An Irishwoman working for a Japanese company in France: ‘I wouldn’t be anywhere else’

As a child Clíodhna Lyons loved playing with toy cars and at school she excelled at Stem subjects, encouraged by her parents, who both taught maths. When the time came to choose a career, engineering seemed like a natural fit for her talents. When the penny dropped that a degree in a mechanical engineering could lead to a career in the motor industry, the deal was sealed. In 2006, now Dr Lyons, her dream came true when she landed a job with Nissan in Spain as lead engineer for powertrain calibration.

Since then her career has blossomed with the car maker. She spent 13 years in Barcelona, which she describes as “my second home”, while climbing the corporate ladder and picking up fluent Spanish along the way. In 2019 a promotion took her to Paris as director for product strategy AND planning for Europe and, in 2021, the Middle East, Africa, India and Oceania were added to her brief.

A year later Lyons was promoted again, this time to vice-president for product and services planning.

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When Lyons started university in 1997, there was little left of the Irish motor industry apart from retail sales, so she knew an engineering-related career in automotive would mean moving abroad. She also recognised there would be stiff competition for jobs in Europe and that she needed to stand out from the crowd. This spurred her on to pursue postgraduate studies in combustion in Valencia followed by a PhD in engine optimisation at UCD.

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“I was very young when Ford closed its plant in Cork, yet I do remember it happening, which is possibly an indication of my interest in cars from early on,” she says. “Then when I was older, I think it was the complexity of the motor industry that attracted me, and by the time I’d finished my PhD, I was well qualified to go into engine development.

“Initially I’d assumed I’d end up with a European brand, but then I met some people from Nissan. They told me how Europe had autonomy from Japan for engine development and also about their engine co-operation with Renault. This idea of this cross-fertilisation really caught my imagination.

“In the 17 years I’ve been with the company I’ve had the career my younger self dreamed of, and the opportunities have been huge.

“The company put its faith in me and gave me the freedom to deliver. Even though it was outside my area, I got the chance to set up the first engine software team outside Japan. We grew from four to 52 people and were responsible for the engine software in the current Qashqai, X-Trail and Juke.

“More recently I was given the chance to lead the product plan for a Nissan relaunch in India. It’s probably unprecedented for someone in my role to get the opportunity to plan and launch an entire portfolio into one market. It’s enormously complex but also really, really exciting.”

My days are long because my teams are in different time zones, from Europe to Australia, but what I value about working for Nissan is that there’s flexibility as long as the work gets done

Lyons likes how Nissan encourages innovation and how people are free to propose new ideas or new ways of doing things. “A good example is the Qashqai, which was ground-breaking as it involved combining the bottom of a hatchback and the top of an SUV to create the crossover concept,” she says.

Lyons, her Spanish husband (also a Nissan executive) and their two children now live 15 minutes from Nissan’s offices in a green belt close to Versailles. The children go to a French-International school, and the family is settled although it was tough initially as they arrived not long before the Covid pandemic began.

“Our neighbours are friendly and helpful and there is a good sense of community. The kids being in a local school also helped with the integration,” says Lyons. “We’re taking full advantage of our location for trips. We’ve the Alps and the Pyrenees for skiing, we can go west to Normandy for history and south for sun and beautiful scenery.”

Nissan Paris operates hybrid working, with employees on site for three days – although Lyons says she generally comes in for four – and everyone works from home on Fridays.

“My days are long because my teams are in different time zones, from Europe to Australia, but what I value about working for Nissan is that there’s flexibility as long as the work gets done,” she says. “So, while you might work at night, if you need a few hours off during the day, that’s okay. It’s a juggling act when your job is full-on and you have kids, but you get into a routine and make it work. My husband is a real partner, and without that, it would be infinitely more difficult.”

As Dublin is only a short hop away, Lyons stays well connected to home. But she misses the Irish practice of casually dropping in on friends and family. “When I go home there’s a programme, whereas when you live locally you can just pop in and you get a better sense of what’s really going on for people,” she says.

With the motor industry now going through unprecedented change with the shift to electrification, Lyons is energised rather than daunted by the challenges that lie ahead. “We’re at a pivotal point and there are a lot of complex issues to be dealt with, but that’s what attracts me. It’s a very exciting time and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”