Product Development Manager - Motorsport Control & Compute Software

Background

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.

To deliver efficient lightweight electric powertrain and vehicle development; motorsport solutions that make series more sustainable and efficient; reliable connectivity solutions for transportation and insightful analytics and monitoring of transport fleets.

By applying our expertise, we deliver real benefits and pioneer a better future.

Job Summary

As Product Development Manager you will use a deep technical expertise and a passion for high-performance engineering to lead the development of advanced control unit software for motorsport applications. You will be responsible for developing and maintaining software to support a portfolio of products and will collaborate closely with product management to deliver a compelling software feature roadmap.

You will guide cross-functional teams in building robust, real-time control software and applications that meet the performance, reliability, and safety demands of top-tier motorsport competition.  The role bridges the gap between customer requirements and engineering to ensure that the right products are delivered on time, on budget, and to specification.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end software product development lifecycle—from ideation through release and refinement
• Own sprint planning, development pipelines, and quality assurance processes—optimising for race timelines and in-season releases
• Maintain short and long term resource requirements including use of external resources, perform ongoing risk management and implement performance metrics
• Collaborate with product managers, chief engineers and cross discipline engineering teams and to define delivery plans
• Champion agile methodologies and foster a culture of continuous improvement
• Identify and manage dependencies with other technical areas such as control unit hardware and off car software development
• Identify technical and process-related bottlenecks and propose effective solutions
• Lead and inspire a team of top engineering talent, maintaining a high-performing team
• Manage project budgets, timelines, and resources, ensuring delivery under fast-paced and high-pressure timelines typical of motorsport.
• Instil appropriate project governance to coordinate ongoing project activities, critical project milestones, reporting of project status and escalations for assistance.

Qualifications

• Degree in Control Systems, Software Engineering, Mechatronics, or related field
• Proven experience (typically 5+ years) managing software development in embedded systems, ideally within a motorsport, aerospace, or high performance tech environment
• Proficiency in project management tools (e.g., Jira, Confluence) and development practices (e.g., CI/CD, version control, testing)
• Proven leadership in high-pressure, fast-paced technical environments
• In-depth knowledge of control theory, embedded C, MATLAB Simulink, and real-time operating systems (RTOS)
• Familiarity with motorsport communication protocols (CAN, FlexRay) and ECU platforms (e.g. McLaren Applied, Bosch, Cosworth, Magneti Marelli)
• Strong technical background in software engineering, architecture, and agile development practices

Preferred Skills

• Experience with race team operations and the real-world deployment of control software during competition
• Understanding of typical motorsport control regulations and homologation constraints.  Familiarity with ISO26262 functional safety requirements is desirable.
• Passion for motorsport innovation and a strong appreciation for real-time race engineering workflows
• Ability to operate at the interface of hardware and software with clear communication across technical disciplines
• Project management certification or training in Agile/Lean development practices.

What we can offer you

In return for everything you bring to the table, we can ensure an exciting, challenging role in a dynamic business surrounded by some of the best people in their respective fields.

At McLaren Applied we firmly believe
it’s the relationships and friendships we create while working that make us special. We’re also aware that the world is changing and we are part of that change. We all want and need different things from our work and home lives, so, if you have commitments outside of work, we’re open to talking through flexible working options that work for you and us.

• 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. Employees are eligible to join the scheme after successful competition of their probationary period.
  

Who we are

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