings.
• Work closely with stakeholders and attribute owners across the company which includes (but is not limited to): Vehicle Safety, Vehicle Dynamics, NVH, Durability, Design Studio, Manufacturing and Quality.
• Manage multiple complex projects in a demanding environment.
• Be a force for good, a source of positivity and a role model for the engineering teams.

You Bring:

• 10+ postgraduate years working in the automotive industry or equivalent.
• Demonstrable experience of designing in 3-dimensional space.
• Exceptional understanding of vehicle architecture and dimensional control in a manufacturing environment.
• Hands-on practical experience in prototype assembly, vehicle assembly or vehicle service.
• Experience and/or good knowledge of manufacturing processes (extrusions, castings, stampings, injection molding, etc.).
• A proven track record of automotive engineering and program delivery.

Great to Have:

• Experience and proficiency with CATIA V5/V6 or similar software
• Knowledge of vehicle crash safety principles
• Knowledge of vehicle dynamics principles
• Knowledge of NVH principles
• Demonstrable mechanical sympathy

Educational Requirements:

• BS/BEng or MS/MEng, or equivalent experience, in Mechanical Engineering or similar