Senior Mechanical Engineer

Rarekind; Newcastle City Council; On-site; AUD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Autonomy to introduce processes

Growth opportunities into broader technical roles

Job summary

Rarekind is seeking a Senior Mechanical Engineer to provide hands-on technical leadership within a design team. This role involves leading mechanical design efforts, mentoring junior engineers, and ensuring compliance with Australian Standards. You will produce detailed drawings and manage design timelines for efficiency in a fast-paced environment. The position offers a competitive salary and the opportunity to shape engineering processes within a growing company based in Newcastle.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in a manufacturing or industrial environment.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor graduate engineers and technical staff.
• Strong capability to produce and review build-ready drawings.

Responsibilities

• Lead mechanical design activities ensuring compliance with Australian Standards.
• Review and approve drawings, calculations, and specifications.
• Manage design timelines to align with production schedules.

Skills

Mechanical design capability

Mentoring junior engineers

Strong communication skills

Knowledge of Australian Standards

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent

Job description

• Hands-on technical leadership within a high-performing design team.
• Coach and guide engineers and drafters through projects.
• Build processes and drive efficiency in a fast-paced environment.

Good engineering looks one way on paper. Great engineering shows in the fabrication, assembly, and the finished product.

Step into a role where you won’t just design, you’ll lead, shape, and influence how engineering is delivered across a fast-moving manufacturing business.

ADE Power is growing due to high demand for its precision-engineered acoustic and modular enclosures, with and that growth comes complexity and a sustained pipeline of opportunity.

This role is to coach and guide your team to strengthen capability, improve delivery, and set the foundation for the next phase of growth.

You’ll sit within the Design Engineering team, working closely with production, procurement, and the workshop to ensure designs are practical, manufacturable, and delivered at speed.

You’ll need to work autonomously, make decisions confidently, and keep projects moving without over-engineering solutions.

What makes this role stand out is the opportunity to build.

Build processes, build capability, and build a high-performing engineering function that can scale with the business.

What you’ll be responsible for:

You’ll carry the technical authority for mechanical design, owning the review and approval of drawings, calculations, and specifications, and making sure what leaves engineering is workshop-ready.

Alongside the technical work, you’ll be the person that graduate engineers and draftspersons look to for feedback, development, and direction. That’s not a side responsibility; it’s a core part of why this role exists.

• Leading mechanical design activities across manufacturing, assembly, and installation, ensuring compliance with Australian Standards, safe design principles, and client specifications.
• Producing and reviewing detailed drawings, calculations, and documentation that are accurate, practical, and optimised for manufacture.
• Managing design timelines to align engineering outputs with production schedules, providing technical clarification and resolving issues quickly.
• Building standard designs, processes, and structured ways of working to improve consistency, reduce rework, and support repeatable delivery.
• Conducting design risk assessments, engineering change reviews, and root cause investigations as required.
• Providing technical input to project managers, clients, and suppliers – supporting effective decision-making across the project lifecycle.

What you’ll bring:

You’ll be a credible mechanical engineer first – someone with the design depth to lead technical decisions and the practical sense to know when a solution is good enough to build.

The mentoring dimension is just as important: if developing junior engineers doesn’t come naturally to you, this isn’t the right role.

A background in manufacturing or heavy industrial environments is essential; CPEng or progress toward it is an advantage.

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent, with 5+ years’ experience in a manufacturing or industrial environment.
• Strong mechanical design capability: able to produce and review detailed, build-ready drawings and calculations independently.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor graduate engineers and technical staff, with a genuine interest in developing others.
• Sound knowledge of Australian Standards, safe design principles, and quality management requirements.
• A practical mindset – designing for manufacture, avoiding unnecessary complexity, and resolving issues at the source.
• Strong communication skills and confidence working across engineering, production, procurement, and external stakeholders.
• CPEng or working towards registration (desirable).

What’s on offer:

ADE Power is at a point in its growth where the right Senior Mechanical Engineer will have a visible and lasting impact on how the engineering function operates.

You’ll inherit a capable graduate team that is ready to be developed, a business that genuinely values engineering quality, and enough autonomy to introduce the processes and standards you believe in.

This isn’t a role where you’ll be maintaining someone else’s system – you’ll be building the next one.

• Real influence over engineering processes, standards, and ways of working – with the backing to implement them.
• A graduate team with ability and appetite for development, ready to be coached and lifted.
• Strong growth trajectory, with the opportunity to step into broader technical or engineering leadership as the business scales.
• A hands‑on environment where your engineering decisions connect directly to what gets built.
• Competitive salary aligned to experience, with flexibility for the right individual.
• Permanent, full‑time position based on‑site at Hexham.