Engineering Mechanical Design Manager in Cambridge

This is a key leadership opportunity within the Mechanical Design function at Marshall Land Systems. The role would suit an experienced mechanical design leader who enjoys building capability, developing people and helping teams deliver complex, varied and meaningful engineering programmes.

This is a Mechanical Design leadership role. You will lead a team of Senior Engineers - Mechanical and Engineers - Mechanical who are responsible for the design, development, modification and support of complex physical products. The team uses Autodesk Inventor for 3D CAD, detailed design and drawing production, with Windchill PLM used for product data management, configuration control, engineering change and release.

At Marshall Land Systems, our mechanical design engineers do not work on the same product day after day. Our programmes are varied, technically challenging and often bespoke, meaning every project brings a different engineering problem to solve. Our teams work across a wide range of specialist land systems, including deployable infrastructure, command and control modules, medical and support facilities, protected mobility solutions, mission systems and complex vehicle-mounted equipment.

The work spans bids, new product development, modifications, production support, integration, trials, in-service support and continuous improvement. One programme may require structural design and welded frame development, another may involve packaging systems into a constrained module, while another may focus on configuration control, manufacturability, integration or customer-specific modifications.

As Engineering Manager - Mechanical, you will lead a team of Senior Engineers - Mechanical and Engineers - Mechanical, developing their capability and ensuring the team has the skills, standards, tools and ways of working needed to deliver current and future mechanical design programmes. This is not a narrow line management role. It combines people leadership, mechanical design judgement, resource planning, capability development, delivery support and continuous improvement across the Mechanical Design function.

You will be joining a strong and collaborative team, now based in modern offices in Cambridge, with regular interaction across Engineering, Operations, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain and programme teams in the UK, Canada and the Netherlands. This opportunity is a hybrid role requiring you to be onsite in Cambridge around 50–70% of the time.

The Engineering Manager - Mechanical plays a pivotal leadership role within the Mechanical Design function, leading a team of Senior Engineers - Mechanical and Engineers - Mechanical. This role is essential to building mechanical design capability, supporting delivery across varied programmes and ensuring high-quality engineering outputs that meet customer, regulatory and business needs.

The position combines functional management, mechanical design leadership, resource planning, people development and continuous improvement. The Engineering Manager - Mechanical will ensure the team has the capability, capacity, tools and support required to deliver current commitments while also developing the skills and resilience needed for future business growth.

The team uses Autodesk Inventor for 3D modelling, detailed design and drawing production, with Windchill PLM used to manage product structures, item data, configuration control, engineering change and release.

• Lead, mentor and manage a team of Senior Engineers - Mechanical and Engineers - Mechanical who deliver mechanical design outputs across bids, projects, production support and in-service activities.
• Build the capability of the Mechanical Design team, including CAD modelling, drawing production, design checking, configuration control, design for manufacture and use of Windchill PLM.
• Support Senior Engineers in developing their technical leadership, checking capability, Autodesk Inventor design capability, coaching skills and ownership of complex mechanical design activities.
• Support Engineers in developing their mechanical design capability, engineering judgement, product knowledge, Autodesk Inventor skills and confidence using Windchill PLM.
• Create an environment where engineers can do their best work, with clear priorities, strong technical support and visible development opportunities.
• Identify and address the development needs of team members, coaching them to enhance technical capability in line with the departmental training plan and wider Engineering skills development.
• Support Performance Development Reviews, objective setting and technical competency assessments.
• Promote health, safety and wellbeing across the team.
• Collaborate effectively across the matrix organisation to achieve project and business objectives, ensuring adherence to budgets and schedules.
• Work with project and functional stakeholders to allocate resources effectively across bids, projects, production support and continuous improvement activities.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, training, succession planning and career development to ensure the team has the skills and capability needed for current and future business needs.

• Provide Mechanical Design leadership across bids and project delivery, ensuring the right level of technical input, review and governance is applied.
• Support the development of complex mechanical design architectures for new and existing product concepts.
• Oversee the production, review and approval of mechanical design outputs, including 3D models, 2D drawings, item lists, product structures, design data and technical documentation.
• Ensure effective use of Autodesk Inventor for mechanical design and Windchill PLM for configuration control, engineering change, product data management and release.
• Support the management of product structures, build standards, drawings, documents and engineering change activity within Windchill PLM.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory, customer and Marshall processes, designing solutions that are safe, robust and tolerant to operational environments.
• Apply best practice in Mechanical Design Engineering to support projects and business development.
• Ensure appropriate participation in design review meetings, including SRR, ERR, PDR, CDR and change boards.
• Provide expertise and escalation support to other departments, including production, manufacturing, quality, supply chain and operations.
• Identify and drive improvements in engineering processes and workflows to enhance productivity, quality, efficiency and overall team performance.
• Promote a culture where engineers are encouraged to challenge, improve and innovate rather than simply follow existing methods.

• Help shape the future Mechanical Design capability across people, process and tools.
• Assess, select and support the implementation of engineering tools and technologies that improve team effectiveness and engineering quality.
• Ensure the team can establish and maintain appropriate Mechanical Product Breakdown Structures.
• Monitor project progress, resource demand, budgets and timelines using appropriate tracking tools, generating regular reports on metrics and KPIs.
• Ensure the team creates clear design briefs that outline project objectives, requirements and constraints.
• Track and report on key performance indicators related to design quality, project delivery and team performance.
• Promote and implement continuous improvement initiatives to enhance design quality, efficiency and innovation.
• Ensure all design activities comply with health, safety and environmental best practices and regulations.

We are looking for someone who enjoys leading people, building capability and helping engineers deliver complex physical products. The best people in our team are collaborative, technically credible, organised and able to balance engineering quality with programme needs.

You should be comfortable supporting Senior Engineers and Engineers, helping them develop their capability, providing direction where needed and creating an environment where they can take ownership and grow. This role would suit someone who enjoys the people side of engineering leadership as much as the technical side. You will be expected to develop capability, remove blockers, support delivery and help the Mechanical Design team become stronger over time.

Qualified to degree level in Engineering, Mathematics or Physics with relevant and sufficient experience in the field. Alternative qualifications and/or experience will be considered.

• Experience leading, mentoring or managing mechanical design engineers within a complex engineering environment.
• Experience developing engineering capability across Senior Engineer and Engineer populations.
• Experience leading or managing mechanical design engineers who use 3D CAD and PLM systems to deliver engineering outputs.
• Strong understanding of mechanical design delivery, including 3D modelling, 2D drawings, design checking, configuration control and release.
• Strong understanding of mechanical system design and development, including performance, safety, manufacturability and regulatory requirements.
• Experience operating within a matrix environment, allocating resources and coordinating with integrated project teams.
• Experience with Autodesk Inventor and Windchill PLM would be beneficial. Experience with other comparable CAD and PLM systems will also be considered.
• Experience implementing or improving engineering processes, tools and ways of working.
• Strong understanding of quality assurance, configuration control and design governance.
• Familiarity with manufacturing processes and design optimisation for manufacturability.
• Proficient in identifying technical and delivery risks and ensuring designs meet regulatory, customer and business requirements.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage with a range of stakeholders and foster cross-functional collaboration.
• Ability to support recruitment, onboarding, training, development planning and performance management.
• Professional Engineer, Chartered Engineer, Certified Technologist or equivalent professional accreditation is desirable.

• 27 days holiday increasing with service up to 30 days, with the option to buy or sell leave.
• Pension contributions up to 9%.
• Private medical insurance.
• Extensive flexible benefit programme including Cycle to Work.
• Life assurance at 4x basic salary.
• Enhanced parental leave and pay.
• Paid volunteering leave.
• Access to industry-leading wellbeing resources and tools.

Marshall Land Systems is a Canadian-owned global company with an unrivalled pedigree of British engineering excellence. From its origins in Cambridge, UK, through more than a century of innovation, pioneering advances from the nose of Concorde to the early Hydrogen fuel cell technology that ultimately powered the moon landings, Marshall engineers now continue to innovate specialist vehicles and infrastructure for NATO forces across the world.

From bomb disposal vehicles to deployed shelters, from command and control to CT scanners on the battlefield, Marshall Land Systems protects people in critical situations with the very best in engineering. It employs around 600 people with major facilities in the UK, Canada and the Netherlands.

Due to the nature of our business, all employment is subject to satisfactory references being obtained, attainment of either a SC Security Check, Disclosure Scotland Criminal Record Check or Foreign Police Check, whichever is applicable depending on duration of UK residency, and, as applicable, a medical assessment. Access to US technical data by employees requires prior Trade Control function approval. Clearance must be carried out against all applicable US export control authorisations.