Mechanical Technical Engineer / Junior Design Manager

James Lewis Recruitment; Bedford; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

James Lewis Recruitment is seeking a Mechanical Technical Engineer / Junior Design Manager to support residential and commercial building services projects across London and the Home Counties. The role blends technical detail with client-facing coordination.

You will generate and manage mechanical submissions, coordinate with suppliers, and attend client meetings, driving decisions and ensuring information is issued on time.

Qualifications

• Mechanical building services experience across residential and commercial projects.
• Able to produce, review and manage mechanical submissions.
• Comfort reading mechanical drawings and coordinating with suppliers.
• Experience attending client meetings and coordinating with design teams.

Responsibilities

• Generate mechanical technical submissions and manage through review.
• Respond to client comments and issue revised information on time.
• Coordinate with suppliers on equipment queries and specs.
• Read and mark up drawings to identify coordination issues.
• Develop plant replacement strategies and maintenance schedules.
• Support design team coordination and project handover.
• Attend weekly client DTM meetings and contribute to decisions.

Skills

Mechanical background

Submissions management

Client-facing

Design coordination

Tools

AutoCAD

Revit

Bluebeam

Navisworks

Microsoft Office

SharePoint

Aconex

Asite

Job description

Mechanical Technical Engineer / Junior Design Manager

North London and Northern Home Counties| Mechanical Building Services | Permanent

£45,000 - £60,000 + package

This is a role for someone who is ready to move beyond simply producing drawings or chasing information.

You will be the person helping turn technical intent into information the project team can actually build from. Mechanical technical submissions, client comments, supplier queries, marked-up drawings, plant replacement strategies, maintenance schedules and design team coordination will all sit with you.

The role needs someone mechanically biased, organised and confident enough to sit in weekly client DTM meetings, understand what is being discussed and make sensible decisions rather than just taking notes and passing everything upwards.

You will be working across residential and commercial building services projects, supporting the technical and design management process from submission stage through to installation support. This would suit a Technical Engineer, Junior Design Manager, Mechanical Project Engineer, Mechanical Design Engineer or Technical Coordinator who wants more responsibility and more client-facing exposure.

You do not need to be a fully established Design Manager. You do need to understand mechanical building services, read drawings properly, deal with suppliers, manage comments and issue information in line with a design programme.

What you'll do

• You will generate mechanical technical submissions and manage them through the review process.
• You will respond to client comments, amend submissions where required and make sure revised information is issued clearly and on time.
• You will deal with suppliers on equipment queries, product information, technical compliance, schedules and project-specific requirements.
• You will read and mark up mechanical drawings, identifying coordination issues, installation constraints, missing information and areas that need clarification.
• You will generate plant replacement strategy documents, setting out how plant will be replaced, phased, accessed, isolated, installed and brought back into operation.
• You will produce plant maintenance schedules and support the information needed for client review, O&M documentation and handover.
• You will review AOV drawings and technical submissions, checking layouts, interfaces, compliance and coordination with the wider building services design.
• You will work with residential and commercial sprinkler systems and understand the interfaces with fire alarm systems, controls and life safety requirements.
• You will support technical coordination around wet risers, dry risers, AOVs, sprinkler systems, plant areas, risers, service routes and associated mechanical interfaces.
• You will attend weekly client DTM meetings, contribute to discussions and make decisions where technical information needs to move forward.
• You will provide installation guidance to the client's design team, including architects, acousticians and other consultants.
• You will identify priorities, chase information, close out comments and issue technical details in line with the design programme.

What you'll need

• You will need a mechanical building services background, ideally across residential, commercial, mixed-use, refurbishment, plant replacement or technical services projects.
• You should be comfortable producing, reviewing or managing mechanical technical submissions.
• You will need to be able to read and mark up mechanical drawings with enough confidence to spot issues before they become site problems.
• You should have a working understanding of plant replacement, maintenance schedules, AOVs, sprinkler systems, wet risers, dry risers and fire alarm interfaces.
• You will need to be comfortable dealing directly with suppliers and asking the right questions around equipment selection, compliance, dimensions, access, maintenance and installation requirements.
• You should be able to manage client comments, meeting actions, drawing mark-ups, revisions and technical queries without needing constant supervision.
• You will need the confidence to attend client design team meetings and speak with architects, acousticians, consultants, suppliers and internal project teams.
• A background as a Mechanical Project Engineer, Technical Engineer, Design Engineer, Technical Coordinator, Junior Design Manager or mechanically biased Building Services Engineer would all be relevant.
• AutoCAD, Revit, Bluebeam, Navisworks, Microsoft Office, SharePoint, Aconex, Asite or similar systems would be useful, but the main requirement is strong mechanical understanding and good technical coordination.

Why this role

This is a good step for someone who wants to move towards design management while staying close to the technical detail.

You will not just be sat in the background processing paperwork. You will be involved in the information that affects how the job is designed, coordinated, procured, installed, maintained and handed over.

The bigger attraction is the progression. You will be coming into a role where the pathway is visible: Technical Engineer / Junior Design Manager, then Design Manager, with a long-term route towards Operations Director as part of the company's succession planning.

For someone with a mechanical building services background who wants more client contact, more decision-making and a genuine route into senior leadership, this is a strong move.