The Challenge:
Our client, a global market leader in full-stack autonomous driving technology, required a seasoned engineering executive to lead worldwide hardware development. Having recently established a significant partnership with a leading car maker, they specifically needed a Head of Hardware capable of overseeing the design and development of cutting-edge compute, sensing and vehicle systems. Furthermore, it was imperative that this leader could ensure that hardware would succeed in a historically software-driven company, thereby adjusting the perspective on hardware internally. It was vital that the VP Hardware possess technical breadth across the full scope of a passenger car, leading global teams of mechanical, electrical, systems, integration and testing engineers.
The Solution:
Miramar developed a targeted search strategy that focused on direct and adjacent competitors who were building autonomous driving platforms for consumer-owned vehicles: “robo-taxis” and self-driving shuttles, car manufacturers’ horizontal AV and ADAS R&D groups and their vertical vehicle line engineering heads, and Tier 1 suppliers focused on AD and ADAS platforms. Miramar crafted a tailored interview to assess candidates’ abilities in areas such as innovation, execution, cultural change and technical leadership to qualify candidates effectively. Additionally, we deployed an innovative messaging strategy to generate candidate interest, and tied this to a persistent and multi-channel outreach cadence – ultimately attracting leaders from some of the most exciting automotive technology companies in the world.
The Result:
- Fully mapped a tight market of legitimately credentialed individuals, identifying over 100 candidates.
- Developed deep understanding of where many of our client’s competitors, customers and value-chain collaborators were focusing their efforts with respect to autonomous driving.
- Identified and secured for our client an executive with an extensive track-record of leading engineering across the full scope of the vehicle, with a focus on advanced technologies like self-driving and active safety.
