Expert in Control of Traction Electric Drives

Salary: £43,000 per annum (plus substantial training budget)

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 03 February 2025

**The Role**

Magtec and Newcastle University are offering an exciting opportunity to design and develop a state-of-the-art traction motor control system used to power Magtec’s electric vehicles. Magtec is a UK based company that designs, develops, manufactures, installs, repowers electric drive systems and components for a wide range of vehicle types including commercial heavy goods vehicles, buses, off-road multi-wheeled and tracked defence vehicles and bespoke specialist vehicles.

You will be part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project which aims to deliver a ground-up redesign employing the industry standard software development process 'ASPICE' (Automotive Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination) methodology to secure continued high-quality deliverables throughout the project.

You will lead on delivering a high quality, state-of-the-art motor control system for Magtec's EV fleet, which involves investigating latest position sensing devices that improve the accuracy of speed measurement in motor drives. You will also be involved in research on sensor less control techniques that enhance the reliability of the drive system in case of a sensor fault or in the absence of a position sensor altogether.

Based at Magtec, Rotherham, you will be supported by an interdisciplinary team from Newcastle University, led by Prof Volker Pickert and Dr Shafiq Odhano, with expertise in power electronics electrical machines and drives used in electric propulsion systems. You will be also supported by a senior supervisor from Magtec.

You should have a degree in electrical engineering, ideally with work experience in electric drives and motor control.

As part of Magtec's Baseline Personal Security Standards (BPSS) checks the following forms will need to be completed for individuals with access to government assets.
- Criminal Convictions Declaration
- Official Secrets Act form

**Benefits**:

- Develop managerial skills and attend two residential managerial workshops (each of one-week duration)
- £4,000 personal training budget
- The opportunity to lead a project, develop project management skills and improve long-term career prospects
- Mentoring by a Knowledge Transfer Network Adviser
- Full access to university resources to complete the project
- Ability to work in a largely self-determined way, across the industry-academic partnership
- Opportunities to develop both technical understanding and commercial awareness
- The possibility of studying for a higher degree or undertaking professional development

The KTP Associate will be an employee of Newcastle University but will spend most of their working time at the company’s premises at Temple Close, Rotherham, S60 1FH and when required at Newcastle University. Although the contract is fixed term for a duration of 2 years, more than 70% of KTP staff gain a permanent job offer by their KTP company.

**Key Accountabilities**
- Develop, test and debug motor control software for EV traction motors
- Design, prototype, validate and test hardware elements using latest position sensing technology and design its interface with Magtec’s existing hardware and software
- Research high-performance torque control strategies for e-motors for maximising the drive cycle efficiency
- Investigate sensorless control algorithms for e-drives for both sensorless start-up and on-the-fly transition in case of a position sensor fault
- Contribute on software upgrade of Magtec’s existing EV fleet to incorporate novel algorithms developed in this project
- Disseminate and embed the knowledge to various stakeholders throughout the KTP via reports, presentations, group discussions and workshops
- Prepare publications, case studies and attend conferences

**The Person**

**Knowledge, Skills, and Experience**

Effective planning and time-management skills to ensure project deadlines are met
- ideally with experience of Jira/Kanban for task management
- Excellent coding skills in Embedded C (Bare metal/Super loop)
- Experience working with real time processes on embedded controllers or DSPs
- Experience of using different communication protocols, such as SPI, UART/USART/SCI, I2C, between hardware peripherals and the DSP
- CAN communications systems, including J1939
- Electric motor control experience
- Experience with characterising and modelling magnetic nonlinearities in traction motors and exploiting these for sensorless control
- Familiarity with simulation and model-based design software, such as Matlab Simulink
- A good understanding of torque maximising control in various operating regions of an electric drive
- The ability to manage scheduled des