Suppliers on the hunt for engineering talent at Motor Bella

DETROIT — At Motor Bella this week, a silver Airstream trailer emblazoned with the blue and white logo of Aisin will be parked on the field at the M1 Concourse. There are no Aisin transmission or other parts in the aluminum trailer, but the rig is an important component in the Tier 1 supplier's effort to recruit engineers.

It's been about two years since southeastern Michigan-based suppliers have recruited at a big, local event. With the North American International Auto Show canceled twice and SAE International having moved its big Detroit conference online the past two years, automakers and suppliers have been deprived of two of their biggest and best venues to recruit engineers.

Motor Bella has attracted about two dozen suppliers as well as every major automaker, and many will use the event to attract potential employees.

The event near Detroit comes at a time when the industry is spending an estimated $300 billion between now and 2026 to develop electric and automated vehicle technology.

A look at the job openings of the major suppliers attending Motor Bella shows hundreds of vacancies, not just in the Detroit area but nationally. Magna International, for example, had 311 engineering job openings listed on its website as of last week.

"Our collaboration with universities is critical to advancing future mobility," said Tracy Fuerst, Magna's vice president of communications. She said recruiters will be at Motor Bella to detail the company's job openings for students and professionals. Magna will display its technologies during the Industry Days event.

In addition, Denso, Bosch and Michelin, along with a number of smaller startup suppliers, will be displaying their wares at Motor Bella and hoping to attract graduating students and experienced engineers.

"In the past we've used SAE, the Detroit show and even CES (the technology expo in Las Vegas) to as an opportunity to reach out and help fill positions and attract new talent," said Joe Rohatynski, Aisin's vice president of corporate communications. "There's a lot of young talent and people with specialties we haven't considered before walking around. We can bring them into our exhibit and talk up our company. We've missed having that opportunity."

Motor Bella is a hands-on event where attendees will be see some of the latest technology suppliers are working on. German supplier Bosch doesn't plan any formal recruiting but said it will be open to talking with job candidates.

"We are looking at it as more of a technical showcase, so certainly we'll be keeping an eye on activities happening there with universities and we are always dialoguing with universities and looking at engineering and other talent," said company spokesman Tim Wieland. "We are always going to be receptive to that."