Jordan Power: TRW graduate

JOB Electronics hardware engineer
EMPLOYER TRW
QUALIFICATIONS BEng electronic and electrical engineering, Loughborough University (2010)

I’ve always had a passion for cars, and electronics is an increasingly important aspect of automotive engineering. It’s been my aim since secondary school to work in an electronics role in the automotive industry. I completed a sandwich year as part of my degree with National Instruments, largely providing telephone support to companies who had purchased hardware or software from us. I think this experience helped me get my graduate job and it made me feel more confident when I started work.

Designing an engine control unit

I’m one of around 15 engineers working in the electronic hardware team. Our major project at the moment is designing a diesel engine control unit. We’re working in partnership on this with a well known vehicle manufacturer, as the control unit will be used in all of its engines. Our role is to provide the physical electronic controller, with our partner organisation providing the control software.

The project is currently in the development stage. I’ve worked on lots of discrete aspects of this since I joined the company seven months ago. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been investigating a problem with the circuit board. It was manufactured and tested internally, but then required further development after being tried out in our partner organisation’s test rigs, where it was working in the context of a wider system. I’m now investigating what amendments are required and whether we need to adapt our design.

Another element of the project involved overseeing the implementation of modifications that our partner organisation requested, from receiving the specification through to design and assembly. I’ve also received training on the Six Sigma process improvement tool and used this to implement an internal tracking system to show where our products are and what stage they are at in the manufacturing process at any point in time. While my projects are my own, I’m always able to run my ideas past my colleagues and ask for advice.

Between the office and the factory floor

I work a 37-hour week, spending about 70 per cent of my time in our design office in Cirencester and 30 per cent at our manufacturing facility in Birmingham, which is 90 minutes away. I also attend meetings with our partner organisation, though on a day-to-day basis it’s my manager who’s the main point of contact for clients.

Troubleshooting skills

Troubleshooting and lateral thinking skills are important in my job – I need to take a broad view of where, why and how something may be failing and what can be done to prevent this. Fixing faulty circuitry gives me job satisfaction. It can be frustrating when I can’t work out why something is going wrong, but this is something I expected in fault diagnostics and repair. Another aspect of my career that I particularly like is knowing that I’m working towards making future vehicles more efficient and hence more environmentally friendly.