Senior Marine Production Liaison Engineer in Portsmouth

We are recruiting for a Senior Engineer - Production to play a key role bridging structural design development and shipyard production engineering on complex, high-quality superyacht projects. This is a production-facing role for an engineer who understands traditional and modern shipbuilding (large and small) — particularly fabricated steel and aluminium structures — and enjoys working at the interface between design intent, shipyard reality, and classification requirements.

You will work closely with Lateral's in-house structural design team while acting as a trusted technical point of contact for shipyards, production engineers, and classification societies throughout the build cycle. The role suits someone who brings sound engineering judgement, practical experience, can coordinate constructive problem-solving, and who wants their experience to genuinely influence build outcomes.

What You'll Be Doing

• Acting on assigned projects as primary production liaison between Lateral's structural design team, shipyards, and classification societies.
• Supporting shipyards during fabrication and assembly by responding to production queries, and build-phase issues.
• Coordinating the translation of structural design intent into buildable, practical solutions, considering fabrication methods, tolerances, access, and sequencing.
• Helping to resolve clashes between structure, systems, outfit, and production constraints.
• Coordinating structural responses to evolving design information while protecting build progress and quality.
• Providing constructive feedback into the design process to improve buildability, reduce rework, and strengthen future standards.
• Technically guiding and coordinating structural engineers and designers where required, ensuring outputs are suitable for production use.
• Supporting classification interactions by interpreting rule requirements in a production-aware, pragmatic manner.
• Contributing to the ongoing development of production-ready details, standards, and processes.

What We're Looking For

• At least 6 years' experience in the marine industry, with demonstrable involvement in shipyard production, fabrication, refit, or production-liaison roles.
• Strong understanding of ship structural design and how it is applied to fabricated structures, including local structure and foundations.
• Practical experience with steel and/or aluminium construction, ideally including block or modular fabrication.
• Proven ability to assess technical challenges and apply sound engineering judgement to reach practical solutions.
• Confident communicator, able to work effectively with designers, shipyard teams, and classification societies.
• Well organised, self-motivated, and comfortable working to production schedules and deadlines.
• 2D CAD (AutoCAD) for producing and reviewing production-ready drawings.
• Desirable (but not essential): 3D CAD experience (Rhino or similar) for coordination and design interrogation.
• Familiarity with Classification Society and Flag State requirements.
• Experience supporting construction, commissioning, or refit phases.
• Structural analysis experience.
• An interest in improving buildability, efficiency, and innovation in yacht engineering.

The role is based in our Southampton office, and we offer flexibility and hybrid working arrangements around the core hours and in-office days required for our team.

Lateral Naval Architects provides complete engineering expertise to the superyacht industry, from project conception to delivery, operation, and refit. Our core competency is engineering, but our unique focus is on meaningful innovation to enable superyachts that meet the demands of today's owners and those of the future. We believe that meaningful innovation starts with asking new questions.

If you feel you're the right candidate for the role, we'd love to hear from you.