Overview
Role: Contractor - Principal Design Engineer – Vehicle Design and Powertrain Integration
Location: Shoreham Technical Centre - Onsite 4 days per week
Role ID:2026-3326
Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world.
Ricardo, member of WSP, is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company. With over 100 years of engineering excellence and employing close to 3,000 employees in more than 20 countries, we provide exceptional levels of expertise in delivering leading‑edge and innovative cross‑sector sustainable products and solutions. Every day, we enable our customers to solve the most complex and dynamic challenges to help achieve a safe and sustainable world.
The Role
Ricardo’s A&I Division are seeking an enthusiastic and dynamic Contractor - Principal Design Engineer, you will be a part of the Global Mechanical Design team responsible for leading activities in the design on Vehicle Engineering and Powertrain Integration.
These vehicles cover a range of different applications including heavy duty vehicles and off‑highway vehicles for defence and commercial applications where vehicles need tailoring to meet customer requirements. The approach to delivery needs to be pragmatic and agile whilst meeting demanding customer requirements for technical specification, timing, robustness and durability.
You will take responsibility for leading a team of mechanical designers to deliver the vehicle design from concept to definitive design. You will own and be technically responsible for engineering design content, quality and solutions.
You will need to manage and work effectively with other engineering disciplines such as CAE/Simulation teams, test and development teams, Programme Managers and Chief Engineers to develop solutions and implement designs, that satisfy component, system, product, and client requirements.
Key Responsibilities
* Concept and definitive 3D mechanical design of systems, system assemblies and complex components such as the integration of powertrain, steering, braking and auxiliary systems into a vehicle.
* Detailed mechanical design work including basic stress calculations, FMEA’s, 2D detailing, 2D layouts, tolerance stacks as required.
* Close cooperation with FEA and Simulation teams to ensure products meet design validation requirements.
* Close cooperation with manufacturing and process engineers to ensure products meet DFMA requirements.
* Management of Bill of Materials.
* Creation of technical reports and documentation as required for engineering projects.
* Liaison with suppliers and other Ricardo departments to ensure the required information is available when needed and customer requests are dealt with in a timely manner.
* Responsibility for coaching and mentoring design engineers in design techniques.
* Ability to take on project roles such as Lead Designer as required by the project, ability to lead small- to mid‑size project teams. This includes technical planning, delegation and execution of vehicle engineering tasks from concept through to production.
* Ensure all designs comply with regulatory, safety, and customer required standards.
* Understanding of market sector trends and market development.
Qualifications and Experience
* Degree (Bachelor or Masters) in Mechanical Engineering or similar field or with equivalent technical experience.
* Substantive experience in Mechanical Design Engineering with focus on Vehicle Engineering, powertrain integration, component integration.
* Broad range of mechanical design knowledge specialising in one of the following areas: vehicle component integration, braking system integration, steering system integration, electrical and ICE powertrain integration.
* Solid understanding of mechanical engineering principles with ability to interpret FEA, CFD results and incorporate them in mechanical design.
* Solid understanding of manufacturing processes, and their impact on design, experience with DFMA.
* Ability to understand, produce and check 2D technical drawings to a high standard with high GD&T competency.
* Experienced user of CATIA V5 and/or Creo Parametric 12.
* Experience with PLM systems, Windchill preferred.
* Leadership of small teams.
* Advanced capabilities in Microsoft Office.
* Experience with commercial vehicle and off‑highway in a defence application is a advantage.
Personal Attributes
* Willing to work on Defence projects that are classified up to and including Secret.
* Willing to work on site at Ricardo Shoreham Technical Centre.
* Confident, proactive and adaptive ability to take the lead in challenging situations to achieve company goals and objectives.
* Acting as a role model representing the company values.
* Strong technical and report writing communication skill in English.
* Excellent problem solving and analytical skills.
* Able to prioritise and organise multiple project workloads and tasks working to tight deadlines.
Working here
You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place.
We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on. Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable.
Work life balance
We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that is working from home, being in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We’re happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core to our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential.
Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion statement
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person’s potential, and we’ll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach as explained here. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro‑actively with all our employees and to ensure an inclusive culture, we are a recognised as a 'disability confident' employer.
Next steps
Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date.
Ricardo is a Disability confident employer please advise the recruitment team via recruit@ricardo.com if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.
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