Randstad secures key staff for Williams Technology Centre in Doha

AT&T Williams today confirmed that two key appointments have been made at the Williams Technology Centre (WTC) at the Qatar Science & Technology Park in Doha, Qatar. The Randstad Group, who are the world’s second largest provider of HR Services and a team partner, have been managing the recruitment programme for the WTC and has placed the key positions of a Chief Engineer for its flywheel project and a Programme Leader for WTC’s Simulator project.

The WTC is the first Formula One-inspired technology centre outside Europe. It will develop and commercialise technologies that have their origins in Formula One. Initially this will focus on two commercially-driven R&D projects. They are the development of a large composite electromechanical flywheel energy storage system for mass transportation & electric power stabilisation as well as the application of Williams F1’s vehicle simulator know-how to develop solutions for motorsport beyond Formula One, as well as road car and emergency services training.

In order to realise the vision of creating a world-class R&D centre in Qatar, Williams requires an exceptional and highly skilled workforce at the WTC and has retained one of its key business partners, Randstad, to lead the recruitment programme. Within the MENA region, Randstad is the largest staffing and recruitment consultancy with 8 offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar, and is thus ideally placed to support the WTC’s needs.
Randstad’s brief spans the search and selection of a wide range of technical & engineering staff from mechanical and control system engineers to project leaders, administrative staff and sales & marketing personnel. The programme has involved the development of targeted traditional and digital advertising, applicant assessment & vetting and final appointment recommendations.

Williams Chief Executive Officer, Alex Burns said, “Naturally we have plenty of experience in attracting highly talented technical staff, but the WTC is Williams’ first foray overseas. Given the enormously different employment market in the region and the vital importance of the WTC project, it has been a great reassurance to have Randstad’s unrivalled experience and competence to ensure our programme benefits from the very best staffing.”

Richard Weetch, Randstad’s Director for MENA, who is overseeing the recruitment programme at Randstad commented, “This is a high-profile project for Randstad and one for which we are ideally suited to help Williams. It is a positive pleasure to not only partner the team, but also to bring our particular expertise to bear in order to help this exciting project.”

About WTC at the Qatar Science & Technology Park

The WTC is housed in the 45,000m2 state-of-the-art Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP). QSTP is part of the realisation of the Qatar Foundation’s vision to create a knowledge-based, post-carbon economy in the State of Qatar. QSTP and Williams F1 will fund the WTC R&D programmes and, as partners, will both benefit from the commercialisation of technologies that have their origins in Formula One.

The flywheel project at the WTC builds on the pioneering work of Williams Hybrid Power which originally applied the Magnetic Loaded Composite (MLC) flywheel technology for use in Williams F1’s racing cars’ Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems. It is now developing this technology for road cars and other hybrid vehicles. The flywheel machines being developed at the WTC will deliver all the benefits of MLC – including high-power, continuous cycling capability and long life - at a much larger scale. There is an increasing need for such energy storage with these characteristics in the rapid transit and electric power stabilisation sectors. Incorporation into rapid transit systems will help improve regenerative braking, increase reliability, reduce electricity consumption and cut infrastructure costs. In an electric power stabilisation role, they will be deployed to help smooth output from intermittent renewable generation sources, provide fast response frequency regulation and provide short term demand peak shaving to help strengthen electricity grids.

Since 2001, Williams F1 has pioneered state-of-the-art simulation technologies in order to create virtual and predictive engineering tools to improve its real world racing performance. It has developed a comprehensive driver-in-the-loop (DIL) simulation platform. The WTC is building on this world-class expertise to design and develop vehicle simulators for other motorsport classes, road cars, commercial vehicles and entertainment.