Research and Development Project Manager

Job description

TITLE : Vehicle R&D Project Manager

Location Bedfordshire

Salary to £70,000 + bonus + car

Sector : Automotive and passenger cars

Team UK After Sales team and dealership network

Languages: Mandarin and English

Company Details

You will be joining one of the fastest growing automotive export businesses in the world at a key moment in the transformation of the sector. This is a very exciting role in which you will work for this passenger car business which has experienced stunning growth in the last 2 years. This role as a Vehicle R&D Project Manager plays a central role in ensuring that vehicles developed for the UK and European markets meet technical, regulatory, and customer requirements. The role leads programme coordination for assigned car-lines, managing prototype builds, engineering change control, and homologation readiness. This role is a bridge between UK R&D and headquarters engineering teams overseas, ensuring effective global collaboration in which you will manage prototype build activities including specification control and configuration management

DUTIES

· Coordinate vehicle development programmes from prototype through to production readiness.

· First point of contact between UK R&D, After Sales, Product Planning and headquarters engineering teams.

· Manage prototype build activities including specification control and configuration management.

· Coordinate engineering change requests (ECRs), software updates and validation activities.

• Support UK and EU vehicle homologation programmes and coordinate with regulatory bodies such as VCA and DVSA.

• Work closely with the After Sales team to integrate field feedback, service insights and quality improvements.

• Track programme milestones, risks and deliverables across engineering, validation and product teams.

• Lead programme review meetings and provide status reporting to UK leadership & headquarters.

• Support the transition from development vehicles to certified production models.

• Facilitate clear communication across international engineering teams

REQUIREMENTS

• Degree in Engineering, or related

• Experience in OEM vehicle development or automotive R&D

• Experience working with UK or EU regulatory approval bodies

• Knowledge of vehicle homologation processes (GB WVTA, EU WVTA, UNECE regulations).

• Experience coordinating cross-functional engineering teams.

• MS Project, Excel and PowerPoint.

Fluent Mandarin ( ideally )

Extra information

Status

Open

Education Level

Secondary School

Location

Bedford

Type of Contract

Full-time jobs

Published at

26-04-2026

Profession type

Retail

Full UK/EU driving license preferred

No

Car Preferred

No

Must be eligible to work in the EU

No

Cover Letter Required

No

Languages

English