Corporate Quality Engineering Industrial Placement 2026

What to Expect

We are recruiting for Industrial Placement Interns to join our Corporate Quality team at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey. As a Corporate Quality Intern, you’ll gain hands-on experience across multiple areas of our quality function, playing a key role in ensuring that every McLaren vehicle meets the high standards expected of our brand.

This is a 12-month full-time Industrial Placement, designed for university students undertaking a placement year as part of a relevant degree programme. You will work alongside experienced quality engineers, data analysts, and programme managers to gain practical exposure to real-world challenges and solutions in automotive quality.

Please note this is an on-site position.

What You’ll Do

As part of the Corporate Quality team, you will support a variety of projects and tasks across key areas including:

Technical & Programme Quality:

• • Assist with programme-level quality governance and support Q-Gate processes
  • Help coordinate fault tracking and contribute to cross-functional reviews
  • Support internal alignment on quality strategy and programme milestones

Vehicle Line Quality (VLQ):

• • Participate in vehicle inspections, test reviews, and fault identification
  • Contribute to warranty data analysis and assist in implementing corrective actions
  • Support continuous improvement initiatives linked to customer satisfaction

Product Quality Standards:

• • Help assess perceived quality in collaboration with Design, Engineering, and Marketing
  • Assist with tolerance analysis and benchmarking of key components and finishes
  • Support quality input into early-stage product development

Total Quality Management (TQM):

• • Support regulatory compliance checks and change control governance
  • Assist in tracking process adherence across departments
  • Gain exposure to key industry standards and audit processes

You will also take part in intern development workshops, training sessions, and networking opportunities across the wider business.

What You’ll Bring

• • Currently studying for a degree in Engineering, Automotive, Manufacturing, Business or a STEM-related field, and on track for a 2:1 or above
  • A genuine interest in quality systems, product integrity, and continuous improvement
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
  • Comfortable using Excel, with some knowledge of data tools such as Power BI or Minitab being advantageous
  • Excellent organisational and communication skills

You must also bring a passion for cars, and a desire to work at the cutting edge of the automotive industry within our Quality business area.

Personal Attributes:

We’re looking for candidates who thrive in detail-focused, engineering-led environments and are eager to learn from real-world automotive projects. Desirable traits include:

• • Attention to detail – precise when reviewing data, inspecting vehicles, or completing reports
  • Analytical mindset – confident using numbers and logic to spot patterns and support decisions
  • Curiosity – interested in how products work, fail, and can be improved
  • Collaboration – keen to learn from others and contribute to team success
  • Adaptability – ready to tackle new challenges and switch focus when priorities shift
  • Resilience – able to maintain quality and composure in a high-performance setting
  • Proactivity – eager to take initiative, suggest improvements, and take ownership of your work
  • Passion for engineering excellence – excited by innovation, performance, and pushing boundaries

What We’ll Do for You

We offer a wide – ranging benefits package, which includes:

• 25 days’ holiday, plus bank holiday. Annual buy & sell up to five days
• Enhanced company pension scheme
• Discretionary annual bonus award
• Private medical insurance and health cash plan
• Life assurance benefit
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• A range of wellbeing initiatives, such as employee assistance programme and free financial & mortgage advice
• Opportunities to experience our fantastic cars
• Qualifying criteria applies

Who Are We?

No restraints. No limitations. We don’t simply push boundaries. We completely rethink them. McLaren Automotive exists to create breath-taking performance road cars.

It takes a community to do what we do. A diverse group of people with many areas of expertise, united by their passion to deliver visionary products and set new benchmarks.

McLaren Automotive commits to equal opportunity for all. Diversity, Equality and Inclusion is at the heart of our impact, it drives our innovation and enables us to truly create something special. Join us on our journey.

Read Full Description