Jaguar Land Rover will recruit 5,000 new people to the brands by the end of the year. 

The brands’ latest drive for new tech talent will add 5,000 to its global 40,000 employee pool, and part of the recruiting process is a code-breaking challenge in its latest software, embedded in the app featuring the band Gorillaz, with which JLR is partnered.

Eventually, the 5000 people will be working on software systems, cyber systems, app development and graphics performance - suggesting that the roles are not just in Jaguar’s driverless programme, but in other dimensions of its tech operations, too. 

A clue as to which specific category of cars the jobs will focus upon is revealed in the app; in the recruitment gameplay, users have to assemble an I-Pace. This suggests that more advanced cars are the focus of the drive, as JLR continues to develop its driverless technology. Although 5,000 jobs are planned to be created, only around 1,000 of them will be electronic and software engineers.

Following stories of a lack of talent in driverless and autonomous tech development, Jaguar looks to diversify the pool of talent, as well as the ways in which it is reached, by launching the more youth-oriented recruitment programme with Gorillaz. A JLR spokesman clarified that although young people were more likely to reach the app-based element of the recruitment drive, it’s open to all above the age of 16. 

Jaguar Land Rover had no further details on the nature of the other 5,000 jobs on offer, but the 1,000 software engineer roles are not necessarily UK-only.