12th May 2024 Career Q&A – Reece Tattersall, Functional Safety Engineer

In this article, Recce shares his experience of taking up a secondment opportunity within the ADAS team.

When did you join MIRA?

I started at MIRA in 2021 – so my interview had been during peak-Covid pretty much. I had a good experience through the interview process and that really warmed me to MIRA as a place of work.  I took up a graduate role in Functional Safety – a direct entry into that team for the first two years of my time at MIRA. So, I was able to get fully into my work within the team and I was soon a lead interface between MIRA and one of its key Functional Safety customers.

And you were able to get involved in some new initiatives within the team?

Yes, we started to do some practical tests of functional safety in real-world situations – much of our work is desk-based engineering, and so the plan was to run a research project to better understand the experience of drivers/driving in situations where functional safety could be observed. To do this as repeatable tests would give us an enhanced knowledge for conversations with customers. For this I was able to access the Proving Ground and get my licenses to enable me to test on our specialist tracks. 

 And then an opportunity came up within ADAS…

Within ADAS an opportunity came up to work with them on a secondment at the end of last year – My manager recognised straight away that my developing skills matched that opportunity and so invited me to consider the possibility.  I had a call with the ADAS team to learn more and by the end of that I was ready to say yes and go for it.  It was clear the option to give it a go, or not, was mine, and indeed that if I felt it wasn’t for me at any time, I’d be supported with that too.

How was it making the switch to the new team?

Once joining the team, I very quickly got into the hands-on nature of the work within ADAS and had the benefit of being partnered up with team members week to week. By February I had been involved with everyone – and given I am not that practically inclined I was supported with any questions and guided through my learning with great support. My initial time with the team was through to April 2024, and I’m now due to stay on until I reach six months.  

And you also been able to utilise your other skills within the new role…

Yes, I’ve also been able to bring some of my skills with software programming to create some scripts to automate processes within the ADAS team’s functions – so in quick fashion I’ve been able to get hands on with their core work, learn about that, and contribute some of my other skills into their development as a function, which is really great.

So, a good experience overall?

It was a nice feeling to be approached with the opportunity and I have really enjoyed the experience which has brought me personal growth as well as allowed me to contribute more broadly to the business. Being at MIRA is so worthwhile and rewarding – I love cars and I always aimed to be involved in the industry, I get real satisfaction to know that so many of the cars on the roads today have been positively impacted though MIRA’s work, and it’s great to be a part of that.