Product Development Manager - Motorsport Interface Units

The world around us is experiencing significant change, the greatest in generations. At McLaren Applied, we’re accelerating the response to that change. Our vision is that our people and technologies will pioneer a better future. Our mission is to achieve breakthroughs in performance. We’re at the cutting edge of innovation in industries including automotive transportation and motorsport. We create solutions that drive efficiency and cost-effectiveness. We want to help to reduce the carbon footprint and become more sustainable. Our focus is on electrification and telemetry, control and analytics.

As Product Development Manager you will use a deep technical expertise and a passion for high-performance engineering to lead the development of advanced hardware systems for motorsport applications. You will be responsible for developing and maintaining a portfolio of products and will collaborate closely with product management to deliver a compelling product roadmap. This role is critical in delivering precision-engineered solutions that meet the performance, reliability, and safety demands of top-tier motorsport competition. The role bridges the gap between engineering, product management, operations and supply chain to ensure products are delivered on time, on budget, and to specification. You will be managing external development partners to create, validate and manufacture products that meet agreed performance and quality requirements.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage the full product development cycle for motorsport components—from concept and design to prototype, validation, and production.
• Work closely with product management, business line, engineering and customers to translate product requirements into technical specifications.
• Lead the management of external development partners to create and deliver new products according to agreed specifications and schedules.
• Lead cross-functional collaboration with external development partners and internal mechanical, hardware, systems, embedded software and test engineers to deliver integrated hardware solutions.
• Manage design validation, prototyping, testing and iteration cycles including customer validation and trackside support.
• Drive the application of lightweight materials, thermal management, high-reliability electronics and robust embedded software in product designs.
• Manage project budgets, timelines, and resources, ensuring delivery under fast-paced and high-pressure timelines typical of motorsport.
• Ensure all hardware meets relevant motorsport regulatory standards (e.g. FIA, IMSA).
• Instil appropriate project governance to coordinate ongoing project activities, critical project milestones, reporting of project status and escalations for assistance.
• Continuously seek innovation opportunities in sensor technology, data acquisition, control systems, and materials.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, or Mechatronics Engineering.
• 5+ years of experience in hardware product development, with at least 2 years in motorsport or high-performance automotive environments.
• Proven track record of managing outsourced product development including creating detailed requirements, appropriate day to day supplier governance, supplier quality management successfully transitioning into manufacturing phase.
• Proven leadership in managing multidisciplinary engineering teams under tight development cycles.
• Demonstrated experience with rapid prototyping, simulation tools (FEA, CFD), and CAD software (SolidEdge/NX, Altium/Cadence, etc.).
• Familiarity with production environment including manufacturing documentation, build and test processes.
• Strong understanding of motorsport vehicle systems (suspension, control electronics, powertrain, telemetry, etc.).
• Excellent organizational, communication, and technical documentation skills.

Preferred Skills

• Experience planning and delivering projects using a structured product development framework.
• Familiarity with creating Statement of Work and supplier requirements information for outsourced development projects.
• Trackside engineering experience or involvement in competitive motorsport series.
• Familiarity with homologation and motorsport regulatory processes.
• Project management certification (e.g., PMP) or training in Agile/Lean development practices.
• Background in motorsport, automotive or consumer electronics.

What we can offer you

• Annual leave (25 days + bank holidays, pro-rated for part time colleagues).
• Enhanced Company Maternity, Paternity and Adoption leave and pay.
• Flexible working policies, including Hybrid Working.
• Life assurance to the value of 4 times base salary.
• Opportunity to join the McLaren Applied Pension Plan.
• Company funded individual private healthcare with the opportunity to extend to partner or spouse and/or dependents at a discounted rate.
• Ride-to-work with Evans Cycles – take advantage of the Government’s Cycle-to-Work scheme which offers savings of up to 42% on the cost of a new bike, cycling accessories and components.
• Electric car scheme – opportunity to drive a brand-new car in a more affordable way through this salary sacrifice scheme.

McLaren Applied are a medium-sized tech firm spun out of McLaren Group. We’re looking for people who will thrive in a non-hierarchical, growth-orientated company, self-starters who are flexible and somewhat entrepreneurial in their approach. McLaren Applied are committed to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) and promote DEI in all we do. McLaren Applied are also members of the UK Government Disability Confident Scheme.