Role: Product Lead - Transmissions and Drivelines

Location: Van Buren Township, Michigan, US - Hybrid

Role ID: 2026-3272

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world.

Ricardo Automotive and Industrial (A&I), a member of WSP, and global engineering services partner for clean and efficient integrated propulsion and energy systems. Our experience and history of more than 100 years at the forefront of transport & energy innovation, enables us to deliver solutions to the most complex challenges, allowing our customers across all global transport & energy sectors to achieve a sustainable zero-carbon future. 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.

Delivering technology and engineering services across transport, energy, and industrial sectors to support clients in developing new technology and products. This includes a wide range of propulsion technologies that address key market challenges in the automotive, commercial vehicles, off highway, marine and aerospace sectors.  When combined with the industrialization and manufacturing capability within the Ricardo Manufacturing team, this creates a unique end-to-end capability to help clients bring new solutions to market.

The Role

The Product Lead - Transmissions & Driveline position will focus on shaping the product portfolio of technical services and solutions and expand business by effectively growing key customer accounts through win strategy and project directorship.  To cultivate and grow this end-to-end capability, we are seeking a technically strong and entrepreneurial leader to continue growth of our Transmission and Driveline products and services within the Engineering group. Additionally, this role will lead the development and delivery of core services and IP that strengthen the technical offerings. In this role, you will be supporting clients and business development by matching key engineering services and ever expanding our technical prowess and enabling technologies to support and grow our business within Transmissions and Drivelines

Key Responsibilities

As the Automotive and Industrial landscape undergoes rapid transformation, the key to growth lies in our ability to provide enabling technical insights and services into expanding and emerging markets such as Aerospace, Defense, as well as automotive and industrial markets.  This role will help lead that effort, building the internal capability to deliver technical value at scale, supporting business growth, and positioning the technology at the forefront of technical consulting.

This role will be within the Hybrids and Drivelines (HYDL) Growth Solution (GS) team, where there is strong demand for expanding product and service growth and strong Project Directorship focused on expanding key accounts with responsibilities including but not limited to:

Directing Win Strategy for Key Project Pursuits

• Partner with Business Development (BD) to form a compelling win strategy to secure key projects.
• Manage internal and external stakeholders to ensure the customer need is properly identified, articulated and addressed with maximum value proposition.
• Work with internal engineering and capability to match product and service definition to the customer need.
• Direct proposal creation, working with engineering and capability leaders to ensure the Win Strategy is strongly articulated within the proposal.
• Ensure Budget targets and scope are set and met within each proposal.

Direct Projects for Key Accounts as Project Director

• After winning key projects, supporting execution and account growth in the Project Director role to expand the business by identifying future work through expansion of the project or further supporting development the customer’s portfolio thereby securing future business for Ricardo.
• Thought leadership is key for bringing customer insights that can support the customer’s roadmap and lead to future business to expand their product line.
• Strategic and proactive external and internal stakeholder management is required to ensure customer satisfaction and provide the value to the customer that will lead to account expansion.
• Project Director is the highest role at the project level and ensures timely escalation from the project team and coordinates solutions to address the issues from the broader organization.

Support Ricardo’s Product and Service Strategy within Drivelines and Transmissions

• Support and own specific areas of internal strategy for Transmissions that define our areas of strength in products and services to include IP and capabilities offered.
• Identify and match services, capability and enabling technical solutions to future industry needs and/or current customer pain points.
• Support and own specific areas of external sales support activities and materials within HYDL. Supporting sales with targeted sales materials such as slide decks, harnessing out internal strategic focus.
• Support mapping of our products and service to specific market sectors and refine the selling into those sectors working closely with BD.
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Technical Qualifications 

For such insights in each of these areas, the role requires prior technical or Product Management experience in at least one or preferably several components of the following:

• Delivery of transmission and driveline projects to quality targets and milestones from clean sheet design to hardware development. 
• Product delivery from requirements capture through to design validation of mechanical components and systems for transmissions and drivelines
• Familiar with Transmission and Driveline system architectures such as AT, MT, DCT, EDU, CVT, Hybrids (P2, P3), DHT.
• Transmission and Driveline system component technologies such as gears, shafts, bearings, launch devices, actuators, differentials, eMotors, inverters, park locks, clutches & brakes, etc.
• Development of transmission application control software and calibration.
• Transmission and Driveline component manufacturing methods from prototype to production.
• Preparation and presentation of design concepts and technical business proposals to customers.

Experience

• Ideally, a degree qualified Mechanical Engineer (Degree in an Engineering or Science related discipline e.g. Mechanical Engineering/Physics/Aero/Auto Engineering) with demonstrable experience and a proven track record of developing transmission and driveline components, assemblies and products within the automotive or similar industries.
• Experience in creating innovative solutions while working within tight timescales, be able to work and coordinate with multi-disciplinary project teams and be a self-starter with the determination to deliver challenging projects to strict timelines and budgets.
• Proven track record in engineering consulting, product management, or industrial innovation.
• Strong understanding of the automotive and industrial sectors, with focus on heavy duty, off highway and electrified powertrain systems
• Experience in stakeholder management, growing customer relationships, and identifying future technology and capability to support Transmissions and Drivelines
• Proven ability to oversee and Direct teams in complex, highly technical projects with multi-disciplinary content.

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Very strong sense of ownership and accountability in achieving sector’s pipeline and OI targets, with an entrepreneurial mindset to grow business.
• Professional approach; exudes expertise and credibility.
• Sound strategic thinker; possesses vision of what could be; ability to identify opportunities; ability to close deals efficiently; nimbleness in thinking; initiator of improvements.
• Strong but customer-aware negotiation skills; track record of building high-performing teams; ability to influence.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively multi-task.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills; ability to condense complex issues into succinct messages for both internal and external communication; astute stakeholder management, both internally and externally
• Strong problem solving, analytical and listening skills.
• Ability to handle and maintain confidential information.
• Ability to excel in a fast-paced, matrix organization.

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.

Benefits

We 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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