Senior Friction Stir Welding Project Lead in Derby

Take the technical lead in a business advancing Friction Stir Welding

We are experts in Friction Stir Welding (FSW), a solid-state joining process used in the aerospace, automotive, and energy sectors amongst others.

Our friction stir welding (FSW) capability delivers process development, production and funded R&D work for customers across automotive, energy, nuclear, aerospace and defence.

Our StirSense platform brings real-time process monitoring and, in time, machine-learning driven quality control to the welding line.

We are now hiring a Senior Friction Stir Welding Project Lead to take technical and delivery ownership of complex customer and collaborative R&D projects.

This is a rare opportunity to join an early-stage engineering company at a pivotal point in its development. You will work directly with StirLight’s founders, influence how our technical capability evolves and help turn ambitious engineering ideas into robust, production-ready solutions.

The opportunity

You will have significant operational independence and responsibility for day-to-day delivery.

This role takes day-to-day ownership of FSW project delivery, enabling our technical founders to focus more of their time on StirSense, advanced technical development and wider business priorities. You will be the person who keeps FSW projects moving, bringing together the technical approach, project plan, internal resources, customers and external partners.

What you'll do

• Take FSW projects from customer requirements through trials, validation and production transfer.
• Define scope, deliverables, milestones, resourcing, risk and acceptance criteria — and hold the line on them.
• Design and review FSW trial and process-development strategies that stand up to scrutiny.
• Make the calls on complex FSW problems, backed by evidence rather than instinct alone.
• Plan and prioritise the work of the FSW Process Engineer, and coordinate other engineers, suppliers and partners on your projects.
• Own customer-facing communication: technical reviews, progress reporting, and the harder conversations when something needs to change.
• Keep trials, parameters, inspection results and technical decisions properly documented and traceable — this matters more here than most places.
• Manage the risks, dependencies and changes that come with running several technically demanding projects at once.
• Contribute to technical scoping, estimates and proposals for new work.
• Help build the project, quality and engineering controls StirLight needs as it scales — proportionate to where we are now, not where a much bigger company would be.
• Bring other engineers on: share what you know, and help grow FSW capability across the business.

What you'll bring

• Real hands-on FSW experience — setup, trials, parameter optimisation, troubleshooting, weld analysis — not just machine operation.
• A track record leading FSW process-development, qualification, industrialisation or production-transfer projects.
• Enough technical depth to review evidence, question assumptions, and direct the work of other engineers with credibility.
• The ability to turn what a customer wants into a plan an engineering team can actually execute.
• Solid project leadership: scope, priorities, resourcing, risk and change, handled without drama.
• A working understanding of structured trial design, data analysis and validation.
• Comfort operating in regulated or high-integrity environments, where quality and traceability aren't optional extras.
• The judgement to explain complex technical issues clearly to a customer's engineer and to their finance director alike.
• The confidence to push back on a customer when safety, quality or deliverability is at stake, and make that conversation constructive rather than adversarial.
• A pragmatic streak. Small companies reward people who can build the right-sized solution, not the textbook one.

Experience in aerospace, nuclear, defence, automotive or energy manufacturing is a strong plus. Project management training, welding or quality accreditation, and chartered engineer status would all count in your favour, none are dealbreakers on their own.

Why StirLight

Few roles let you combine serious technical work, real project ownership and genuine commercial influence in a company that's still being built. This is one of them.

You'll work directly with StirLight's founders and directors, own programmes that matter, and help write the playbook, the standards, methods and technical capability that StirLight will run on as it grows.

In return:

• Competitive salary
• Share options, subject to scheme rules and formal grant.
• Hybrid working: normally three days a week at Holmewood.
• Real influence over how this role, and StirLight's technical delivery capability, develop from here.
• Varied, technically demanding work across several advanced-engineering sectors.
• A front-row seat as an early-stage business grows — and a stake in what it becomes.

StirLight is committed to building an inclusive team and welcomes applications from suitably qualified people from all backgrounds.