Design Engineering Manager - summary:
Position: Design Engineering Manager
Department: Engineering
Reporting to: Engineering Director
Salary: £65,000 per annum
Hours of work: 37.5 hours, Monday to Friday.
Location: ATE House, Westpark 26, Wellington, Somerset, TA21 9AD.
The Design Engineering Manager will provide technical and people leadership for MK Test Systems’ Design Engineering function, ensuring the delivery of structured, robust, and repeatable design solutions that consistently meet business requirements for quality, cost, and on-time delivery. The role is responsible for leading and developing the Design Engineering team, strengthening design capability, and embedding effective design governance, documentation, and cross-functional ways of working to support product development, project execution, knowledge transfer, and long-term business resilience.
The Design Engineering Manager will be accountable for line management, resource planning, technical oversight, and capability development within the discipline. The role will ensure that Design Engineering delivers high-quality outputs, supports efficient project execution, and contributes actively to MK Test’s Engineering Strategy through improved knowledge sharing, stronger engineering processes, effective use of digital tools, and close collaboration with other engineering and business functions.
Role and responsibilities:
Team Leadership & People Management
- Lead, manage, and develop the Design Engineering team to meet current and future business and project demands.
- Provide effective line management through regular 1:1s, clear objectives, constructive feedback, and measurable performance management.
- Create and maintain clear development pathways for team members, supporting technical growth, increased responsibility, and career progression.
- Coach and support early-career engineers, graduates, and placement students through appropriate guidance, delegation, and review.
- Contribute to recruitment, selection, and onboarding activities to ensure the Design Engineering function has the capability and capacity required for business growth.
Resource Planning & Delivery Management
- Plan and coordinate Design Engineering resource to ensure effective workload balancing across product development, customer projects, bid support, and business improvement activity.
- Allocate work according to skills, experience, development needs, and business priority, maintaining visibility of team capacity and delivery risk.
- Provide early input to feasibility, resourcing, scheduling, and technical planning activities to strengthen upfront project definition and delivery confidence.
- Escalate resource constraints, delivery risks, and capability gaps in a timely and structured manner.
Technical Leadership & Design Governance
- Provide technical leadership across the Design Engineering discipline, setting expectations for the quality, consistency, and completeness of design outputs.
- Oversee design activity through appropriate reviews, challenge, and technical critique, ensuring that designs are robust, traceable, manufacturable, testable, and aligned with system-level requirements.
- Define and maintain appropriate design standards, templates, and governance mechanisms to improve repeatability, reduce rework, and support effective knowledge transfer.
- Ensure Design Engineering outputs are controlled, accessible, and suitable for effective hand-off to other engineering disciplines, production, quality, and support functions.
- Support technical risk assessment, root-cause problem solving, and design improvement activity where required.
Capability Development & Continuous Improvement
- Strengthen the capability of the Design Engineering team through coaching, standards, peer review, and continuous development of design methods and working practices.
- Reduce dependence on individual retained knowledge by improving documentation, knowledge capture, and standardised design information.
- Identify and implement opportunities to improve engineering efficiency, throughput, quality, and repeatability without creating unnecessary process burden.
- Support adoption of digital engineering tools, improved data management, and practical AI-enabled workflows where these improve quality, speed, reuse, or knowledge access.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with Electronics, Embedded, Software, Product, Solutions, Manufacturing, Quality, and Support teams to ensure clear interfaces, aligned priorities, and effective transfer of information.
- Help define and enforce common ways of working, including clear inputs and outputs between engineering disciplines and between engineering and other business functions.
- Represent the Design Engineering discipline in cross-functional planning, technical discussions, and business improvement activities.
- Collaborate with commercial and project stakeholders to ensure design inputs are understood, requirements are clarified early, and delivery expectations are realistic and controlled.
Engineering Strategy & Business Contribution
- Contribute actively to execution of the Engineering Strategy by improving talent development, knowledge sharing, standardisation, engineering effectiveness, and organisational resilience.
- Support MK Test’s focus on innovation, support, and scalable product development by ensuring design engineering contributes effectively to both repeat products and project-based solutions.
- Provide Design Engineering input to estimates, technical planning, product improvement, reuse opportunities, and strategic engineering initiatives.
- Promote design approaches that support quality, compliance, manufacturability, sustainability, and long-term lifecycle performance.
Interfaces and ownership:
This role will report to the Engineering Director and will work to ensure effective collaboration between the Design Engineering team and the Electronics, Embedded, and Software Engineering disciplines. The job holder will represent the Design Engineering function within the discipline-based reporting structure, ensuring that resource is available and efficiently allocated according to priority, skills, and capability requirements.
The Design Engineering Manager will work in close partnership with the Head of Product Engineering, Head of Solutions Engineering, and, as the organisation matures, the Head of Manufacturing Engineering and Head of Support Engineering, to ensure clear ownership, effective hand-offs, and alignment between product strategy, project delivery, manufacturing readiness, and lifecycle support.
Knowledge, skills and experience:
Education & Professional Background
- Degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Systems, Product Design, or related discipline) or equivalent professional experience.
- Demonstrable track record in design engineering and development within industrial equipment, automated test systems, special-purpose machinery, manufacturing, or other high-technology engineering environments.
- Experience of leading or supervising engineers within a multidisciplinary engineering environment.
Technical Expertise
- Strong understanding of structured engineering design practices, design review methods, technical risk identification, and design governance.
- Experience of producing and overseeing high-quality design outputs and documentation that support downstream engineering, manufacture, test, and lifecycle support activities.
- Good understanding of product lifecycle considerations, including design for manufacture, design for test, maintainability, traceability, and configuration control.
- Ability to translate customer, quotation, and project inputs into clear engineering design requirements and controlled design deliverables.
- Awareness of relevant compliance, safety, and quality considerations affecting engineering design outputs.
Leadership & Management
- Proven ability to lead, motivate, and develop an engineering team, balancing business delivery needs with long-term capability growth.
- Experience of capacity planning, workload balancing, prioritisation, and allocation of engineering resource across multiple concurrent demands.
- Experience of objective-based performance management, coaching, and structured professional development.
- Experience supporting recruitment, onboarding, and the development of graduates and early-career engineers.
Collaboration & Communication
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to present technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Proven ability to communicate effectively across engineering, commercial, production, quality, and operational teams.
- Ability to influence ways of working beyond direct line management and help establish consistent cross-discipline standards.
Personal Attributes
- Pragmatic, delivery-focused, and professionally credible in an engineering leadership role.
- Structured and analytical, with strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
- Collaborative, accountable, and committed to continuous improvement.
- High standards of integrity, professionalism, and ownership.
How to apply:
To apply for the Design Engineering Manager role, please submit a CV with covering message via the job application page.
