Engineering Manager - Electronics in Cambridge

Do you want to drive the electronics vision behind cutting‑edge laboratory automation as Engineering Manager in the Electronics team at SPT Labtech? You will own technical authority across electronics, motion control, and low‑level system integration, while leading and developing a high‑performing engineering team. Remaining hands‑on in design, architecture, and problem‑solving, you will work closely with software and mechanical teams to deliver precise, reliable, high‑performance control of complex electromechanical systems. This role suits a senior engineer with deep electronics and embedded systems expertise, strong motion‑control capability, and the ability to solve complex technical challenges while collaborating effectively across disciplines.

About us: Based in Cambridge, SPT Labtech makes products that transform the way scientists work. For decades, our expert scientists, engineers and business innovators have provided scientists with world‑leading, innovative solutions for liquid handling, sample preparation, and sample management that help accelerate research and make a real difference to human health. We work collaboratively with our customers, building trusted relationships that enable us to deliver exceptional, personalised experiences designed for real‑world challenges in the lab. Want to be part of a team that’s truly making a difference?

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Establish and develop the electronics engineering team, ensuring high technical standards and professional growth.
• Ensure solutions are compliant with regulation and satisfy Quality, Delivery and Cost targets.
• Work with programme and portfolio leads and the R&D Director to shape priorities and resource plans, ensuring the electronics team is aligned and able to deliver effectively.
• Establish and improve engineering processes, design reviews, documentation standards, and verification approaches.
• Foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, and pragmatic problem‑solving.
• Manage small and medium projects as needed as well as providing technical direction and best practice guidance to team members.

Technical Leadership:

• Act as the authority for electronics design and motion control across the full product range.
• Define and maintain architecture for electronics and control systems, ensuring alignment with software, firmware, and mechanical teams.
• Take a system‑level view of design decisions, ensuring electronics and motion‑control choices support overall product architecture, performance, and reliability.
• Lead motion‑control strategy, providing direction on actuator requirements, drive‑system architecture, and motion‑control approaches that integrate cleanly into the wider system.
• Provide strong technical input on embedded system design, hardware‑software interfaces, and low‑level integration, working collaboratively with firmware and software engineers.
• Offer hands‑on expertise in circuit design, PCB reviews, hardware debugging, instrumentation, and evaluation of electromechanical control behaviour.

Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration:

• Work closely with the software team to ensure seamless integration of motion and system control into the broader software stack.
• Collaborate with mechanical engineering on actuator selection and system dynamics, ensuring chosen actuators meet the control, performance, and integration requirements of the motion system.
• Partner with firmware developers on interface definitions, partitioning decisions, and hardware‑software integration.
• Engage with manufacturing, quality, and service teams to ensure robust product introduction and sustained field performance.
• Coordinate activities of partners and service providers in order to obtain services, supplies & equipment in collaboration with Purchasing.
• Own electronics deliverables across the full development lifecycle: concept, architecture, design, verification, compliance, release, and continuous improvement.
• Contribute to requirements definition, hazard analysis, and design risk assessments.
• Ensure adherence to EMC, safety, and regulatory standards relevant to scientific instrumentation and automation.
• Support the transition to manufacturing, including design for manufacture/test, supplier engagement, and production troubleshooting.
• Oversee obsolescence management and sustaining engineering for existing products.

Skills & Attributes:

• You will be decisive, technically rigorous, and hands‑on.
• A strong problem‑solver able to cut through complexity and ambiguity.
• A collaborative communicator who aligns electronics, firmware, software, and mechanical perspectives effectively.
• Motivated by building capability, improving design quality, and delivering robust products.
• Able to thrive in multidisciplinary engineering environments.

The essentials:

• Strong hands‑on background in electronics design (analogue, digital, power, sensing, comms).
• Substantial experience with motion control in electromechanical or automation systems, including system‑level motion architecture and integration with software.
• Experience applying control‑theory principles to real‑world electromechanical systems (feedback, stability, system response, practical tuning).
• Deep experience with microcontrollers (e.g., ARM/Cortex‑M or similar), including selection, hardware integration, and collaboration on embedded firmware development.
• Demonstrable capability in designing and integrating complex electromechanical control systems.
• Skilled in practical debugging using scopes, logic analysers, JTAG tools, and diagnostic techniques.
• Experience in laboratory automation, scientific instruments, robotics, industrial automation, or similar motion‑intensive domains is highly advantageous.

Leadership:

• Experience managing or technically leading an engineering team, or have the desire to step into a management position.
• Ability to set technical direction, make informed architectural decisions, and clearly communicate trade‑offs.
• Comfortable remaining hands‑on while managing delivery and people.
• Proven ability to improve engineering processes and elevate team capability.

Product Development:

• Experience delivering hardware‑based products through a structured development lifecycle in a quality‑driven environment (ISO 9001, ISO 13485, or similar).
• Comfortable with verification, design reviews, configuration control, interface management, and risk assessment.
• Experience collaborating with manufacturing partners and dealing with the realities of production hardware.
• Experience of clearly articulating requirements and design details.

Qualifications:

• Degree in Electronics Engineering, Mechatronics, Robotics, or a related discipline.
• Further qualifications or chartership (CEng) beneficial but not essential.

Our commitment to you: You'll be working with talented professionals in a motivated and driven team. We offer a competitive salary package and comprehensive, valued benefits, including private medical insurance and a generous pension plan. We embrace diversity and inclusivity, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability, or family status. We prioritise supporting our employees' diverse needs as we strive for excellence together. If the above resonates with you, apply with an up‑to‑date CV and be a part of our journey to reshape the future of science.