Vehicle & Simulation Group Lead

Vehicle Performance & Simulation Group Lead

GM Performance Power Units is seeking a highly motivated Vehicle Performance & Simulation Group Lead to support the development, testing, and trackside operations of our Formula 1 Power Unit. Based in Concord, North Carolina, this role offers a unique opportunity to contribute to a foundational area of our F1 program and assist in building a world-class vehicle performance & simulation team.

The Vehicle Performance & Simulation Group Lead is the department's authority on how power unit performance parameters translate into on-track results, and their outputs directly shape power unit development priorities, energy management strategy, and race weekend decision-making that will lead to race wins for our advanced hybrid power unit, targeted for debut with the Cadillac F1 Team in 2029.

• Lead, manage, and develop the Vehicle Performance & Simulation team of 6–10 engineers, setting clear individual goals aligned to the broader Power Unit Utilization program objectives and holding the team accountable for delivery against them.
• Conduct regular one-on-ones, performance reviews, and career development conversations, actively investing in each team member's growth and ensuring the team retains and develops the talent needed to sustain a competitive simulation program.
• Drive hiring and onboarding for the VPS team. Define role requirements, participate in candidate evaluation, and ensure new team members are integrated effectively and contributing quickly.
• Manage team workload and resource allocation across the competing demands of in-season race support, development simulation work, and tool infrastructure improvement, making prioritization calls clearly and transparently when capacity is constrained.
• Represent the VPS team in Power Unit Utilization leadership discussions, advocating for the team's resource needs, communicating program status accurately, and contributing to department-level planning and decision-making.

• Own and develop the GM PPU suite of physics-based 1D power unit simulation models using Simulink, GT-SUITE/GT-Power or equivalent platforms, ensuring models are continuously correlated against dyno test and race data.
• Direct power unit performance analyses and parameter sensitivity studies across the operating envelope to identify performance headroom and inform calibration and development priorities.
• Define and maintain the power unit performance database, overseeing simulation parameter inputs, model versioning, and plausibility validation to ensure team outputs are reliable and traceable.

• Develop and maintain GM PPU's lap time simulation capability, building a full vehicle simulation framework that integrates power unit output with aerodynamic, tire, and vehicle dynamics models to predict circuit-specific lap time performance and sensitivity to power unit parameters.
• Direct circuit-by-circuit lap time analyses and performance sensitivity studies ahead of each race event, quantifying the lap time influence of power unit mode selection, energy deployment strategy, fuel load delta, and thermal operating limits.
• Establish model parameterization, correlation, and validation processes that ensure the simulation environment produces trustworthy lap time predictions, continuously updated as new hardware and operational data becomes available.

• Direct ERS deployment strategy modeling, fuel saving scenario analysis, and battery state-of-charge profiling across circuit lap types, supporting the Controls & Electronics team in developing and validating energy management maps.
• Provide power unit performance inputs that feed into race strategy tools and pit stop modeling used by the Trackside team and Cadillac F1 chassis engineers.
• Oversee VPS team participation in Driver-in-the-Loop (DIL) simulator sessions where power unit performance and energy management strategy are being evaluated.

• Set the technical direction for the VPS team's simulation toolset, identifying capability gaps,…