Design Engineering Manager

Collins Aerospace; Havant; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

25 days annual leave

Pension scheme

Private medical insurance

Health & wellbeing cash plan

Life assurance

Professional development

Job summary

Collins Aerospace in Havant, United Kingdom, is seeking a Design Engineering Manager to lead the Design Engineering function for aircraft interior lighting and switching products. This onsite role reports to the Chief Design Engineer and collaborates with Senior Product Engineers and the PMO to ensure delivery is aligned with program schedules.

You will manage a team of Design Engineers, govern design processes, and control configuration data within PLM/PDM systems, ensuring KPI visibility and

Qualifications

• Degree qualified in Engineering or related discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Proven design engineering experience in aerospace or regulated environments.
• Experience leading engineering teams and delivering development programmes.
• Strong knowledge of design processes, governance and configuration management.
• Ability to plan, allocate resources and manage engineering deliverables.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Design Engineering team across multiple programmes.
• Govern design processes, standards and governance, ensuring lifecycle compliance.
• Control configuration management and data in PLM/PDM systems.
• Report performance metrics and establish data capture methods.
• Identify and implement improvements to engineering efficiency and standards.
• Coordinate with Chief Design Engineer, Senior Engineers and PMO to ensure aligned delivery.

Skills

Design engineering

Leadership

Project delivery

Aerospace experience

Stakeholder management

Process governance

Education

Engineering degree

Tools

PLM/PDM systems

Job description

Date Posted: 2026-10-21

Country: United Kingdom

Location: Havant, Hampshire

Position Role Type: Onsite

At RTX, the world's largest aerospace and defence company, 185,000 great minds are united by purpose and inspired to make a difference solving the world’s most complex problems. With our three market leading businesses, world-class operations and investments in research and development, we offer capabilities and opportunity no one else can. Together, we push the boundaries of known science and find new ways to connect and protect our world.

Collins Aerospace is a leader in technologically advanced, intelligent solutions that help redefine the aerospace and defence industry. With a comprehensive portfolio and deep technical expertise, we help customers meet the demands of the global market. Join us and help shape the future of aerospace and defence.

We are seeking to recruit a Design Engineering Manager to be based at our facility in Havant. This is an onsite role with the standard working hours as follows:

08:00 to 16:45 Monday to Thursday and 08:00 to 12:30 on Friday.

Role Overview

The Design Engineering Manager provides leadership of the Design Engineering function, managing the planning, coordination and delivery of design activities across a portfolio of aircraft interior lighting and switching products.

The role is responsible for the effective organisation and execution of design engineering activities across multiple concurrent development and support programmes, ensuring engineering resources are appropriately allocated and engineering deliverables are aligned with program schedules.

The position will control adherence to the design engineering process and monitor KPIs on performance of process adherence. Including design milestones, change management and configuration management sub-processes.

Working closely alongside the Chief Design Engineer, Senior Product Engineers and Programme Management Office (PMO), the Design Engineering Manager ensures engineering activities are planned, visible and executed efficiently, with risks identified and escalated appropriately.

The Chief Design Engineer and Senior Product Engineer’s retain technical authority and design approval responsibility. The Design Engineering Manager is responsible for operational coordination, engineering delivery execution and engineering resource management.

What You Will Do

Design Engineering Leadership

• Line management and development of the Design Engineering team, including Design Engineers, Senior Design Engineers and Product Support Engineers.
• Management of engineering activities supporting development, production and aftermarket driven design changes.
• Promoting a collaborative, accountable and high-performing engineering culture.
• Managing engineering capacity, resource allocation and executing to priorities.
• Monitoring engineering progress, utilisation and delivery performance against programme schedules and budgets.
• Identifying and managing engineering delivery risks, resource conflicts and schedule pressures.

Design Systems, Governance & Configuration Control

• Assurance of compliance to Design processes, standards and governance.
• Ensuring compliance with engineering development lifecycle requirements and internal procedures.
• Process control implementation to ensure effective configuration management and control of engineering data within PLM/PDM systems.
• Reporting of performance metrics and building data capture methods.

Continuous Improvement

• Identifying and implementing improvements to engineering processes, coordination and delivery efficiency.
• Supporting development of engineering standards, templates and best practices.
• Supporting the execution of improvement projects within the Design discipline.

Qualifications / Experience You Must Have

• Degree qualified in Engineering, Management or a related technical discipline, or equivalent industry experience.
• Proven experience within a Design Engineering environment.
• Experience in Design Engineering for aerospace or a similarly regulated engineering environment.
• Experience leading or managing engineering teams.
• Demonstrated experience delivering product development programmes.
• Experience of supportive team leadership and leading personal development.
• Strong understanding of engineering design processes, governance and configuration management.
• Experience managing engineering deliverables within a structured product development lifecycle.
• Demonstrated capability in engineering planning, workload management and resource allocation.
• Strong organisational, communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Structured, process-oriented approach to engineering delivery and operational execution.

Qualifications / Experience We Prefer

• Aircraft interiors, cabin systems or aerospace electrical/electronic products.
• Aerospace certification environments and design assurance processes.
• Engineering process improvement and organisational development initiatives.
• Multidisciplinary engineering environments including mechanical, electrical, electronics and software engineering.
• Production support, aftermarket engineering or product lifecycle support activities.
• APQP or equivalent design assurance and development systems.

What we offer

People are core to what we do.

As such, we are committed to providing an industry leading benefits package. We offer a highly competitive salary, annual bonus, and many other benefits to include:

• Competitive Compensation Package
• 25 days Annual Leave + Public Holidays + option to buy / sell up to 5 days per year
• Generous Employer Contribution Pension Scheme with 2:1 matched contributions up to 10%
• Private Medical Insurance
• Health & Wellbeing Cash Plan - (dental/optical/therapy/chiropody/health screening)
• Life Assurance & Group Income protection scheme participation
• Professional Development & Growth
• Support with professional fees
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Employee Discounts & Flexible Benefits Platform
• Employee Recognition & Referral Bonuses
• and much more!

Please ensure the role type defined below is appropriate for your needs before applying to this role. This position is classified as:

Onsite: Employees who are working in Onsite roles will work primarily onsite. This includes all production and maintenance employees, as they are essential to the development of our products.

Candidates will learn more about role type and current site status throughout the recruiting process. For onsite and hybrid roles, commuting to and from the assigned site is the employee’s personal responsibility.

RTX adheres to the principles of equal employment. All qualified applications will be given careful consideration without regard to ethnicity, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

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