Automotive Engineer (Vehicle Lighting)
Location: Oldbury, West Midlands (on site)
Job type: Full-time, Permanent Pay: £15.00 to £17.00 per hour, dependent on experience and technical background
About us
KYCS is a specialist headlight workshop covering repair, restoration, custom builds, and projector retrofits across a wide range of vehicle makes. We work for both retail customers and dealer trade accounts, so the standard of work and documentation is high and consistent.
About the role
This is an experienced position for someone who can take ownership of jobs from day one: check-in, diagnosis, repair or customisation, sealing, testing, and signed handover. You'll work to our documented processes alongside our senior technician, and we'll bring you up to speed on our in-house tooling and product lines, but the core auto electrical and headlight skills need to be there already. If your background is in vehicle electrics, diagnostics, or lighting work, whether as an engineer, auto electrician, or vehicle technician, this role will suit you.
Why here rather than a dealership
We're a small specialist team, which means the things that wear technicians down elsewhere don't exist here. No flat-rate pressure or upsell targets, and no strict KPIs. Working hours are flexible, the work is varied since no two builds are the same, and you'll have a real say in how we do things. If there's a product or technique you find interesting, bring it in. Good ideas get built and make it into what we offer customers.
What you'll do in a normal week
- Plan your day in our project management software, working from prioritised job cards, and keep the team updated on progress daily
- Remove and refit headlights on customer vehicles, including bumper-off work and vehicles with ADAS sensors, with headlight aim checked after refit
- Open headlights (butyl and permaseal methods), strip to component level, and reseal with water and pressure testing before handover
- Diagnose electrical faults: shorts, open circuits, LED driver boards, xenon ballasts and ignitors, angel eye and animation modules
- Carry out retrofits and custom work: bi-xenon and bi-LED projectors, angel eyes, demon eyes, sequential indicators, and custom DRLs
- Build and repair wiring looms: crimping, pinning, splicing to OEM standard, and plug-and-play looms including RGBW
- Lens replacement and restoration
- Photograph your work and produce handover documentation to our standard
What we're looking for
Required
- Punctual, reliable, and hands-on, with good communication skills and pride in your work
- Working experience within an engineering or technical environment
- Experience modifying or customising vehicles
- Competent with 12V electrics and soldering, able to read wiring schematics and use a multimeter
- Able to fault-find 12V systems: short to B+, short to ground, open circuits
- Experience opening, modifying, and resealing headlights to a good standard of workmanship
- Projector retrofit experience (bi-xenon or bi-LED)
- Understanding of CAN and LIN fundamentals, and able to bench-power headlights via known pinouts
- Basic vehicle diagnostics: reading and clearing fault codes and basic coding (ISTA or NCS Expert experience is a plus)
- Disciplined with documentation: job cards, progress reports, and handover paperwork
Desirable
- Component-level PCB repair (SMD rework, MOSFET and driver IC replacement)
- Advanced BMW coding (NCS Expert VO editing, eSys on F and G chassis) or module services such as FRM reset and recovery
- Experience with professional CAN/LIN hardware and interpreting bus trace data
- CAD experience and designing parts for manufacture
- 3D printing experience (we run Bambu Lab printers in-house)
- Photography with a DSLR or mirrorless camera for build documentation
Perks
- Usage of our commercial premises outside of core hours for your personal/family vehicles
- Paid attendance to all the major car shows
- Access to our dealer software/hardware and internal documents
- Access to our network of mechanics, specialists, breakers, and dealers with our trade discount
- Free usage of our services
- Large discount on our products
Additional pay
- Loyalty bonus
- Performance bonus
Benefits
- Casual dress
- Company pension
- Employee discount
- Free parking and on-site parking
- Sick pay
Schedule
- 8 hour shift
- Flexitime
- Weekend availability
Work location: In person
If you're an experienced technician or engineer who'd rather be judged on the quality of the finished build than the clock, in a workshop where the work is never the same twice, this is that job.
Pay: £15.00-£17.00 per hour
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Company pension
- Free parking
- On-site parking
- Sick pay
Work Location: In person
