Lead Electrical Engineer - Sustaining

Edwards Vacuum; Bristol; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Culture of trust and accountability

Lifelong learning and career growth

Comprehensive compensation and benefits

Health and well-being

Job summary

Edwards Vacuum is looking for a Lead Electrical Engineer - Sustaining in Bristol. This role provides strategic technical leadership across Sustaining Engineering, ensuring high-quality technical outputs and adherence to engineering standards. Key responsibilities include design reviews, mentoring engineers, and driving innovative engineering practices. The position offers a hybrid working arrangement, allowing flexibility in your work environment while ensuring project goals are met. Candidates should possess a relevant degree, significant experience in sustaining engineering, and strong problem-solving skills.

Qualifications

• Educated to Degree level or equivalent experience in a relevant Engineering/Science discipline.
• Formal training in problem solving/root cause analysis or equivalent practical experience.
• Significant experience in sustaining engineering/product lifecycle support.
• Proven ability to work across multiple engineering disciplines.

Responsibilities

• Chair and assure design reviews related to sustaining projects.
• Mentor and coach a team of Electrical Engineers.
• Drive safe, compliant, and serviceable design solutions.
• Advocate and lead the adoption of best practices in electrical engineering.

Skills

Problem solving

Analytical skills

Electrical engineering

Influencing skills

Education

Degree in Engineering/Science discipline

Job description

Your role

As a Lead Electrical Engineer - Sustaining, reporting to the Technical Programme Manager, the Lead Electrical Engineer provides strategic technical leadership across the Sustaining Engineering function, supporting both Product Company Clevedon and the Service Division. The role ensures consistent application of engineering standards, robust design governance, and high-quality technical outputs across sustaining programmes. Working across factory support, obsolescence management, and field upgrade initiatives, the role drives safe, compliant, and serviceable design solutions that protect in-service performance and customer value. Key responsibilities include chairing and assuring design reviews, setting and maintaining electrical engineering approaches for sustaining projects, and ensuring solutions are aligned and repeatable across the sustaining portfolio.

• Work at the core of our engineering and product development teams using engineering tools and methods to bring clarity from ambiguity and deliver products that meet Requirements, Standards, Directives, and are cost effective.
• Work collaboratively with and effectively influence our engineering teams to ensure clarity of work packages, deliverables, and resolve engineering issues through determining the best solution.
• Be accountable for the technical elements of the product system and/or subsystem design, as assigned, identifying risks, control and mitigation actions, escalating issues when necessary for higher‑level resolution.
• Ensure modularity and standardisation is incorporated to maximise reuse of our engineering effort.
• Be accountable for safety and type testing of any system or subsystem you are responsible for, verifying and validating its compliance; reviewing and approving reports generated in this area, by the team.
• Mentor and coach a growing core team of Electrical Engineers of all levels of expertise to continue their development towards being a Lead Electrical Engineer themselves.
• Advocate and lead the adoption of best‑practice electrical engineering and new technologies (working with other teams in new and core technology development) across applicable projects to improve the delivery of engineering.

To succeed, you will need

• Educated to Degree level (or equivalent experience) in a relevant Engineering/Science discipline (Essential).
• Formal training in problem solving / root cause analysis (e.g., 8D, Kepner‑Tregoe, Six Sigma) or equivalent practical experience (Desirable).
• Significant experience in sustaining engineering / product lifecycle support, including investigation of field issues and delivery of corrective actions through engineering change (Essential).
• Proven ability to work across multiple engineering disciplines and stakeholders, influencing technical decisions without direct authority (Essential).
• Experience applying structured problem solving, risk assessment, and verification thinking to resolve complex technical issues (Essential).
• Deep technical competence in one or more relevant engineering disciplines with the ability to rapidly understand adjacent domains (Essential).
• Excellent problem solving and analytical skills; able to use data to drive to root cause and define pragmatic corrective actions (Essential).
• Strong understanding of engineering change, configuration control, and technical documentation practices (Essential).
• Ability to plan and execute verification activities (test, analysis) and assess risk using appropriate methods (e.g., FMEA) (Essential).
• Excellent influencing skills and the ability to communicate complex technical topics clearly to mixed audiences (Essential).

In return

• Culture of trust and accountability
• Lifelong learning and career growth
• Innovation powered by people
• Comprehensive compensation and benefits
• Health and well‑being

Job location

This role offers a hybrid working arrangement, allowing you to split your time between working remotely and being on‑site at our office in Bristol, United Kingdom (GB).