Vehicle Performance R&D Senior Engineer

at  Toyota Motor Europe

Company Information:
TOYOTA is one of the world’s largest automobile manufacturers and a leading global corporation. Founded in 1937. Toyota now sells vehicles in 170 countries and employs over 350.000 people. Based in Brussels, Belgium, and staffed by 2.700 people and more than 60 nationalities, Toyota Motor Europe (TME) handles the wholesale marketing of Toyota and Lexus vehicles, parts & accessories, and manages Toyota’s European R&D, manufacturing, and engineering operations.
We are excited to be transforming into a mobility company focusing on bringing even more happiness to our customers through various mobility solutions.
Your team and your responsibilities:

TEAM DESCRIPTION

Vehicle Performance Engineering division (VPE) is part of the Research and Development group at Toyota Motor Europe located at the Technical Center in Zaventem, Belgium. The division’s mission is to provide European customers with a unique Mobility Experience, with responsibility for:

• Identifying customer requirements, and turning them into development targets for vehicles, their subsystems, up to each component
• Performance Development of mobility solutions for European market:
• Plan vehicle systems and structures to achieve the performance targets
• Predict the performance, especially by use of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE)
• Guide design engineers to achieve performance, while meeting quality, cost and feasibility requirements
• Researching state of the art and beyond state of the art technologies for implementation in future vehicles

Vehicle UX department is responsible for creating & delivering a highly competitive and inspirational mobility experience whilst ensuring occupant comfort and usability.

You will be introduced to the Toyota Way in vehicle development and you will take part in vehicle development activities, together with experienced stakeholders such as design & performance engineers and stylists, concretely:

• You will be contributing to improve the experience (subjective perception, emotions, engagement) that users have with future products and doing so through research projects involving activities related to “understanding” (e.g. user research, desk research), “proposing” (e.g. interaction, service design) and “testing” (e.g. quantitative and qualitative assessment)
• You will be utilizing the driving simulator, virtual reality equipment and psychological/physiological measurement for validation of your hypothesis with user centred design
• You will be responsible for the setting and confirmation of UX &/or ergonomic targets (e.g. cockpit layout, field of view, interior roominess, ingress/egress, interface operability & visibility), proceeding evaluation using 3D CAD models, mock-ups and prototype vehicles
• Work closely with stylists, design engineers & developers to secure UX & ergonomic targets throughout the development process, playing an active role in problem solving when targets are not achieved
• Benchmark of competitor and customer solution

You will be introduced to the Toyota Way in vehicle development and you will take part in vehicle development activities, together with experienced stakeholders such as design & performance engineers and stylists, concretely:

• You will be contributing to improve the experience (subjective perception, emotions, engagement) that users have with future products and doing so through research projects involving activities related to “understanding” (e.g. user research, desk research), “proposing” (e.g. interaction, service design) and “testing” (e.g. quantitative and qualitative assessment)
• You will be utilizing the driving simulator, virtual reality equipment and psychological/physiological measurement for validation of your hypothesis with user centred design
• You will be responsible for the setting and confirmation of UX &/or ergonomic targets (e.g. cockpit layout, field of view, interior roominess, ingress/egress, interface operability & visibility), proceeding evaluation using 3D CAD models, mock-ups and prototype vehicles
• Work closely with stylists, design engineers & developers to secure UX & ergonomic targets throughout the development process, playing an active role in problem solving when targets are not achieved
• Benchmark of competitor and customer solutions

Want to know more about how it is to work at Toyota? Check-out Working at Toyota Motor Europe Or Meet the people working at Toyota Motor Europe

Your Profile:

• You are fluent in English (TME’s business language), additional European language skills are an asset
• You have a master in Engineering, Industrial Design, Human Factors or User Experience
• You are passionate about user centred design, design thinking, storytelling, and early design stages
• You have knowledge and experience related to some area from Physical, Perceptual, Psychological, Physiological, Statistical methods, Control engineering
• Experience with CATIA V5, Virtual reality, Figma, python & other digital tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign are a strong asset
• Excellent communicator and good organisation skills
• Demonstrated record of practical problem solving skills with the ability to create (physical or digital) low-tech prototype also a plus
• Open minded, with interest in different cultures and uses
• Good self-organisation and time management
• Analytical – Investigative, inquisitive, always asking ‘why?’
• Customer Centric- Able to leverage their empathy for and knowledge of the user to influence stakeholders teams.