Engineering Manager in Milton Keynes

At CesiumAstro, we are developers and pioneers of out‑of‑the‑box communication systems for satellites, UAVs, launch vehicles, and other space and airborne platforms. We take pride in our dynamic and cross‑functional work environment, which allows us to learn, develop, and engage across our organization. If you are looking for hands‑on, interactive, and autonomous work, CesiumAstro is the place for you.

We are seeking a Senior Engineering Manager who can direct and coordinate a “complete” product development team, all the way from design conception to product manufacture and test. This position is a highly technical leadership role responsible for delivering well‑engineered high‑quality products, on schedule and to specification. The role will involve establishing operational objectives, policies, procedures and work plans, delegating assignments to subordinates, and managing the activities of several disciplines.

It requires an advanced understanding of key functional areas and provides both technical ownership and team leadership experience, overseeing experienced professionals and frequently advising the team on technical matters, all within a fast‑growing aerospace and defence startup environment. The successful candidate will be accountable for budgets which may be broad and have far reaching impact on the business segment.

A key part of this role involves forming and maintaining strong technical links with other teams located in various worldwide offices within the Company, sharing and contributing to “best practice” design approaches, and instilling them within the local design team. As such, strong technical and non‑technical communication skills are required.

The role involves interacting regularly with lower and/or senior management on matters concerning several functional areas, departments, and/or customers, and requires the ability to persuade others in sensitive complex situations while preserving relationships. The successful candidate will have the required knowledge to convince other stakeholders on desired departmental outcomes.

In addition to people and process leadership, this role contributes hands‑on technical expertise to critical designs, architecture reviews, and complex debug activities, ensuring products are scalable, manufacturable, testable, and robust at production volumes. The role involves working on issues where analysis of situations or data requires conceptual thinking and an in‑depth knowledge of organizational objectives, where problems are not clearly defined and lack strategic direction.

The successful candidate will implement policies and select methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria for obtaining results, and will drive the strategy and success of larger projects which contribute to multiple areas of the organization.

• Maintain technical integrity and engineering excellence across all aspects of product development.
• In conjunction with other parts of the Company, establish, mature, scale, and enforce engineer‑friendly development processes and guidelines.
• Lead and participate in rigorous architecture and design reviews, ensuring appropriate subject matter expert (SME) engagement across digital, RF, power, firmware, and mechanical disciplines.
• Apply strong working knowledge of adjacent disciplines—RF electronics, power electronics, thermal/mechanical engineering, firmware/software—to ensure board‑ and system‑level success.
• Contribute directly to board‑level digital and mixed‑signal designs as needed, particularly in high‑risk or schedule‑critical programs.
• Lead or support complex debug efforts.
• Drive disciplined handoff from engineering to manufacturing through close collaboration with manufacturing engineering, supply chain, and production test engineering.
• Ensure designs meet quality, reliability, and scalability requirements for aerospace and defence production environments.
• Lead digital architecture decisions aligned with product performance and long‑term technology roadmaps.
• Partner with Supply Chain to ensure component availability, lifecycle risk mitigation, and cost awareness.
• Drive design reuse, modular architectures, and platform commonality across products to accelerate execution and reduce risk.

• Build, scale, and lead a high‑performing engineering team covering all aspects of product development.
• Advocate for realistic schedules while holding the team accountable to delivery commitments.
• Lead hiring activities, including writing job descriptions, conducting interviews, and making hire/no‑hire decisions.
• Establish clear development paths and growth opportunities for high‑performing engineers.
• Address performance issues promptly and constructively.
• Actively close skill gaps through hands‑on contribution, training initiatives, or targeted hiring.
• Provide one‑on‑one coaching, mentoring, and deep technical guidance.
• Serve as a key contributor to early‑stage engineering execution planning, including collaboration with Business Development and Systems Engineering.
• Plan and manage budgets related to staffing, lab equipment, capital equipment, and design/simulation software.
• Maintain strong working relationships across Engineering, Quality, and Operations.

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Electrical/Electronic Engineering.
• Minimum of 7 years wide‑ranging experience in electronic product development including 1–3 years of leadership or engineering management experience preferred.
• Board design experience, preferably gained within an aerospace environment and using Altium design tools, including: High‑speed digital and mixed‑signal board design, from component selection to schematic capture.
• Reliability (MTTF) analysis for challenging temperature, vibration, EMI and radiation environments.
• Expertise in dense, high‑layer‑count PCB layout including design for manufacturability (DFM), design for test (DFT), and signal integrity analysis.
• Digital design experience, including: FPGA design flows using VHDL with AMD devices (Xilinx/Vivado).
• Software‑defined radio experience preferred.
• Knowledge or a deep appreciation of other aspects of product design, including: Developing comprehensive product regression testing environments that stress product functionality to the limit.
• Embedded software development, including aspects such as Linux/Yocto, BSP, C++, and driver design.
• Power supply design, including local power conditioning, power sequencing, and power surge handling.
• Basic RF design principles such as signal integrity principles, impedance control and noise mitigation.
• Mechanical design including aspects related to thermal requirements.
• Proven ability to conduct rigorous technical reviews, mentor engineers, and communicate effectively across disciplines.
• Familiarity with product lifecycle management (PLM) systems.
• Strong technical and non‑technical communication skills.
• Ability to balance architectural rigor with execution speed in a fast‑paced development environment.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools, including Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.