Head of Technical in Birkenhead

A rare opportunity available, this Senior Leadership role is our Senior Technical Authority. This is a key appointment delivering complex engineering programmes in support of both national defence and critical commercial marine infrastructure. The successful candidate will play a central role in shaping the technical direction and long-term capability of Cammell Laird.

Reporting to our Managing Director, with direct influence over delivery performance, engineering governance, and future capability development, we are looking for someone with a strong track record in both business and technical leadership within a shipyard, a defence contractor, or a marine engineering business.

Who are we? Part of APCL Group, Cammell Laird is known across the globe. Our strategically important facility on the River Mersey operates across 5 core markets: defence refit and repair, commercial refit and repair, defence newbuild projects, commercial newbuild projects and energy. Across 90 acres we operate four dry docks, a large modular construction hall and extensive covered workshops. We have played a strategic role in UK shipbuilding for the past 200 years.

So, what will you do? The Head of Technical, owning the technical strategy and vision for your teams of 40-50, you'll oversee aspects of engineering design, technical assurance, compliance, and innovation across our shipbuilding, maintenance, and conversion activities. Reporting to the Managing Director, you will work in close collaboration with Production, Project Management, Commercial and SHEQ and will hold accountability for budget adherence and effective resourcing, ensuring alignment with strategic and financial objectives.

As the senior technical authority, you will ensure compliance, engineering governance and programme delivery standards. You'll be the Senior Leader responsible for overseeing all engineering and technical functions across the facility including design reviews, new construction, maintenance, conversion and refit and will provide guidance to wider functions translating technical requirements into business outcomes. You will ensure technical compliance with MOD standards (e.g., DEF STANs, JSPs), Lloyds Register, MCA, and other relevant regulations.

Key to the role will be your support for business development through technical input to bids, feasibility studies, and costing. You'll stay on top of emerging innovations and assess relevance to solve complex technical challenges. You will drive continuous improvement in engineering processes, documentation, and governance and will engage with external technical authorities, suppliers, and customer engineering teams. As a key leader, you'll manage and mentor technical team members building, scaling and organising technical teams effectively.

What are we looking for? A strong track record in business leadership, ideally underpinned with an MBA would be ideal but is not essential. Degree-qualified in Naval Architecture, Marine Engineering, or a related discipline. Chartered Engineer (CEng) status would be great. Significant experience in a senior technical leadership role within a shipyard, defence contractor, or marine engineering organisation. Strong knowledge of MOD requirements, maritime defence systems, and UK regulatory frameworks. Experience operating in tidal / coastal marine environments. The demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary engineering teams and work at executive level.

Why join us? Opportunity to work on high-profile, impactful projects. Supportive and dynamic work environment at the centre of a marine technology hub on Merseyside, a world class maritime cluster. Due to the nature of what we do for some of the customers that we work with, some roles working for Cammell Laird are subject to security control restrictions. These restrictions mean that factors including your nationality, any previous nationalities you have held, and your place of birth may limit those roles you can perform with us. You must also undergo a Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) check before your employment starts, which will include a basic DBS check.