Lead Mechanical Engineer

Onsite 5 days a week – Chiswick, London. We’re hiring a Lead Mechanical Engineer to define the mechanical tolerances, repeatability requirements, and verification methods needed for our HoloDrive system and help bring our ambitious first product to market.

About HoloMem: At HoloMem, we’re building the next generation of mass data storage hardware; highly efficient, long life, and ultra durable. Our pioneering and patented holographic technology encodes data as light within advanced polymers, enabling a resilient and future fit alternative to today’s short lived and energy intensive data storage infrastructure.

Over the past 24 months, HoloMem has graduated from both the Intel Ignite and Deeptech Labs accelerators, been awarded two Innovate UK Smart Grants, closed a seed+ funding round, and most recently deployed a working HoloDrive prototype to a live data centre to prove the robustness of our system. Off the back of our breakthrough partnership with BDT, the world’s largest tape library manufacturer, we now begin the transition from prototype to product, maturing our validated system into a mass‑produced technology platform that enables state of the art data storage performance at scale. We have ambitious plans, and we are now scaling up our West London based team to enable them. Join us.

What You’ll Be Doing: You will take technical ownership of a critical mechanical workstream within the HoloDrive media handling system, helping ensure it can manage, position, and control media reliably from product development prototypes through EVT, DVT, PVT, and launch. You will work across requirements definition, tolerance setting, test method development, drive system integration, part sourcing, and life‑test improvement. This is a senior individual contributor role: hands‑on, technical, and delivery‑focused, with responsibility for guiding engineers, reviewing technical quality, and coordinating with mechanical, mechatronics, and electronics workstreams.

The Specifics About the Role: This role is suited to an experienced mechanical engineer who has led the delivery of precision mechanical systems or critical mechanical subsystems, and who is ready to act as the technical lead for tape handling and control within a complex hardware platform:

• Establish mechanical tolerances, repeatability requirements, and verification methods that support reliable system behaviour
• Develop test methods, rigs, and verification approaches for tape movement, positioning, and repeatability
• Reduce technical risk around tape positioning, tape path control, and the mechanical interfaces that affect system repeatability
• Support the first integration of the drive system, identifying mechanical risks early and resolving them through structured build and test work
• Improve life‑test methods so tape management behaviour can be assessed over meaningful operating conditions
• Peer review mechanical designs, test plans, and verification evidence for technical quality
• Guide engineers technically without relying on formal line management authority

Who You Are: You are a mechanically grounded engineer who is comfortable working close to the hardware. You understand that reliable mechanical systems need clear requirements, measurable tolerances, controlled interfaces, practical test methods, and disciplined verification. You enjoy problems where motion, material handling, system integration, and quality interact. You can bring structure to ambiguity, expose what is not yet known, and help the wider team converge on testable engineering decisions. You communicate clearly, challenge constructively, and raise the technical standard of the work around you.

Required Experience:

• Degree-level education in mechanical engineering or a closely related discipline
• Around 8 years of relevant industry experience in mechanical engineering, mechanical systems, or precision hardware development
• Experience leading the delivery of mechanical systems, subsystems, or significant mechanical workstreams
• Experience integrating mechanical systems beyond isolated component design
• Experience defining mechanical requirements, tolerances, repeatability requirements, and verification methods
• Experience setting quality requirements for mechanical systems, not only performance targets
• Hands‑on experience building, testing, debugging, and improving mechanical hardware
• Familiarity with mechanical failure modes linked to wear, alignment, tension, friction, or material handling
• Experience working with cross‑functional engineering teams during system integration
• Ability to document technical requirements, test methods, risks, trade‑offs, and engineering decisions clearly
• Exposure to production environments, supplier coordination, or manufacturing‑oriented design decisions
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to guide others through technical reasoning
• Practical judgement in balancing time, cost, specification, quality, scalability and delivery risk
• Experience handling thin materials, films, webs, tapes, or other mechanically sensitive media
• Background in precision mechanical systems, motion control, alignment, or positioning mechanisms
• Experience supporting hardware through EVT, DVT, PVT, production readiness, or launch phases
• Previous involvement in quality assurance, reliability, or verification leadership for mechanical systems
• Experience collaborating closely with mechatronics, electronics, firmware, or controls engineers during system development

Benefits At HoloMem:

• 25 days annual leave
• Employer pension contributions
• A collaborative, knowledgeable team working on deeply technical, world‑positive problems

How to Apply: Click apply or send your CV to careers@holomem.co.uk. Show us what you’ve designed, built, or tested. If you’re excited about the mission, even if you don’t meet every requirement, we’d love to hear from you. HoloMem is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and are committed to building an inclusive environment for all.