Senior Engineer - Engineering Capability & Governance and Assurance

Pay Range

£50,650 - £66,500

Position

Engineering Capability – Governance and Assurance Senior Engineer

Location

Hybrid working with one of the following as primary: Derby, Manchester, or Warrington. Regular office attendance required at one of the offices. Occasional travel may be needed.

About Rolls‑Royce SMR

Our mission is to deliver clean, affordable energy for all. We are developing a British solution for low‑carbon energy at scale.

The Team

The Engineering Capability team ensures that engineering functions have the processes, governance, tools, standards, and assurance framework needed to deliver excellence.

Opportunity

You will influence how engineering is delivered across Rolls‑Royce SMR, strengthen governance frameworks, support assurance activities, identify improvement opportunities, and ensure engineering processes evolve with business and regulatory needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Supporting and delivering governance reviews and assurance activities across engineering, ensuring processes are applied consistently and effectively.
• Developing, reviewing, maintaining, and continuously improving engineering processes, templates, guidance and governance documentation.
• Collaborating with assurance, quality, design and engineering stakeholders to identify gaps, non‑conformances, process inefficiencies and improvement opportunities.
• Investigating process‑related issues, undertaking root cause analysis, gathering evidence and producing high‑quality reports with clear recommendations.
• Tracking, prioritising and supporting implementation of improvement actions so recommendations are translated into meaningful outcomes.
• Facilitating stakeholder engagement activities, gathering feedback, promoting best practice and supporting organisational learning.
• Supporting change implementation activities to embed new processes and ways of working across the business using data, evidence and insight to inform decision‑making.

Required Qualifications & Professional Development

• An engineering degree or equivalent professional experience within engineering, governance, assurance, quality, operational excellence or a related discipline.
• Working towards Chartered Engineer status or another relevant professional accreditation is advantageous.

Experience

• Contributing to governance, assurance, compliance, quality, continuous improvement, operational excellence or process improvement activities.
• Experience within engineering, manufacturing, nuclear, aerospace, defence, infrastructure, energy or another highly regulated environment.
• Supporting investigations, audits, assessments, process reviews or assurance activities and translating findings into practical recommendations.
• Working with cross‑functional teams to implement improvements and drive organisational change.

Knowledge & Skills

• Knowledge of governance frameworks, process management principles, assurance methodologies, quality management systems or business process improvement techniques.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, building credibility and productive relationships across diverse teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including presenting findings and recommendations clearly.
• Strong analytical and critical‑thinking skills, assessing complex information and identifying root causes.
• A structured, organised approach with high attention to detail and the ability to manage competing priorities.
• A continuous improvement mindset, curiosity, resilience and a desire to challenge existing ways of working constructively.

Success Metrics – Within 6 months

• Establishing strong relationships across engineering, quality, assurance and supporting business functions.
• Building detailed understanding of engineering process landscape and governance framework.
• Supporting governance reviews and assurance activities while ensuring actions, outcomes and recommendations are effectively managed and communicated.

Success Metrics – Within 12 months

• Contributing to implementation of process and governance improvements aligned to business strategy and regulatory requirements.
• Supporting development of improved guidance, templates, tools and governance arrangements.
• Establishing effective stakeholder feedback mechanisms to identify and resolve process gaps.
• Supporting assurance and quality teams in maintaining high standards across engineering activities.

Success Metrics – Longer‑term

• Becoming recognised and trusted member of Governance and Assurance team.
• Influencing improvements to engineering governance and ways of working across the organisation.
• Delivering assurance outputs and recommendations that shape business decisions and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Supporting a culture of learning, accountability, compliance and engineering excellence.

Benefits

• Salary: £50,650 – £66,500
• Performance‑related target bonus 12.5%
• Benefits Allowance: £2,200 per annum
• Pension: 12% employer + 6% employee contributions
• Holidays: 28 days + public holidays, with option to buy/sell up to 4 days
• Private Medical Insurance: BUPA single cover health care
• Life Assurance: 6× pensionable pay
• £250 one‑off payment for new starters for home office purchases

Pre‑employment Checks

• Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) clearance
• Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) screening
• Financial probity checks

Our Commitment to Inclusion

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. As a Disability Confident organisation, we are committed to creating fair, accessible and supportive recruitment processes, in line with the Equality Act 2010.

Application Process

Due to safety regulations within the nuclear industry, additional screening is required:

• Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) clearance
• Satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check
• Satisfactory basic financial probity check