Earlier this year, we visited JLR Shannon to learn more about the projects its people are working on and how the company welcomes ideas from staff.
At Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in Shannon, there are plenty of diverse projects in progress. From vehicle cybersecurity and smart charging to hosting an innovation challenge for graduate staff, its employees are applying their expertise to a variety of focus areas.
JLR Shannon’s general manager and site lead, John Cormican, gave us an insight into the ongoing work at the facility.
“We’re looking at fundamentally changing the entire electrical architecture of the vehicle, which is a big thing for us,” he said. “We’re also looking at things like functional safety.”
Cormican added that car cybersecurity is important as the company works to make JLR vehicles connected and “updatable through software over the air”.
“We’re also looking at partnering with a bunch of other tech companies to make this area, this campus in Shannon, an IoT smart city,” he said.
“It’ll be a huge opportunity to do things like smart vehicle charging, 5G testing and other things like data monetisation and pre-emptive diagnostics and many, many other projects too,” he said.
New perspectives
Richard Taylor, who works in the site’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems department, said that innovation is “at the heart of everything” JLR does.
“My favourite thing about working in JLR would be the people and the products that we make. They’re fantastic,” he added.
This year, Taylor is running the site’s Graduate Innovation Challenge, encouraging graduate teams to submit ideas for products that the company can potentially run with. This is not only a great opportunity for graduates, Taylor said, but highlights the trust and value JLR places in new people and new ideas.
“I’ve been with the company for just over a year and already I’m running something where all of our new hires are coming into the company, and they’re already creating fantastic and innovative projects.
“So we can truly see that all the new hires, they really have a unique perspective on what a car is. They understand the new trends in the market, they understand new technical aspects that we ourselves might not have thought of before. So it’s key to get those new insights.”
What candidates should bear in mind
For anyone interested in the projects and opportunities outlined by Cormican and Taylor, we asked HR team member Jessica O’Neill about what applicants should keep in mind about working at JLR Shannon.
“The main attributes that we would look for in potential new hires would be those that promote a strong sense of ownership, promote team collaboration and those that have a great sense of passion for what they do,” she said.
