Principal Naval Architect - Steel Structures

Principal Naval Architect / Design Engineer – Steel Structures, Southampton

Hybrid, 3 days per week on-site

Salary: £65-75K plus excellent benefits package (relocation assistance and visa sponsorship is available)

About the Opportunity for the role of Principal Naval Architect / Design Engineer

Our client is a fast-growing maritime technology business. They are developing wind-assisted propulsion systems that help reduce fuel consumption and emissions across global shipping.

They are now looking to appoint a Principal Naval Architect / Design Engineer to join their growing engineering team and be a lead engineer for their on-going success. This is a hands-on role with broad involvement across the design lifecycle, from concept development through to detailed design and production-ready hardware.

Working closely with the Head of Engineering, you will take ownership of key subsystems, helping to deliver designs that are robust, manufacturable, compliant, and ready for real-world use. This is an excellent opportunity to join a mission-driven business developing real climate-impact technology in a highly innovative environment and would suit someone genuinely motivated by sustainability and the opportunity to contribute to cleaner shipping.

Key Requirements for the role of Principal Naval Architect / Design Engineer :

• Degree qualification in Naval, Mechanical, Structural, or Marine Engineering
• Experience designing and analysing marine structures approved by classification societies
• Large steel structures analysis and design experience
• Proficiency in Siemens NX, Autodesk Inventor, or similar 3D CAD tools
• Confident in structural analysis, including FEA and hand calculations
• Proven experience translating load cases into robust design requirements and validated structures
• Experience working directly with classification societies and supporting technical approval
• Experience with DNV, LR, NK or similar bodies
• Strong understanding of DFMA, structural integrity, and manufacturability
• Solution-driven approach
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, chaotic environment
• Taking a lead role

Other experiences of interest but not mandatory :

• Fatigue, buckling, and large welded structures
• Aero-structural systems or other performance-led structural design
• Validating models against real-world data
• Structural testing, validation, and manufacturing techniques

Why Join?

• Working on real climate-impact hardware
• High levels of ownership within a small engineering team
• Broad exposure from concept through to production
• The opportunity to grow and progress with the business as the technology scales
• Excellent salary and package
• Relocation assistance and visa sponsorship

For more information, or to apply for the position of Principal Naval Architect / Design Engineer, please contact Ewen on ewen@macarthurrecruitment.co.uk , ideally with a copy of your CV, or call 01768 800260.

At MacArthur Recruitment we are committed to maintaining the trust and confidence of our customers. We collect your information for the purposes of providing job-finding services only, and do not sell, rent or trade lists with other companies for marketing purposes.

We don’t collect cookies on our website, or use analytical tools to monitor visitor behaviour. We believe that if you want to get in touch with us, you will.

Any information you provide to us on your CV or via a job board is kept securely on our database and is shared with any potential employer only after you have given permission for us to do so.

To find details on how we use this information, please read our privacy policy which can be found at www.macarthurrecruitment.co.uk, where you can also find details of how to contact our Data Protection Lead, Stephanie Harding, should you wish to exercise your rights to view, amend, or delete the personal information that we hold.