Principal Engineer - Sled

Utaceram; Bedford; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading firm in automotive safety located in Bedford is looking for an experienced candidate to oversee the performance of the Servo-Sled test facility. This role requires strong leadership, a background in automotive safety testing, and effective team management. The ideal candidate will ensure safety compliance, manage resources, and support continuous improvement initiatives. Experience in team management and knowledge of testing standards is essential.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in automotive or aerospace passive safety testing.
• Management of teams or business of similar size.
• Strong planning and organisation skills.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for Health and Safety and risk assessments.
• Management of a small team of engineers and technicians.
• Work scheduling and resource management.

Skills

Understanding of passive safety test scenarios

Expert knowledge of automotive passive safety testing standards

Data interpretation and analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in an automotive discipline or equivalent

Tools

FARO Arm or other CMM devices

High speed cameras

GoPros

DSLR cameras

Job description

UTAC is a market‑leading international group in digital & sustainable mobility, customisable testing solutions, customisable testing systems, vehicle engineering, homologation, regulatory advice & expertise, certification, training, corporate events and classic & sportscars festivals.

The Group provides services and systems to customers in the various sectors: mobility, transport, tyre, petrochemical, agriculture and defence industries. UTAC operates test centres and laboratories in France (including the official Euro NCAP facility), the UK, USA, Finland, Morocco, and Germany; it has subsidiaries in China, Korea and Japan.

UTAC employs around 1300 people across its various locations.

As a group we share a strong and clear vision to deliver safe and efficient solutions and systems to our customers. We are proud and confident in our heritage, our capabilities and our people and believe that by creating a culture where individuals feel they can make a difference and enjoy coming to work, we can deliver the best possible service to our customers.

Our core values of Expertise, Innovation and Integrity provide a clear daily guide to how we work together safely, as one team, helping each other to succeed.

Job Description

Role:

Reporting to Senior Manager - (Passive) Safety Test

UTAC’s Servo‑Sled test facility is a sub‑department of our Passive Safety test offering located at our Millbrook site. The successful candidate will have responsibility for the performance of the department from a health and safety, and operational delivery perspective. They will support the Senior Manager and Chief Engineer who will have overall responsibility for financial performance and technical delivery. They will ensure that all work is completed in a competent and professional manner to the satisfaction of all customers and will support the development of the department going forward both in terms of capability and capacity. The successful candidate will also work as part of a wider team within the Passive Safety department; supporting the delivery of Systems testing which covers a wide range of static rigs.

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for Health and Safety, risk assessments and safety observation tours within area of responsibility.
• Management of a small team (<10) of engineers and technicians.
• Work scheduling and resource management.
• Liaise and build relationships with customers to determine future workload and requirements.
• Support the implementation of continuous improvement following established group processes and tools.
• Develop, report and improve department metrics to inform future strategy.
• Financial; including invoicing, purchase order sign off and forecast maintenance.
• Support to maintenance of ISO17025, ISO9001 and other applicable accreditations.
• Staff training and development plans.
• Sled test equipment utilisation, issues and analysis.
• Sled testing procedures.
• Act in accordance with the behaviours for UTAC staff at all times.

Qualifications

Qualifications:

• Qualified to bachelor’s degree or equivalent, preferably in an automotive discipline.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in automotive or aerospace passive safety testing or development to European/Federal/Global standards (essential)
• Management of teams or business of similar size (essential)
• Demonstrable success of planning and organisation (essential)
• Sled testing (essential)
• Systems (Static Rig) testing (preferred)
• Experience of using FARO Arm or other CMM devices
• Experience of setting up and operating high speed cameras, GoPros and DSLR cameras

Skills:

• Solid understanding of the requirements of various passive safety test scenarios, relevant to Sled Testing, and how that translates to the configuration of test facilities (essential)
• Expert level knowledge of industry automotive passive safety European, Federal and Global testing standards and regulations
• Understanding of human injury levels and the limitations of ATD instrumentation
• Familiarity with passive safety testing tools and equipment, including data acquisition, measurement devices and data processing.
• Data interpretation and analysis

Personal Behaviours

• Agent for change
• Strong leader
• Organised and methodical
• Works well under pressure
• Pragmatic
• Shows initiative
• Amicable

Additional Information

Other:

• Flexibility to travel as and when required
• Full UK driving licence
• Willing to undergo a Criminal Disclosure check