Automotive Program Manager – Exterior (Luxury / Sports Cars)

Position Details:

Position: Program Manager – Exterior

Experience: 15+ years

Location: Onsite – United Kingdom

Employment Type: Full time

No. of position: 1

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced Automotive Program Manager to lead exterior workstreams for a premium sports-car program based onsite in the UK.

The ideal candidate will have experience coordinating exterior product development, managing cross-functional interfaces, and driving program delivery from design maturity through validation and production readiness.

Key Responsibilities

- Lead end-to-end program delivery for automotive exterior systems, ensuring milestones, deliverables, timelines, quality, and cost targets are met.
- Coordinate exterior workstreams covering areas such as bumpers, fenders, hood, doors, closures, tailgate or decklid, exterior trim, glazing interfaces, lighting interfaces, and sealing systems, as applicable.
- Demonstrate expert proficiency in CATIA V5, with exposure to NX and other PLM tools.
- Manage program plans, gateways, deliverables, risks, dependencies, engineering changes, and issue-resolution activities.
- Coordinate with styling, Class-A, design engineering, packaging, CAE, aerodynamics, lighting, validation, manufacturing, purchasing, quality, and supplier teams.
- Track surface and design maturity, fit-and-finish, gap-and-flush, interface resolution, validation status, and engineering release readiness.
- Lead customer and stakeholder reviews, communicate program status and escalations, and drive closure of open actions.
- Manage supplier deliverables and support the resolution of technical, timing, quality, tooling,



and manufacturing issues.
- Ensure exterior development activities align with program requirements, applicable safety and regulatory requirements, and OEM processes.

Required Skills & Qualifications

- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Automotive Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
- 15+ years of extensive experience in automotive exterior systems, along with 2–3 years of proven experience in Program Management.
- Proven automotive program management experience in exterior systems for premium, luxury, or sports-car programs.
- Experience working on Ferrari Amalfi, Aston Martin DB12, or McLaren vehicle programs will be considered an added advantage.
- Strong understanding of exterior development, styling-to-engineering handover, fit-and-finish, gap-and-flush, validation, and production-readiness processes.
- Experience managing schedules, risks, issues, engineering changes, milestones, and cross-functional dependencies.
- Excellent customer-facing communication, stakeholder management, reporting, and escalation skills.
- Must be willing to travel and work onsite in the UK as per project/customer needs and continue supporting the program from India upon return.

Preferred Qualifications

- Experience with European premium OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers.
- Familiarity with automotive PLM systems, BOM/change management, and program tracking tools.
- Experience coordinating Class-A, tooling, and supplier industrialization activities.

Why Join Us?

- Opportunity to contribute to a premium European automotive program.
- Work onsite with international customer and engineering teams.
- Collaborate across vehicle development functions on a high-profile sports-car program.

📌 Automotive Program Manager – Exterior (Luxury / Sports Cars) (Bengaluru)
🏢 Inoptra Digital
📍 Bengaluru