Design Engineering Manager

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

Benefits offered by this job

25 days annual leave

Pension 2:1 up to 10%

Private Medical Insurance

Life Assurance

EAP

Employee Discounts

Professional Development

Bonus

Job summary

RTX Corporation in Havant is seeking a Design Engineering Manager to lead the Design Engineering function onsite. You will coordinate design activities across aircraft interior lighting and switching products, ensuring delivery aligns with schedules and budgets.

Under the Chief Design Engineer, you will manage resources, oversee change and configuration management, and drive continuous improvement in design delivery within a regulated aerospace setting.

Qualifications

• Degree or equivalent experience in engineering/technical discipline.
• Proven design engineering experience in aerospace or regulated environments.
• Experience leading engineering teams and delivering development programmes.
• Strong governance, configuration management and process discipline.

Responsibilities

• Line management and development of the Design Engineering team.
• Coordinate engineering activities across development, production and aftermarket changes.
• Ensure compliance with design processes, governance and lifecycle requirements.
• Identify and drive continuous improvement in engineering delivery.

Skills

Engineering degree

Management experience

Design engineering experience

Aerospace / regulated environment

Leadership of engineering teams

Product development delivery

Planning & resource allocation

Stakeholder management

Process governance & configuration mgm

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!

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.

Privacy Policy and Terms:

RTX is an aerospace and defense company that provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military and government customers worldwide. It comprises three industry-leading businesses – Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon. Its 195,000 employees enable the company to operate at the edge of known science as they imagine and deliver solutions that push the boundaries in quantum physics, electric propulsion, directed energy, hypersonics, avionics and cybersecurity. The company, formed in 2020 through the combination of Raytheon Company and the United Technologies Corporation aerospace businesses, is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.