Head of Engineering

## Head of EngineeringApplylocations: Cambridgetime type: Full timeposted on: Posted Todaytime left to apply: End Date: June 18, 2026 (30 days left to apply)job requisition id: JR26_000527Furthermore, here at FFE we value our employees giving them the freedom to be creative and innovative. Having a great team spirt and people that are proud to work for a company that saves lives, our teams see the direct impact of their efforts in the daily operations.**Duties and Responsibilities:*****Engineering Leadership & Strategy**** Overall responsibility for electronics, mechanical, software and development engineering activities* Translate the company’s technical and product strategy into clear engineering objectives and execution plans.* Create and implement best practice engineering vision, strategy, policies, processes and procedures to aid and improve business performance* Ensure engineering outputs comply with relevant standards, regulations, and internal processes* Champion the consistent use of formal problem‐solving tools, structured testing methodologies, documentation standards, and design governance.* Continuously assess and improve the development strategy for both new and existing products.***People Management**** Line management of the electronics, mechanical, software and development engineering teams* Coach, mentor and develop direct reports (circa. 20 employees)* Set department objectives and monitor ongoing progress and performance* Ensure strong communication between the teams to facilitate efficient exchange of information and in order to implement change and improvements* Establish strategy and best practices for staff to ensure achievement of overall business objectives.* Build a high‐performance culture focused on accountability, collaboration, and technical excellence.* Identify capability gaps and drive upskilling, succession planning, and recruitment priorities.* Foster strong engagement and clear communication across engineering teams and the broader business.***New Product Development (NPD) and Sustaining Engineering**** Oversee engineering contributions to NPD projects, ensuring technical robustness, regulatory compliance, and on‐time delivery.* Ensure engineering teams deliver products that meet customer value propositions, performance, quality and cost targets.* Maintain high standards of testing, validation, verification, and design quality throughout the product lifecycle.* Contribute to sustaining engineering activity, ensuring product integrity, reliability, and customer satisfaction.* Ensure timely and effective resolution of issues impacting quality, regulatory compliance, or customer experience.* Act as a senior engineering representative in cross‐functional reviews, portfolio discussions, and strategic planning.**Skills and Experience:*** Proven leadership experience leading multi-disciplinary engineering teams, including electronics, embedded software and mechanical engineering, within a product development environment.* Direct experience delivering electronics-based products into medium or high volume manufacture, not just prototype or low-volume development.* Proven ownership of engineering industrialisation, including Design for Manufacture (DFM), Design for Test (DFT), Design for Assembly (DFA) and Design for Cost (DFC).* Strong background in safety critical or regulated products, with hands-on experience supporting certification, compliance and post certification change (e.g. fire, aerospace, industrial, medical or similar regulated environments).* Demonstrated experience leading complex hardware / software product development programmes from concept through certification and into sustained production.* Clear accountability for engineering handover to manufacturing, ensuring designs are production-ready, fully documented and supported through ramp-up and ongoing manufacture.* Experience working closely with manufacturing, test engineering and supply chain teams, including engagement with contract manufacturers / EMS partners.* Strong working knowledge of structured validation, verification, test and design governance, including formal design reviews, risk assessments and traceable test evidence.* Proven ability to lead sustaining engineering, including issue resolution, obsolescence management, cost down activity, yield improvement and customer-led corrective actions.* Track record of applying structured problem-solving methodologies (e.g. 8D, RCA, fault tree analysis) in both development and production environments.* Educated to degree level in a relevant engineering discipline (electronics, electrical, embedded systems, mechanical or similar), or equivalent senior experience.***Leadership & Commercial Capability**** Strong, hands-on engineering leadership style, with the credibility to challenge and support senior engineers and technical specialists.* Clear experience setting direction, managing priorities and driving delivery across multiple concurrent projects.* Commercial awareness of how engineering decisions impact product cost, margin, quality and lifecycle performance.* Experience managing engineering budgets, resource planning and capability development.* Ability to communicate complex technical issues clearly to non technical stakeholders, including senior leadership.* A pragmatic, delivery focused mindset, balancing technical excellence with business outcomes.***Desirable (Differentiating) Experience**** Experience with long product lifecycles and configuration-controlled product portfolios.* Exposure to multiple international certification regimes (e.g. EN / UL / FM / regional approvals).* Experience working across multi-site engineering teams.* Prior involvement in cost reduction and value engineering programmes post launch.**FFE Benefits include:** 25 days Annual Leave, Company bonus Scheme, Halma Pension plan, BUPA health insurance, Simply Health cash plan, EAP.#J-18808-Ljbffr…