Senior/Principal Designer and Mass Engineer
Salary: Competitive salary plus equity
Location: Vauxhall, London
Employment: Full-time, permanent
Security: Must be eligible for UK Security Check (SC) clearance
Electus Recruitment Solutions is supporting a well-funded, early-stage aerospace and defence business seeking an experienced Senior/Principal Designer and Mass Engineer to join its core engineering team.
This is an opportunity to play a key role in developing an advanced aerospace vehicle from initial concept through detailed design and into testing. With programme funding secured and a multi-year development roadmap in place, the successful candidate will have significant influence over technical decisions and the evolution of the product.
Working closely with the technical leadership team, you will take ownership of vehicle design activities and mass properties engineering within a small, senior and highly collaborative environment.
Key responsibilities
- Lead vehicle design activities from concept development and architecture through to detailed design.
- Generate and evaluate alternative design concepts to support technical trade-offs and optimise overall vehicle performance.
- Develop and maintain CAD models and engineering drawings to support design reviews, analysis and manufacture.
- Balance design considerations across performance, aerodynamic, structural and thermal requirements.
- Apply design for manufacture principles to optimise cost, part count, assembly complexity and manufacturability.
- Estimate and track component mass, centre of gravity and inertia throughout the design lifecycle.
- Maintain mass properties records, monitor mass growth and manage margins against programme targets.
- Work with subsystem suppliers to obtain and validate mass properties data.
- Present technical findings and design recommendations to engineering leadership and other stakeholders.
- Provide technical guidance and mentoring while contributing to future product development planning.
Essential skills and experience
- Degree or higher in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline.
- Substantial design engineering experience, typically 8+ years, within aerospace, missiles or another high-reliability engineering sector.
- Demonstrable experience leading design activities from initial concept through to detailed design.
- Strong practical CAD skills using CATIA, SolidWorks, Creo or a comparable package.
- Experience applying design for manufacture principles to complex engineering products.
- Practical experience in mass properties estimation, tracking and reporting.
- Understanding of the interaction between design, performance, aerodynamic, structural and thermal requirements.
- Strong analytical skills and the ability to solve complex engineering problems from first principles.
- Excellent communication skills, including presenting technical recommendations to varied audiences.
- Existing UK right to work and eligibility to obtain UK SC security clearance. Current clearance is not essential.
- Mass properties tools, databases or configuration management systems.
- Python, MATLAB or similar tools for engineering analysis and automation.
- Working across multidisciplinary engineering teams to deliver integrated design solutions.
- Experience within defence, government-funded programmes or an early-stage technology business.
- Chartered Engineer status or working towards professional registration.
- Technical leadership, design reviews and mentoring within small engineering teams.
The opportunity
You will join a lean, senior engineering team with the autonomy to influence major technical decisions and help shape the engineering approach from an early stage. The business offers a competitive salary and benefits package, with equity available, alongside the opportunity to contribute to a funded, multi-year development programme.
This role will suit an engineer who combines strong hands‑on design capability with sound engineering judgement, practical manufacturing awareness and a genuine interest in building something new.
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Senior Designer And Mass Engineer employer: Electus Recruitment
As a Material Process Engineer at our Whitstable location, you will thrive in a high-technology manufacturing environment that prioritises precision and technical leadership. We offer a supportive work culture with practical benefits such as a flexitime system, enhanced maternity pay, and a comprehensive Health and Wellbeing suite, ensuring a balanced and rewarding career path. Join us to take advantage of continuous growth opportunities while contributing to mission-critical aerospace components.
