Life at MoTeC
For managing director Mark Jackman, one of his favourite things about working at MoTeC is that you get the positives of working for a small business, mixed in with the attraction of being part of the giant “international family” that is Bosch.
“From a career perspective, that’s a great place to be,” Jackman says. “If you want to expand, you can, and you can still stay in the family and do that.”
Mark’s incredible career progression over the past 25 years is testament to where a position at Bosch can take you.
A chance opportunity and a move abroad
A mechanical engineer by qualification, Mark joined Bosch in March, 2000, in the area of project management, assisting with technical sales and managing projects with local car manufactures.
When an opportunity to relocate to Stuttgart, Germany came up, he jumped on it.
“Going over to Germany was a great experience and from a career perspective, it was unparalleled in terms of what it gives you,” he says.
Mark worked in the Bosch Chassis Systems Control group as a project manager with the engineering team in Germany.
There were many highlights from that period, but probably the best was testing products in the far north of Sweden, close to the Arctic Circle.
“It was -40C, we were under the northern lights, and a bunch of Aussies were showing a bunch of car companies what we’d done and how we’d done it,” he says.
“That was cool – literally.”
After four years abroad, Mark came back to Australia at the end of 2005 and started working as a project manager, then led the project management team.
Eventually, he became the regional president for the Chassis group. He ran the group for five years, including during the period when car manufacturing was being phased out in Australia, then led the Automotive Electronics group.
Transitioning to MoTeC
In September, 2022, Bosch acquired MoTeC, and Mark was appointed managing director.
“It was a really big change for me,” says Mark.
“What really interested me was that MoTeC was a small business – it was owned and run by the people who were sitting in the corner office.
“MoTeC had a lot to offer and was well thought of globally.”
About MoTeC
With its headquarters in Croydon South and 250 dealers around the world, MoTeC is a leading provider of motorsport electronics such as engine management and data acquisition systems.
For 37 years, MoTeC has been engineering reliable motorsport technology electronics, from driver displays to Engine Control Units (ECUs).
In simple terms, MoTeC hardware and software systems allow race teams to race and develop their cars, recording everything the driver and vehicle is doing, then use the analytics software to identify room for improvement.
“They can look at how they did on that lap? On that corner? In the wet? Why driver A was faster than driver B?” explains Mark.
“That’s our foundation, our DNA.”
Every level is catered for, from amateur motorsport to top-class professional race teams.
Small business feels, big family benefits
When Mark joined MoTeC, his priority was to maintain its identity as a small business with an excellent reputation.
Nowadays, there are 64 people working for MoTeC globally, 55 of whom are located at Croydon South.
Those small-business feels are still very much at MoTeC’s core, and because it’s a small team, employees work autonomously and dynamically across tasks.
“Everybody knows everybody. When there’s a problem, everyone wants to help. Everybody’s got each other’s back,” says Mark.
For project manager Liam Barr, the idea of working in a small team was what lured him from Bosch Australia to MoTeC.
“I loved Bosch, but there was something about having an opportunity to get back into a smaller organisation again that was attractive,” says Liam.
Liam was brought on in 2023 to manage projects and to set up and define the project management role at MoTeC. Like Mark, he never looked back.
“I love the people,” he says. “MoTeC is a business that’s been built on passion. Nearly everybody here loves motorsport, so they’re passionate about what they’re doing and about the products they develop because on weekends, they either have their own race cars or they follow racing.
Liam also enjoys the innovative nature of the work.
“At MoTeC, we’re deciding what should be developed for the market. That’s something I find quite exciting.
“We need to very much understand what our customers do, what makes them tick, and why they buy MoTeC, then we need to develop products they buy.
“We have the opportunity to bring that innovation to the market.”
A bright future
Since Bosch acquired MoTeC, the team has grown by more than 15 people – the majority in engineering.
The team is currently working on the next generation of MoTeC products, and the excitement in the air is palpable.
“There’s no doubt we have our work cut out for us over the next few years,” says Liam.
“But what I love about working in a smaller business is that when you get those wins, it feels like a really tight community that is also sharing in those spoils too.”
