About the role
Company Description
For almost 50 years, Williams has been at the forefront of one of the fastest sports on the planet, being one of the top three most successful teams in history competing in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. With an almost unrivalled heritage of engineering and racing F1 cars and unforgettable eras that demonstrate it is a force to be reckoned with, the British squad boasts 16 F1 World Championship titles to its name.
Since its foundation in 1977 by the eminent, late Sir Frank Williams and engineering pioneer Sir Patrick Head, the team has won nine Constructors’ Championships, in association with Cosworth, Honda and Renault. Its roll call of drivers is legendary, with its seven Drivers’ Championship trophies being lifted by true icons of the sport: Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve. The team has made history before and is out to make it again with a long-term mission to evolve and return to the front of the grid.
Job Description
About the Role
We’re looking for a Control Systems Engineer to join our Controls team at Grove, working on the systems that sit behind our gearbox and clutch.
Right now, the focus is the dyno: building and developing the control system that lets us recreate what the car sees on track. As the transmission programme moves forward, you’ll grow into owning the gearbox and clutch controls, covering calibration, development, control simulation and the tooling that goes with it. The aim is a gear shift and clutch response that’s reliable every time, in every situation.
You’ll work inside the standard ECU code, tracing through it to find where the gains and the pitfalls are, then tuning calibrations to get the best shift for each scenario. You’ll be part of a small team of around five, working closely with Vehicle Dynamics, Powertrain, Systems Simulation and Electronics.
It’s also a rare one. We’re developing our own gearbox from close to the ground up, which very few teams get to do, and the facility is being built with the long term in mind. Opportunities like this don’t come round often.
Key Responsibilities
- Calibrate and develop the gearbox and clutch control system, with a focus on reliable, repeatable gear shifts and clutch response
- Analyse data from dyno and car running to find the root cause of shift performance and reliability issues, then apply what you learn in calibrations and control tuning
- Learn, use and help develop the dyno control system, including integrating our vehicle models so the dyno reflects what happens on track
- Build control simulations and the supporting tooling, mainly in MATLAB, Simulink and Python
- Work within the standard ECU code and toolchain to get the best shift for each situation
- Support troubleshooting on the dyno and the car, diagnosing issues quickly and working with colleagues across the business to fix them
- Document designs, test protocols and results so that everything is accurate and traceable
About You
You’re a controls engineer who writes and understands the code, not someone who just edits other people’s. You know that code controlling physical hardware has to be right first time, and you take a proactive approach to safety-critical work. You pay attention to the detail, learn quickly, and are happy getting stuck into a programme that’s still taking shape.
- Degree in electrical, control systems, automotive, mechanical, software or a related engineering discipline
- At least 5 years in controls engineering, ideally in motorsport or high-performance automotive (Formula E, WEC and F1 backgrounds are all relevant)
- Strong MATLAB and Simulink experience, with confident programming and controls ability of your own
- Good understanding of embedded, real-time code that targets an ECU
- Able to read and trace through control code and state flows to spot where the advantages and risks sit
- Transmission controls experience is strongly preferred, and dyno knowledge is a close second
- Nice to have: dSpace or SpeedGoat, Python, the standard ECU toolchain (SECU, Atlas, SystemMonitor) and AVL Puma
Additional Information
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Atlassian Williams F1 Team is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity and inclusion. We are happy to discuss reasonable job adjustments.
