Principal Product Engineer in England

About The Role

We’re looking for a Principal Product Engineer to join us in Swindon. As part of our growing BU in our Energy Division, reporting to the Senior Manager of Product Engineering for Heat‑shrink Cable Accessories and Materials. In this role, you’ll be a senior technical leader and the first person we turn to when critical quality or production issues arise. You’ll act as the technical first responder across manufacturing, suppliers and the field, quickly diagnosing problems, restoring production flow and protecting our customers. Just as importantly, you’ll make sure the learning sticks — updating systems, processes and designs so issues don’t reoccur. This is a role for someone who combines deep product knowledge with systems thinking and cross‑functional influence, and who enjoys driving meaningful, lasting change across the full product lifecycle. If you’re motivated by solving tough problems, leading from the front and leaving products more robust than you found them, we’d love you to join us.

Your New Role

• Lead technical investigation and resolution of urgent production, quality, and field issues (“fire‑fighting”), including yield loss, escapes, reliability failures, and customer escalations.
• Perform deep root cause analysis (RCA) using structured problem‑solving methodologies (e.g., 8D, KT Analysis, 5‑Why’s, etc.).
• Own containment, corrective, and preventive actions (CAPA), ensuring rapid stabilisation and long‑term fixes.
• Validate corrective actions through data analysis, testing, and production verification.
• Act as the primary technical interface between R&D Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply‑Chain, Suppliers, and Technical Services for critical issue resolution.
• Drive alignment and decision‑making during escalations, balancing speed, risk, cost, and customer impact.
• Influence without direct authority; escalating decisively when product integrity or customer trust is at risk.
• Identify systemic weaknesses in product design, tolerances, materials, processes, or controls that drive recurring issues.
• Feed lessons learned back into design standards, DFMEA/PFMEA, control plans, and qualification strategies.
• Act as a senior technical mentor for product and manufacturing engineers.
• Champion best practices in failure analysis, data‑driven decision‑making, and engineering rigor.
• Contribute to internal standards, guidelines, and playbooks for issue response and escalation management.

Your Ideal Background

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Materials, Manufacturing, or related discipline).
• 10+ years of experience in product engineering, manufacturing engineering, quality engineering and/or technical project management roles.
• Proven track record of resolving complex, high‑impact production and quality issues.
• Deep hands‑on experience with problem‑solving, failure analysis, tolerance analysis, and/or manufacturing processes.
• Strong understanding of product lifecycle management and change control.