DRVN Automotive Group
Lead Concept Engineer
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Location: DRVN Design Office, Westwood Way, Coventry
Salary: £47000 - £57000 (depending on experience)
Reporting to: Chief Vehicle Engineer
Role Overview
The Lead Concept Engineer is responsible for leading the creation, development, and delivery of vehicle concepts across a portfolio of niche, low-volume, and specialist vehicle programmes. The role ensures that customer requirements, vehicle attributes, performance targets, regulatory requirements, and engineering constraints are translated into robust vehicle concepts that provide a strong foundation for successful programme delivery.
Working as a key member of the vehicle engineering team, the Lead Concept Engineer will coordinate cross-functional concept activities, drive technical feasibility assessments, and provide engineering leadership from initial customer requirements through to programme definition and vehicle architecture sign-off.
The role requires an individual capable of operating in a fast-paced environment where customer expectations, vehicle specifications, and programme objectives may differ significantly between projects.
Key Responsibilities
Vehicle Concept Leadership
- Lead vehicle concept development activities across multiple niche and specialist vehicle programmes.
- Define and maintain vehicle concepts, technical specifications, and system requirements from programme inception.
- Develop vehicle-level targets covering performance, mass, packaging, cost, manufacturability, and customer attributes.
- Ensure concept feasibility aligns with programme objectives and business strategy.
- Support vehicle architecture definition and technology selection activities.
- Lead concept reviews and support programme gateway deliverables.
Requirements & Attribute Development
- Capture and translate attribute requirements into engineering specifications.
- Develop vehicle attribute targets including:
- Vehicle dynamics
- Performance
- Refinement
- Ergonomics
- Usability
- Safety
- Quality perception
- Support target setting and requirements decomposition across engineering commodities.
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Technical Feasibility & Architecture Development
- Conduct concept feasibility studies and trade-off analyses.
- Evaluate alternative vehicle architectures and engineering solutions.
- Assess technical risks associated with new technologies, systems, and customer requirements.
- Support platform adaptation and carry-over component strategies.
- Develop high-level system integration strategies.
Engineering Integration
- Coordinate concept activities across all vehicle engineering commodities.
- Work closely with Packaging, Chassis, Body, Electrical, Interior, Manufacturing, and Purchasing teams.
- Ensure vehicle concepts remain technically robust and commercially viable.
- Manage concept-level issues and drive effective resolution plans.
CAD and Digital Development
- Support creation and review of concept CAD layouts and vehicle architecture models.
- Create concept CAD data for a broad range of commodity areas such as Body, Electrical, Chassis and Powertrain.
- Management of a concept CAD product structure.
- Support digital reviews and virtual validation activities.
Customer & Supplier Management
- Act as the primary engineering contact for concept-related discussions with customers.
- Support workshops and technical reviews with key system suppliers.
- Engage with suppliers to assess feasibility of innovative or specialist solutions.
- Present vehicle concepts and engineering recommendations to senior stakeholders.
Programme Delivery
- Support programme planning and concept phase deliverables.
- Identify and manage technical risks during early development phases.
- Contribute to programme status reporting and engineering reviews.
- Ensure concept activities support programme timing, cost, quality, and performance objectives.
Key Outputs
- Vehicle concept definitions and architecture studies.
- Vehicle technical specifications and target cascades.
- Requirements and attribute documents.
- Feasibility studies and trade-off assessments.
- Concept CAD layouts and engineering proposals.
- Technical risk assessments and mitigation plans.
- Design review presentations and engineering reports.
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Required Skills & Experience
Essential Experience
- Significant experience in automotive concept engineering, vehicle integration, or systems engineering.
- Proven track record developing vehicle concepts from customer requirements through programme definition.
- Experience leading cross-functional engineering activities.
- Strong understanding of vehicle architectures and systems integration.
- Experience managing technical stakeholders and customer interfaces.
- Knowledge of automotive development processes and gateway reviews.
Desirable Experience
- High-performance and niche sports car development experience would be advantageous.
- Experience within low-volume or specialist vehicle programmes.
- Vehicle attribute development and target setting experience.
- Understanding of homologation and regulatory requirements.
Working Environment
The successful candidate will join a small, agile engineering team developing performance vehicle platforms at a significantly faster pace than traditional OEM programmes. Engineers are expected to remain closely connected to the physical development of the vehicle and regularly interact with different functions across the business.
While the role is primarily office-based at the Coventry design facility, occasional travel to external partners and facilities may be required, sometimes involving extended working days during development phases.
Candidate Profile
We are looking for an engineer who:
- Strong technical leadership capability.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Pragmatic problem solver with a hands-on engineering approach.
- Able to balance technical excellence with commercial and programme pressures.
- Self-motivated and capable of working with limited supervision.
- Comfortable operating within agile and rapidly changing project environments.
Experience Level
We welcome applications from engineers with approximately 5+ years of industry experience, depending on technical depth and background.
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