We visited Jaguar Land Rover in Shannon to learn about the most in-demand skills for working in the autotech industry.
According to Maura Lane, software project manager at Jaguar Land Rover, the company is “on the cusp of the future of automotive engineering”. We recently spoke to Lane and some of her colleagues at the firm’s facility in Shannon to find out more.
Lane described the “very diverse set of employees” working at Jaguar Land Rover, “ranging from grads to highly experienced professionals from all across the world”.
According to Lane, there are some characteristics that particularly stand out to Jaguar Land Rover when it’s seeking new team members. “Highly admired traits are seen in those that successfully and modestly lead their teams and promote a cohesive work ethic,” she said.
Verification and validation manager Colin Harty detailed the “wide range of job opportunities” on offer, including such positions as functional safety engineers, software developers, software architects and, within verification and validation, system test engineers, software test engineers, and software developers and testers.
We also learned about the technical skills that might come in handy from Francesco Caracciolo, a senior embedded software engineer in the company.
He said: “The specific background sought here in Jaguar Land Rover Shannon for a tech employee is for sure the embedded one with deep knowledge in real-time operating systems and in programming languages like C and C++, especially C++ standard 11 onwards.”
Elsewhere in the facility, function safety architect Paul Plower gave us some insights based on his management of the functional safety team on site. In terms of advice for anyone hoping to join the company, Plower said: “The skills that set the best candidates apart are software safety skills, safety analysis skills like FTA and FMEA.”
Lane concluded by saying: “Anyone that’s eager and willing to disrupt the norm would be an asset here. And finally, last but not least, a good sense of humour would always be welcome.”
