Head of Safety & Security - Autonomous and Connected Systems

McLaren Bahrain; Woking; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

McLaren Bahrain is seeking a Head of Safety & Security for its Autonomous and Connected Systems team in Woking. This role involves leading safety assurance and cybersecurity strategies for next-generation intelligent vehicle platforms, ensuring compliance and safety-by-design principles across AI systems. The ideal candidate will have proven leadership in safety and cybersecurity, deep expertise in functional safety, and a track record in regulatory compliance.

Benefits

Structured career development framework

25 days’ holiday plus bank holidays

Enhanced company pension scheme

Discretionary annual bonus award

Private medical insurance

Life assurance benefit

Generous parental leave policies

Wellbeing initiatives

Qualifications

• Proven leadership in safety and cybersecurity across AI-driven, autonomous, or complex embedded systems.
• Deep expertise in functional safety, AI safety, and global vehicle homologation pathways.
• Technical knowledge of motion control validation and simulation-based safety modeling.

Responsibilities

• Define safety and cybersecurity architecture across AI stack and connected systems.
• Lead functional safety strategy and oversee homologation strategy.
• Build scalable safety-case frameworks and develop predictive validation methods.

Skills

Leadership in safety and cybersecurity

Functional safety expertise

Regulatory compliance experience

Adversarial threat defense

Job description

What to Expect

We are recruiting for a Head of Safety & Security – Autonomous and Connected Systems to join our Autonomous, Connected Mobility and AI team in Woking. You will architect and lead the safety assurance, cybersecurity, and compliance strategy for McLaren’s next-generation intelligent vehicle platforms — covering AI-native autonomy, connected services, OTA pipelines, and cloud infrastructure.

You will be responsible for embedding safety- and security-by-design principles across the AI lifecycle, E2E autonomy stack, connectivity, motion interface, and cloud services. You will also lead functional safety programs, global homologation efforts, and regulatory interface for type approval and compliance.

This role is at the forefront of software-defined mobility security, ensuring McLaren Automotive’s AI-driven platform remains impenetrable to evolving cyber threats.

What You'll Do

• Define the end-to-end safety and cybersecurity architecture across AI stack, autonomy platform, OTA infrastructure, and connected cloud systems
• Lead functional safety strategy and implementation for ADAS/AD and connected systems, including ISO alignment, fault diagnostics, failover strategy, and sign-off
• Oversee homologation strategy and type approval submissions for global deployment markets (UNECE, FMVSS, GCC, and others)
• Own the certification process for both software-defined features and AI-driven functions, including explainability and traceability requirements
• Build scalable safety-case frameworks for E2E architectures, integrating runtime assurance, confidence bounding, and post-deployment analytics
• Develop predictive and AI-assisted validation methods for learned behaviour, fallback triggering, and long-tail risk detection
• Lead the architecture and governance of zero-trust OTA security, cryptographic model deployment, and intrusion detection tooling
• Establish fleet-scale security monitoring, anomaly detection, and digital twin infrastructure for failure replication and event tracing
• Collaborate across ADAS/AD Software, Cloud, Connectivity, and Product Engineering to embed safeguards into runtime behaviour and full-vehicle interfaces
• Represent McLaren in regulatory and industry safety forums, shaping next-generation AI and autonomy certification standards

What You'll Bring

• Proven leadership in safety and cybersecurity across AI-driven, autonomous, or complex embedded systems
• Deep expertise in functional safety, AI safety (ISO series, draft AI Act frameworks), and global vehicle homologation pathways
• Experience leading regulatory compliance for ADAS/AD systems across multiple markets
• Technical knowledge of motion control validation, AI behavior testing, fallback design, and simulation-based safety modeling
• Expertise in adversarial threat defense, cryptographic infrastructure, OTA security, and cloud-vehicle trust architecture
• Track record of delivering safety sign-off from early concept through global SOP and beyond

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.