Furthermore, 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
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Overall responsibility for electronics, mechanical, software and development engineering activities
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Translate the company’s technical and product strategy into clear engineering objectives and execution plans.
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Create and implement best practice engineering vision, strategy, policies, processes and procedures to aid and improve business performance
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Ensure engineering outputs comply with relevant standards, regulations, and internal processes
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Champion the consistent use of formal problem‑solving tools, structured testing methodologies, documentation standards, and design governance.
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Continuously assess and improve the development strategy for both new and existing products.
People Management
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Line management of the electronics, mechanical, software and development engineering teams
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Coach, mentor and develop direct reports (circa. 20 employees)
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Set department objectives and monitor ongoing progress and performance
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Ensure strong communication between the teams to facilitate efficient exchange of information and in order to implement change and improvements
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Establish strategy and best practices for staff to ensure achievement of overall business objectives.
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Build a high‑performance culture focused on accountability, collaboration, and technical excellence.
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Identify capability gaps and drive upskilling, succession planning, and recruitment priorities.
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Foster strong engagement and clear communication across engineering teams and the broader business.
New Product Development (NPD) and Sustaining Engineering
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Oversee engineering contributions to NPD projects, ensuring technical robustness, regulatory compliance, and on‑time delivery.
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Ensure engineering teams deliver products that meet customer value propositions, performance, quality and cost targets.
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Maintain high standards of testing, validation, verification, and design quality throughout the product lifecycle.
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Contribute to sustaining engineering activity, ensuring product integrity, reliability, and customer satisfaction.
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Ensure timely and effective resolution of issues impacting quality, regulatory compliance, or customer experience.
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Act as a senior engineering representative in cross‑functional reviews, portfolio discussions, and strategic planning.
Skills and Experience:
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Proven leadership experience leading multi-disciplinary engineering teams, including electronics, embedded software and mechanical engineering, within a product development environment.
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Direct experience delivering electronics-based products into medium or high volume manufacture, not just prototype or low-volume development.
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Proven ownership of engineering industrialisation, including Design for Manufacture (DFM), Design for Test (DFT), Design for Assembly (DFA) and Design for Cost (DFC).
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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).
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Demonstrated experience leading complex hardware / software product development programmes from concept through certification and into sustained production.
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Clear accountability for engineering handover to manufacturing, ensuring designs are production-ready, fully documented and supported through ramp-up and ongoing manufacture.
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Experience working closely with manufacturing, test engineering and supply chain teams, including engagement with contract manufacturers / EMS partners.
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Strong working knowledge of structured validation, verification, test and design governance, including formal design reviews, risk assessments and traceable test evidence.
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Proven ability to lead sustaining engineering, including issue resolution, obsolescence management, cost down activity, yield improvement and customer-led corrective actions.
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Track record of applying structured problem-solving methodologies (e.g. 8D, RCA, fault tree analysis) in both development and production environments.
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Educated to degree level in a relevant engineering discipline (electronics, electrical, embedded systems, mechanical or similar), or equivalent senior experience.
Leadership & Commercial Capability
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Strong, hands-on engineering leadership style, with the credibility to challenge and support senior engineers and technical specialists.
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Clear experience setting direction, managing priorities and driving delivery across multiple concurrent projects.
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Commercial awareness of how engineering decisions impact product cost, margin, quality and lifecycle performance.
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Experience managing engineering budgets, resource planning and capability development.
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Ability to communicate complex technical issues clearly to non technical stakeholders, including senior leadership.
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A pragmatic, delivery focused mindset, balancing technical excellence with business outcomes.
Desirable (Differentiating) Experience
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Experience with long product lifecycles and configuration-controlled product portfolios.
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Exposure to multiple international certification regimes (e.g. EN / UL / FM / regional approvals).
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Experience working across multi-site engineering teams.
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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.
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If you like wild growth and working with happy, enthusiastic over-achievers, you'll enjoy your career with us!
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