Interim Chief Engineer: Technical Authority Leader

Morgan Ryder; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Morgan Ryder Associates is seeking an Interim Chief Engineer in the Defence & Complex Engineering sector in the South West. The role provides technical authority, design leadership and strategic direction across complex, safety-critical products and customer programmes.

You will lead engineering teams, own the design authority, and drive governance to ensure delivery across the full product lifecycle while maintaining safety and regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• Proven experience as Technical Authority or Design Authority for complex engineered products.
• Extensive experience across the full product lifecycle in defence or safety-critical environments.
• Strong systems engineering, verification, validation, and qualification knowledge.
• Experience leading large multi-disciplinary engineering teams.
• Ability to engage senior customers and programme leadership with credibility.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical direction and leadership to Engineering Leads and multi-disciplinary teams.
• Act as Technical Authority / Design Authority for complex engineered products and systems.
• Ensure that technical delivery is coherent, governed and aligned with cost, quality, schedule, safety and performance requirements.
• Lead the technical roadmap, architecture and design approach across assigned products and programmes.
• Own technical baseline integrity, configuration control, design authority decisions and lifecycle evidence.
• Provide technical leadership through bid, development, qualification, production, customer acceptance and in-service support.
• Lead technical risk, obsolescence and in-service engineering issues with mitigation plans.
• Ensure compliance with customer requirements, regulatory obligations, and defence standards.
• Provide senior technical input to customers, programme stakeholders and leadership teams.
• Support bids and business development with credible technical expertise.
• Provide technical support to quality, manufacturing, supply chain and support functions.

Skills

Technical leadership

Systems engineering

Regulatory & safety standards

Stakeholder engagement

Decision making in complex programmes

Education

STEM degree

Chartered Engineer (or equivalent)

Job description

Morgan Ryder Associates is seeking an Interim Chief Engineer in the Defence & Complex Engineering sector in the South West. The role provides technical authority, design leadership and strategic direction across complex, safety-critical products and customer programmes.

You will lead engineering teams, own the design authority, and drive governance to ensure delivery across the full product lifecycle while maintaining safety and regulatory compliance.