Engineering Operations Manager
Department: Engineering
Employment Type: Permanent – Full Time
Location: Bristol, UK
Reporting To: Luke Rank
Compensation: £50,000 – £80,000 / year
Description
We’re building the UK’s next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience.
We specialise in turning advances in sensing, AI, and communications into operational capability for the edge, where connectivity may be degraded or denied. Our work focuses on accelerating the deployment of technology, improving decision-making for frontline teams, and protecting people and critical assets in demanding environments.
Headquartered in Bristol, Rowden employs around 160 people and operates over 20,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We have a growing international footprint and are one of Europe’s fastest-growing engineering businesses.
The role
Rowden’s engineering organisation is scaling rapidly in both size and complexity.
We are delivering complex multi-year programmes across AI-enabled systems, edge networks, distributed infrastructure, sensing, mission software, cloud, and systems integration, while continuing to build new products and engineering capabilities.
As we scale, we want to be deliberate about how engineering grows: where we invest, what capabilities we build, which tools and environments we improve, and how we remove friction from delivery.
As Engineering Operations Manager, you will work closely with the VP Engineering and engineering leaders to help scale the engineering organisation effectively. You will identify where friction is slowing teams down, where capability or coordination gaps are emerging, and what operational or engineering improvements are needed next, turning fragmented operational information into the insight needed to make fast, high-conviction decisions around delivery trade-offs, investment, and prioritisation.
You will also lead the execution of engineering initiatives that improve how the organisation operates at scale, from tooling and workflows through to new engineering capabilities and operational improvements.
The environment is fast-moving, technically complex, and highly collaborative. You do not need to be the deepest technical specialist in the room, but you do need the technical fluency, systems thinking, and judgement to engage credibly with engineers and deliver meaningful operational improvements.
The right person for this role will enjoy untangling complexity, spotting pressure points early, and helping a high-performing engineering organisation continue to scale without losing speed, coordination, or engineering quality.
You do not need to be an engineer by trade to do this role, but you do need to have sufficient experience working with engineers on difficult engineering problems. Someone with a technical project management background may be just as well suited to the role.
Candidates must be eligible for SC clearance.
More information about security clearance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels
Key areas of responsibility
- Building an accurate view of how engineering is operating across the business – unearthing delivery pressure points, capability gaps, scaling risks, and operational improvements early.
- Interrogating forecasts, delivery assumptions, engineering demand, and technical constraints to understand the realities of trade-offs and priorities across the organisation.
- Turning fragmented information from projects, teams, bids, and delivery reviews into clear operational insight that supports fast, high-conviction decisions.
- Leading engineering improvement initiatives across tooling, workflows, and engineering ways of working.
- Spending time close to the teams and the work, understanding how engineering operates on the ground rather than relying purely on reporting.
- Driving the operational cadence of the engineering function across planning, reviews, reporting, and cross-functional coordination.
- Coordinating the engineering graduate scheme, including rotations, placement planning, and helping build long-term engineering capability across the organisation.
Key skills, experience and behaviours
- Experience operating within scaling engineering or technical delivery environments where priorities, demand, and constraints are constantly evolving.
- Strong systems thinking and operational judgement, with the ability to understand how decisions in one area impact delivery, teams, and engineering capacity elsewhere.
- The ability to absorb complex information quickly, identify patterns and risks early, and bring clarity to ambiguous situations.
- Sufficient technical fluency to engage confidently with engineers across multiple disciplines and build credibility within technical teams.
- A naturally curious and proactive approach, with a desire to understand how teams really operate and where improvements can have the biggest impact.
- Strong communication and influencing skills, with the confidence to challenge constructively and navigate competing viewpoints or priorities.
- High levels of ownership, organisation, and follow-through, with the ability to maintain momentum across multiple initiatives at once.
- A pragmatic mindset focused on helping engineering teams scale effectively without adding unnecessary process, overhead, or complexity.
About you
The behaviours that will make you successful here include:
- Curious about how engineering organisations really operate and motivated by solving operational challenges.
- Comfortable operating across fast-moving teams, competing priorities, and technical domains.
- Confident asking difficult questions, challenging assumptions, and bringing clarity to ambiguity.
- Pragmatic and execution-focused, with a bias toward improving how teams work without adding bureaucracy.
- Motivated by helping engineering teams scale, collaborate effectively, and do their best work.
Working at Rowden
We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are!
We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid-working model, with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.
Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.
Finally, if you feel that you don’t meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we’d still love to hear from you!
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