Head of Simulator Development

At McLaren, our mission is to set the standard for high performance in sport. And everyone, in every part of the team, has a role to play. So if you want to test your ideas with the world watching... And measure your progress in milliseconds... And play your part in racing history... You belong here. High performance starts with you.

Purpose of the Role:

To lead a Group of engineers and technicians developing McLaren Formula 1’s driver in the loop (DIL) simulator technology, delivering continuous improvement and major upgrade projects to maintain our position as a leader in the field.

Role Dimensions:

The Head of Simulator Development reports to the Director of the Vehicle Performance department and is responsible for leading the Simulator Development group. The role requires strong collaboration with external partners (e.g. universities, suppliers) and other teams in Vehicle Performance to deliver upgrade projects (e.g. Vehicle Modelling Group, Control Systems), and with key stakeholders (e.g. Performance Analysis Group, Race Engineering).

The Head of Simulator Development collaborates with Finance, the Director of Vehicle Performance and the Technical Director (Performance) to agree short and long-term budgets for simulator hardware and software upgrades and maintenance.

Principal Accountabilities:

• Providing simulator development leadership & direction.
• Recruiting, developing & mentoring a Group of world class engineers & technicians.
• Providing line management and pastoral supervision.
• Delivering against the development priorities specified by Senior Management.
• Delivering the test programme via preparation & maintenance of simulator hardware & software.
• Ensuring alignment of simulator hardware & software with the real world (e.g. tracks, chassis hardware, ECU software).
• Enabling rapid adoption of trackside software & models in the simulator.
• Managing prioritisation of customers’ feature requests & faults alongside longer-term projects.
• Working with team-mates to maintain excellent correlation of the simulator to the real car.
• Identifying and prioritising correlation opportunities in sub-system models, graphics or cueing.
• Leading and contributing to simulator cueing research projects (motion, haptic, visual, audio).
• Maximising the use of existing hardware and software & identifying investment opportunities.
• Maintaining industry-leading awareness of developments in relevant technologies.