Lead Mechanical Engineer

Role & responsibilities

1. Lead full-cycle mechanical development of underwater systems from concept to deployment, including large-class / long-endurance platforms (XL-UUVs) with ownership of subsystem and system-level integration.

2. Drive mechanical architecture decisions for pressure hulls, modular structures, buoyancy distribution, hydrodynamic form, sealing systems, and thermal pathways for long-duration underwater vehicles.

3. Define and govern system-level mechanical interfaces across electrical, propulsion, payload, and control subsystems, ensuring integration readiness and compatibility.

4. Manage multiple engineering programs, including complex, multi-subsystem XL-UUV projects, ensuring alignment with timelines, cost targets, and mission requirements.

5. Lead structural and hydrodynamic design considering drag optimisation, stability, fatigue life, pressure cycling, and long-duration mission reliability.

6. Establish and enforce engineering processes, including requirements traceability, design reviews, DFMEA/PFMEA, verification & validation plans, and configuration control.

7. Supervise field testing, sea trials, and long-duration mission validation, ensuring performance tracking and structured feedback into design iterations.

8. Drive product reliability strategy, including failure analysis, root cause identification, reliability growth, and robustness improvements across mission cycles.

9. Oversee design and development of subsea pressure systems, including large pressure hulls, collapse/buckling analysis, sealing reliability, and corrosion mitigation strategies.

10. Ensure robust manufacturing readiness, including DFMA, vendor development, tolerance stack-up, and scalability of mechanical systems.

11. Define and maintain engineering documentation standards, including GD&T, interface control documents (ICDs), design reports, and system-level documentation.

12. Mentor and develop the mechanical engineering team, conduct design reviews, and build subsystem ownership culture across engineers.

13. Contribute to system-level vehicle architecture decisions, including layout, modularity, maintainability, deployment strategy, and scalability across UUV classes.

14. Work closely with cross-functional teams (electrical, autonomy, field ops) to ensure mission success, system robustness, and operational readiness.

15. Ensure compliance with relevant marine, defence, and reliability standards, and drive design practices aligned with harsh-environment operations.