Design Authority

Design Authority

Location: East of England, UK

The Opportunity

An established technology business is looking for an experienced Design Authority to provide senior technical leadership across complex product development projects.

This is a key engineering role for someone who enjoys taking ownership of technical decisions, working across multiple engineering disciplines and delivering robust, commercially viable solutions.

You will be responsible for maintaining the technical integrity of assigned products and projects throughout the development lifecycle, ensuring solutions meet performance, quality, cost, manufacturing and reliability requirements.

Working closely with engineering, product, project and operational teams, you will translate requirements into practical technical solutions, resolve complex engineering challenges and ensure designs remain fit for purpose from initial concept through to production and ongoing support.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Ownership: Take responsibility for the technical direction, architecture and integrity of assigned products and engineering projects.
• Requirements & Architecture: Translate customer and business requirements into clear product requirements, technical specifications and engineering solutions.
• Multidisciplinary Engineering: Coordinate technical activities across systems, software, electronics, mechanical engineering, testing and verification teams.
• Technical Decision-Making: Evaluate engineering options, assess trade-offs and make evidence-based decisions that balance performance, quality, cost and delivery.
• Risk Management: Identify technical risks, resolve complex engineering challenges and develop mitigation strategies to maintain project progress.
• Product Development: Provide technical oversight throughout the product lifecycle, from concept and design through verification, production introduction and ongoing support.
• Manufacturing & Quality: Ensure designs are suitable for manufacture, testing, maintenance and long-term support, while meeting relevant quality and compliance requirements.
• Project Collaboration: Work with project and product management teams to clarify technical scope, dependencies, priorities and delivery risks.
• Engineering Change: Assess design changes, component obsolescence and supply chain constraints, identifying suitable technical alternatives where required.
• Technical Guidance: Act as a senior technical point of contact, mentoring engineers, challenging assumptions constructively and promoting good engineering practice.
• Continuous Improvement: Contribute to engineering standards, product roadmaps and the adoption of technologies that improve product performance and reliability.

What We're Looking For

Essential Requirements

• A degree, diploma or equivalent experience in an engineering discipline, such as systems, electronics, software, mechanical engineering or a related technical field.
• Significant experience in a senior engineering, systems engineering, product architecture, technical leadership or design authority position.
• Broad multidisciplinary engineering knowledge and the ability to work effectively across different technical specialisms.
• Proven experience taking ownership of complex engineering projects, products or technical outcomes.
• A strong understanding of the full product development lifecycle, including requirements definition, architecture, design, verification, production and lifecycle support.
• Experience making technical decisions using engineering evidence, risk assessments and trade-off analysis.
• Knowledge of design for manufacture, design for test, reliability, product quality and engineering change management.
• The ability to translate customer and business requirements into practical, deliverable engineering solutions.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to influence technical decisions and challenge existing approaches.
• A commercially aware mindset, balancing engineering excellence with cost, schedule, quality and business priorities.
• A structured, analytical approach to problem-solving and the ability to work through technical uncertainty.
• Experience collaborating with engineering, project, product, manufacturing and operational teams.

Desirable Experience

• Experience developing complex electronic, embedded or hardware-based products.
• Exposure to RF engineering, wireless technologies or communications systems.
• Experience within regulated, high-reliability or technically demanding engineering environments.
• Knowledge of manufacturing engineering, production testing, service support and component obsolescence.
• Experience contributing to product strategy, technical roadmaps or future technology development.

Additional Information

Occasional travel may be required to support technical discussions with customers, suppliers and other engineering teams.

The successful candidate may be required to undergo security vetting, depending on the requirements of the role.