Global Product Engineering Director in Addlestone

CHEP helps move more goods to more people, in more places than any other organization on earth via our 347 million pallets, crates and containers. We employ approximately 13,000 people and operate in 60 countries. Through our pioneering and sustainable share-and-reuse business model, the world’s biggest brands trust us to help them transport their goods more efficiently, safely and with less environmental impact.

Join CHEP’s Global Product Innovation (GPI) team to lead the engineering backbone that turns ideas into scalable, sustainable physical products. You’ll own the end-to-end development lifecycle, elevate mechanical engineering excellence, and foster a culture of innovation and cross functional collaboration that drives growth, customer impact, and competitive advantage. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of CHEP’s physical product portfolio within a global, mission driven organization known for sustainability leadership and real customer impact.

Key Responsibilities May Include:

• Drive the engineering lifecycle for new and existing physical products, ensuring robust design, testing, validation, and technical delivery.
• Translate strategic product innovation priorities into clear engineering roadmaps, plans, and workstreams aligned with organisational outcomes.
• Lead global engineering teams across product categories, providing coaching, direction, and support to deliver consistently high‑quality outputs.
• Oversee global testing and experimentation activities, ensuring appropriate test design, accurate data collection, and rigorous technical analysis.
• Manage escalations related to technical decisions, resource constraints, and operational challenges, ensuring continuity and delivery of engineering programmes.
• Partner with commercial, marketing, operations, and strategy teams to deliver customer‑focused solutions and support collaborative innovation projects.
• Manage engineering budgets, optimising utilisation of internal resources and external partners, including suppliers, consultancies, and test facilities.
• Strengthen engineering governance by defining success metrics, ensuring high‑quality reporting, and promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing across teams and regions.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering preferred, Master’s in Engineering beneficial.
• ~7+ years’ mechanical engineering design and analysis experience in a high‑performance product development environment with strong exposure to product testing and performance analysis; 3+ years managing technical staff.
• Demonstrated strength in data analysis, experimental design, technical documentation, and stakeholder communication.
• Hands‑on experience with mechanical equipment, especially laboratory and materials testing equipment.
• Strong 3D CAD background (Pro/Engineer, SolidWorks) with CAE tools to optimize designs.
• Broad project management experience, interfacing with diverse stakeholders; proven ability to manage staff and a large project portfolio with composure and professionalism.
• Broad product design experience across materials and applications, with emphasis on plastics/composites components and assemblies; ability to evaluate material suitability based on mechanical properties.
• Statistics‑driven data analysis (e.g., Minitab, SAS, Statistica) in the context of experimentation, tolerances, and performance metrics.

Desired Experience:

• Design/analysis with composites and laminates; packaging design.
• Diverse manufacturing process experience; complex product assembly/configuration management; product data management.
• Product and materials regulatory experience; intellectual property exposure.
• Cost estimating, spend management, and project financial analysis, knowledge of wood as an engineering material.
• Experience leading remote production/design engineering across multiple countries.

Skills & Knowledge:

• Data management (databases, Product Data Management); technical presentations, analysis, documentation.
• Strong 3D CAD proficiency (Pro/Engineer, SolidWorks); mechanical design, product testing, and evaluation.
• Project management & leadership; customer‑facing credibility.
• Deep understanding of material properties for design & optimization; predictive engineering techniques (CAE), FMEA, statistical analysis, and data interpretation.
• Some experience with structural analysis (FEA) in mechanical engineering design.
• Strategic and original thinker; strong leadership and people management.
• Desire and ability to lead and grow technical and non‑technical staff.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication, including strong presentation skills and customer service.
• Skilled with office productivity tools—especially advanced MS Excel.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we are committed to developing a diverse workforce in which everyone is treated fairly, with respect, and has the opportunity to contribute to business success while realizing his or her potential.