Research and Development Facility Engineer
Brackley, UK
At the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, a group of passionate and determined people work to design, develop, manufacture and race the cars driven by seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton and Grand Prix winner George Russell.
Whether working in our Operations, Technical, Race or Business Support functions, we are all in and aspire to build the greatest team in the history of our sport.
Every individual plays their part. No stone is left unturned in the chase for every tenth of a second. The history of our sport is long and rich, and we are continuing our journey with renewed effort year on year. Record books remember the names of a few, but history is written by the many.
A vacancy has arisen for an engineer to join our Research and Development (R&D) team in a facility support role. The primary responsibilities for the successful candidate will be to ensure the continuous reliable operation and continuous improvement of our R&D testing facilities – namely our Dynos and T&D Labs. As well as candidates experienced in a Powertrain or Mechanical testing environment, we would welcome applications from across the range of disciplines as this is an ideal move for someone looking to add breadth as part of their career journey.
Key Accountabilities (Duties)
Reporting to the Research and Development Manager, your duties will include:
1. Provide first-line technical support for rig enquiries and faults within our R&D facilities. This includes triage on items covering plant, electrical, controls systems, and specialist software.
2. Ownership of the Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) process to identify and proactively manage risks to our operational efficiency across our R&D facilities.
3. Maintain all facility-side mechanical and electrical schematics, ensuring these have clarity and are readily accessible by the design, engineering and operations teams.
4. Investigate, plan and deliver improvements to our dyno and T&D plant equipment.
5. Feed in requirements and develop specifications for capability upgrade programmes.
6. Take responsibility for fault analysis and resolution on facility-side matters – using root cause analysis to implement immediate containments and long-term countermeasures.
7. Develop our relationships with external suppliers and contractors for test beds and rigs.
8. Liaison with Mercedes High Performance Powertrains (HPP) to ensure an aligned approach on facility operation; identifying efficiencies and sharing best practises.
9. Ownership of software licensing and calibration processes within R&D facilities.
10. Proactively build links with the electronics, controls and technology engineering departments to share our experiences and optimise the allocation of resource, inventory and knowledge based on the bigger picture.
11. Participate in cross-training activities – educating others in your area(s) of specialism and being open to learning about other areas of the car. This includes the support of business needs in other areas of Research and Development.
12. Support the enablement of our test facilities for commercial use.
Candidate Profile
Essential:
13. Ability to collaborate and negotiate to deliver results across different departments.
14. Ability to read and produce engineering drawings, mechanical schematics and electrical schematics.
15. Demonstrated ability to take responsibility for maintenance and system fault resolution.
16. Curious, committed to continuous learning, and ability to adapt quickly to change.
Desirable:
17. Previous dyno and/or experimental test bed experience.
18. Practical knowledge of transmission, hydraulic, cooling and electrical systems.
19. Strong electrical diagnostic capability.
20. Analysis of live and logged data to draw conclusion of component and system health.
21. Demonstrable experience of working in a high-performance engineering environment.
22. Experience in delivering experimental results in support of a fast-paced programme with immovable deadlines.
23. Ability to creatively present data in formats that make it accessible and understandable to a wide range of stakeholders and business areas.
Specific Advantageous Experiences:
24. Use of AVL Puma 2.0, MTS, Siemens, D-Space, Beckhoff automation user interfaces.
25. Use of Instron software + hardware, Dewesoft data acquisition software + hardware.
26. Use of ATLAS 10 for analysing live and logged data.
27. Previous trackside motorsport experience.
28. Experience with using Dassault 3DX for extracting information from CAD.
29. Electrical diagnostic ability such as 17th/18th Edition qualification.
Benefits:
Our riverside campus is powered by 100% renewably sourced energy and features an on-site gym and exercise studio, subsidised restaurant and on-site parking with EV chargers available.
We offer a competitive and attractive package of benefits including a generous bonus scheme, Mercedes car lease scheme, private medical cover, life assurance and 25 days holiday. We pride ourselves on our family-friendly environment and employee well-being programmes.
Why us:
At the heart of our performance are our people. Every member of our team has a voice and plays their part in contributing to our successes on and off the racetrack. We take pride in creating an innovative, collaborative and high-performance culture where all of our team members are respected, empowered and valued.