Job Description

Role: Head of Control & Electronics Engineering

Location: USA, Detroit - Hybrid/Onsite

Role ID: 2026-3378

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world.

Ricardo, member of WSP, is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company. With over 100 years of engineering excellence and employing close to 3,000 employees in more than 20 countries, we provide exceptional levels of expertise in delivering leading-edge and innovative cross-sector sustainable products and solutions. Every day, we enable our customers to solve the most complex and dynamic challenges to help achieve a safe and sustainable world.

The Role

Control & Electronics is one of five Engineering Capability Groups within the Ricardo Engineering Consultancy and is responsible for all aspects of the technical delivery of electronic control and electrical systems to requirements on all our projects. This overarching responsibility incorporates the necessary skillsets in electrical, electronics, control and embedded software, and from requirements capture through to validation. Applications include engines, transmissions, hybrid & electric vehicles, power electronics, batteries and battery management systems, energy systems and special vehicles.

The Head of Control & Electronics Engineering reports directly to the Global Head of Engineering and has responsibility for leading the global Control & Electronics Capability Group. The role requires strong team management and client engagement, and success is achieved through our ability to deliver exciting value propositions to our customers, meeting their needs through technical solutions and delivering these as successful projects.

In the this role, you will be leading a highly technical team, and be responsible for defining and executing the Control & Electronics Engineering strategy, recruiting and developing the best people, and developing our capability through new tools, processes and skillsets to enable Ricardo to continually deliver exciting value propositions to our customers. Close working with the other Engineering Capability groups, Test and Project Management functions and Product & Technology teams is critical to success. The position requires a strong broad technical background in control, electronics, electrical, embedded software or systems engineering discipline.

Key Responsibilities

• Leadership and management of the Control & Electronics Engineering Capability Group including balancing workload across the team, ensuring correct skills mix and planning support to projects.
• Work with the wider Delivery teams to ensure overall project delivery to quality, budget and timing – providing technical leadership on projects when required – and ensuring successful delivery to support achieving our financial business performance.
• Owning and driving the Control & Electronics Engineering Capability strategy.
• Strategic recruitment to grow the Control & Electronics Engineering Capability Group by recruiting the best engineers in the industry.
• Talent management of the team by mentoring, developing and identifying future talent and putting plans in place to provide coaching and training to develop succession plans.
• Development and maintenance of an Engineering Partner supplier network to provide additional flexible & low-cost resources and additional specialist skills when required.
• Understand the technology trends and market needs, and working closely with the Product & Technology teams, drive and guide the R&D agenda, to grow the skills of the Engineering Capability and deliver the products, solutions, tools and processes needed to take to the market and impress our customers.
• Improve and maintain our core engineering tools and processes, aligned with the overall Ricardo strategy, with a focus on continuous improvement and continuous learning culture in the Engineering group.
• Drive and manage large project issue resolution where necessary.
• Ensure compliance of the team to all policies and procedures relating to quality, health and safety, security, IT and information security.

Knowledge

• Strong leadership skills and experience managing technical teams to deliver client projects.
• A passion for technology, engineering and delivering solutions to our customers: Technically literate and keen to learn and teach new technologies.
• A good understanding of the needs of Ricardo's clients and the operation of a technical consultancy business.
• Good business and finance acumen.
• Sound engineering background to enable sufficiently robust technical reviews to take place and to assess the quality engineering processes used during our business.
• Good knowledge and experience of Industrial and Automotive gateway processes.
• Experience in technical project leadership & program management.

Skills and Attributes

• Inspirational and credible leader, able to create a compelling vision and take teams on the journey, including the development and leadership of global, multidisciplinary teams.
• Excellent communication and leadership qualities, a high standard of written and spoken English.
• Attention to detail and willingness to drive for solutions and compromise when required.
• Confident influencer, able to operate effectively at all levels and across matrixed organisational structures.
• Strategic and agile thinker with a strong ability to identify opportunities, initiate improvements, and respond effectively to change.
• Thrives in fast‑paced, dynamic environments, demonstrating resilience, adaptability, and focus.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously while maintaining quality and delivery.
• Flexible in work approach to working and being prepared to meet client demands which include being prepared to travel globally.

Experience

• Experience in relevant engineering and technology sectors, with extensive industry experience in control, electronics, electrical, embedded software or systems engineering.

Qualifications

• Degree qualified in a relevant engineering, scientific, or business discipline.

Working here You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place. We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on. Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable.

Work life balance We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that is working from home, being in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We're happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core to our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential.

BenefitsWe want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that. You will receive a range of benefits which include support for your physical and mental health.

Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion statement

We are an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, creed, gender identity. sexual orientation, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, marital or parental status (IL only), height, weight, national origin, citizenship status, age, domestic violence victim status, arrest record or conviction record (MI only), genetic information, military or veteran status or disability, or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state, or municipal law. VEVRAA Federal Contractor.

Next steps Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date.Ricardo is a Disability confident employer please advise the recruitment team via recruit@ricardo.com if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.

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