Engineering Director in Bristol

We are seeking an Engineering Director to take full ownership of Inductosense’s engineering function. This role has accountability for software, firmware, electronics and mechanical engineering, along with manufacturing. The Engineering Director is responsible for technical integrity, system coherence, and delivery discipline across the full product lifecycle. This includes scaling software platforms, ensuring robust integration between hardware and software, and industrialising products for reliable manufacture and deployment. This role suits a technically strong engineering leader who has scaled multidisciplinary teams and systems beyond early-stage execution, and who is comfortable making hard technical and organisational trade-offs in a real-world industrial context.

About Inductosense: Inductosense is a technology-led engineering company based in Bristol, developing wireless, battery-free ultrasonic sensing solutions for corrosion and erosion monitoring in industrial environments. Our proprietary WAND (Wireless and Non-Destructive) platform combines advanced sensor hardware, embedded systems, firmware, and software to deliver scalable, field-deployed monitoring solutions used globally across Oil & Gas, Nuclear, Mining, Renewables, and Chemical sectors. The business is growing at approximately 40% year-on-year, is well funded (including strategic investment from Saudi Aramco), and operates in technically demanding, safety-critical environments. As Inductosense scales, we are strengthening engineering leadership to support higher volumes, more complex systems, and increased software and manufacturing integration.

Key Responsibilities

• Engineering Leadership & Organisation Design
  • Own and lead the engineering function across software, firmware, electronics, mechanical disciplines.
  • Define engineering and production org structure, technical ownership boundaries, and leadership layers to support scale.
  • Build and develop engineering managers, technical leads, and senior individual contributors.
  • Set clear expectations around accountability, delivery, documentation, and engineering standards.
  • Lead workforce planning, hiring strategy, capability development, and succession planning.
• Software, Systems & Architecture Ownership
  • Own the software engineering capability, including architecture, scalability, reliability, security, and maintainability.
  • Ensure effective system-level integration between software, firmware, electronics, sensors, and physical assets.
  • Define and maintain system architectures, interfaces, and versioning strategies.
  • Ensure data integrity, cybersecurity, and system resilience are designed-in, not retrofitted.
  • Balance long-term platform evolution with near-term delivery and customer commitments.
• Technical Authority, Risk & Governance
  • Act as senior technical authority for engineering decisions, trade-offs, and risk acceptance.
  • Chair engineering design reviews covering architecture, detailed design, validation, verification, and release.
  • Own technical risk management across reliability, performance, manufacturability, compliance, and supportability.
  • Ensure engineering decisions are evidence-based and traceable.
  • Set and enforce technical standards appropriate to regulated and industrial environments.
  • Own engineering execution across the full product lifecycle, from concept through to production.
  • Translate product and customer requirements into clear engineering specifications, plans, and resource models.
  • Drive predictable delivery through structured planning, dependency management, and progress tracking.
  • Hold teams accountable for quality, schedule, and technical outcomes.
  • Ensure engineering outputs meet functional, regulatory, and operational requirements.
• Engineering Processes, Quality & Compliance
  • Define, implement, and continuously improve engineering and manufacturing processes suitable for scale.
  • Strengthen ISO and ATEX aligned design control, documentation, traceability, and change management.
  • Ensure appropriate use of development methodologies (e.g. Agile, V-model, hybrid approaches).
  • Embed quality, verification, and compliance into day-to-day engineering practice.
  • Own the engineering interface to manufacturing and operations.
  • Ensure Design for Manufacture (DFM), Design for Test (DFT), and production readiness are addressed early.
  • Work with Operations to improve yields, reduce defects, and support volume scaling.
  • Support supplier qualification, manufacturing partner engagement, and test equipment strategy.
  • Ensure feedback from manufacturing and field deployment informs engineering improvements.
• Cross-Functional Engineering Leadership
  • Operate as a senior leader within the company, contributing to strategic and operational decisions.
  • Align engineering priorities with product roadmap, commercial commitments, and financial constraints.
  • Support customer-facing teams with technical leadership for key accounts and partners.
  • Collaborate with Finance on budgets, capacity planning, and investment trade-offs.

Experience & Qualifications

• Significant experience leading engineering teams delivering complex hardware-software products.
• Proven experience scaling multidisciplinary engineering organisations, including managers.
• Strong technical background in software, embedded systems, electronics, or systems engineering.
• Experience owning full product lifecycles from concept through production and deployment.
• Experience integrating engineering with manufacturing and operations.
• Strong engineering judgement and ability to make fit-for-purpose trade-offs.
• Degree-qualified in Engineering or equivalent experience.
• Able to commute to Bristol.
• Right to work in the UK (no visa sponsorship available).
• Experience in regulated or safety-critical environments (e.g. ISO 9001, ATEX).
• Exposure to sensor systems, NDT, industrial IoT, or data-enabled hardware platforms.
• Experience supporting manufacturing scale-up in a high-growth environment.
• Familiarity with Oil & Gas, Energy, or Nuclear sectors.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary based on experience.
• 5% company pension contribution (with 3% employee contribution).
• 25 days annual leave plus birthday off.