Architecture Manager

McLaren Automotive Ltd; Woking; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday + bank holidays

Discretionary annual bonus

Private medical insurance

Pension scheme

Sabbatical option

Life assurance

Wellbeing initiatives

Job summary

McLaren Automotive leads the Vehicle Architecture function, defining and governing the vehicle-level architecture across all programmes. The role covers hardware topology, ECU allocation, diagnostics, 12V power and interface integration to enable feature delivery and coherent system solutions.

You will provide technical leadership across domains, build and govern architecture artefacts, and drive toolsets and standards while leading a team to meet programme commitments and delivery timelines.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in vehicle architecture or E/E integration in automotive environments.
• Strong grounding in vehicle electrical architecture and network design.
• Experience defining and governing artefacts such as topology, ECU allocation, diagnostics, and Ethernet/CAN/LIN.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional technical decision-making.
• Experience leading teams and delivering through governance and planning.
• Experience owning or governing systems engineering tooling.
• Degree-qualified with 2:1 or above in engineering.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Vehicle Architecture team across programmes, covering hardware and network topology, ECU configuration and diagnostics.
• Own quality, integrity and release of core architecture deliverables including topology, ECU lists, signal definitions and routing.
• Provide architectural leadership across feature teams, resolving interface conflicts and ensuring platform coherence.
• Develop methods, standards, tooling and governance for architecture design and systems engineering delivery.
• Lead and resource the team to meet programme commitments, building capability and delivering with governance.

Skills

Vehicle architecture

Systems engineering

E/E integration

Network design

ECU allocation

Diagnostics

12V power distribution

Leadership

Governance

Education

Engineering degree (2:1 or higher)

Job description

What to Expect

This role leads the Vehicle Architecture team and is accountable for defining, governing and delivering the vehicle-level architecture needed to enable feature delivery across all programmes. The role owns the architectural framework spanning network topology, ECU and hardware allocation, signal definition, diagnostics, 12V power consumption and distribution as well as interface integration, ensuring robust, scalable and production-ready system solutions.

Working across domain function teams, infrastructure, validation and partner organisations, this role provides technical leadership and decision-making at key interface boundaries. It ensures vehicle architecture artefacts, systems engineering tooling, methods and governance are coherent, controlled and aligned to programme timing, quality, cost and integration objectives.

What You'll Do

• Vehicle Architecture Leadership Lead the Vehicle Architecture team in defining and maintaining the vehicle-level architecture across all programmes, covering hardware and network topology, ECU configuration, hardware integration, diagnostics, signal routing, 12V power consumption and architecture governance.
• Architectural Artefact Ownership Own the quality, integrity and release of core architecture deliverables including topology definitions, ECU lists, signal definitions, DBC/LDF artefacts, Ethernet configuration, routing logic, diagnostic databases, 12V power distribution and pin configurations.
• Cross-Functional Integration & Decision Making Provide architectural leadership across feature teams, infrastructure and validation, resolving interface conflicts, arbitrating architectural trade-offs, and ensuring vehicle-level decisions support feature delivery and system coherence with an emphasis on platform engineering.
• Methods, Tools & Standards Own and continuously improve the methods, standards, tooling and best practices used for vehicle architecture design and systems engineering delivery, ensuring consistency, traceability and effective collaboration across engineering teams and external partners.
• Team Leadership & Capability Development Lead, develop and resource the Vehicle Architecture team to meet programme commitments, building capability in systems thinking, interface definition, architectural governance, tooling stewardship and delivery execution.

What You'll Bring

• Extensive experience in vehicle architecture, systems engineering or E/E integration within complex automotive or high-performance engineering environments.
• Strong technical grounding in vehicle electrical/electronic architecture, network design, hardware integration, signal definition, 12V power consumption and system interface management.
• Practical experience of defining and governing architecture artefacts such as network topology, DBC/LDF, ECU allocation, diagnostics, Ethernet or CAN/LIN integration, and 12V power or resource allocation in a production vehicle environment.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional technical decision-making across systems, software, hardware, infrastructure and validation teams.
• Proven experience leading teams, developing capability, and managing delivery through structured governance, planning and prioritisation.
• Experience owning or governing systems engineering tooling, including administration, workflow configuration, user support, data management and roadmap development.
• Degree-qualified, 2:1 or above, in engineering or equivalent, with strong knowledge of systems engineering processes, architecture governance, requirements allocation and integration methods.

What We'll Do for You

We offer a wide – ranging benefits package, which includes:

• Structured career development framework
• 25 days’ holiday, plus bank holiday. Annual buy & sell up to five days
• Enhanced company pension scheme
• Discretionary annual bonus award
• Private medical insurance and health cash plan
• Life assurance benefit
• Ability to apply for a sabbatical of up to one year after only two years’ service
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• Generous parental leave policies
• A range of wellbeing initiatives, such as employee assistance programme and free financial & mortgage advice

Who Are We?

No restraints. No limitations. We don’t simply push boundaries. We completely rethink them. McLaren Automotive exists to create breath-taking performance road cars.

It takes a community to do what we do. A diverse group of people with many areas of expertise, united by their passion to deliver visionary products and set new benchmarks.

McLaren Automotive commits to equal opportunity for all. Diversity, Equality and Inclusion is at the heart of our impact, it drives our innovation and enables us to truly create something special. Join us on our journey.