Product Engineering Manager

CamWebDir; Cambridge; Remote; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

HUBER+SUHNER Polatis in Cambridge seeks a Product Engineering Manager to lead the Product and Systems Engineering function, owning products from concept through production and lifecycle support.

You will establish clear technical ownership, oversee architecture decisions across optical, electronic, software and FPGA domains, and drive design for manufacture and risk management to meet roadmap commitments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a STEM subject is required.
• Chartered Engineer status is desirable or required.
• Experience leading product/systems engineering teams.
• Proven track record across the full product lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Product and Systems Engineering function.
• Establish clear technical ownership from concept to production and lifecycle support.
• Drive system-level design across optical, electronic, and software domains.
• Oversee requirements, architecture reviews and release readiness.

Skills

Technical leadership

Team management

Product lifecycle

Agile & Lean

Education

Bachelor's degree in STEM

Chartered Engineer

Job description

The Product Engineering Manager leads and develops the Product Engineering team, ensuring clear technical ownership of products from concept through production and lifecycle support in accordance with the Huber+Suhner Product Evolution Process.

Main tasks and duties

• Lead and develop the Product and Systems Engineering function, maintaining the capability, capacity, technical standards and specialist knowledge required to support the OCS product roadmap.
• Establish clear technical ownership for every product from concept through development, industrialisation, production release, deployment and lifecycle support.
• Ensure optical, opto-mechanical, electronic, embedded software, application software, FPGA/DSP, test and manufacturing requirements are integrated into a coherent product design.
• Chair or nominate appropriate technical leadership for requirements, architecture, design, integration, verification, validation, qualification and release-readiness reviews.
• Lead system-level technical decisions and trade-offs covering optical performance, switching reliability, control accuracy, latency, scalability, availability, manufacturability, serviceability, cost and technical risk.
• Ensure integration, verification, validation and qualification strategies are defined early, adequately resourced and completed with objective evidence against approved requirements.
• Ensure products are designed for manufacture, assembly, test, calibration, reliability, maintainability, serviceability and deployment from the earliest development stages.
• Partner with Process Engineering, Operations, Quality and Supply Chain to achieve controlled transfer into manufacture, stable production yield, effective component traceability and closure of manufacturing-readiness risks.
• Own the engineering response to significant product failures and systemic field or production issues, ensuring rigorous root-cause analysis, containment, corrective action and prevention.
• Use field, reliability, manufacturing, test and customer data to identify product risks, drive continuous improvement and inform future product architecture and roadmap decisions.
• Ensure product risks are managed through appropriate methods including technical risk registers, design reviews, DFMEA/PFMEA inputs, reliability analysis and qualification evidence.
• Provide authoritative technical input to Product Management and Project Management on product feasibility, scope, dependencies, technical risk, resource requirements and roadmap options.
• Represent Product Engineering in customer, supplier and cross-functional technical discussions, ensuring commitments are technically credible and formally controlled.
• Maintain appropriate product documentation, design history, technical decisions, lessons learned and reusable platform knowledge throughout the product lifecycle.
• Ensure compliance with applicable company processes, customer obligations, product standards, regulatory requirements and quality-management controls.

Authorisation limits

• Approve Product and Systems Engineering deliverables within the delegated technical authority and applicable company governance.
• Approve requirements and architecture baselines, technical review outcomes, verification evidence and engineering release recommendations within the role’s assigned authority.
• Allocate Product and Systems Engineering resources within agreed organisational priorities and approved headcount.
• Stop or withhold technical approval where product safety, compliance, reliability, quality, manufacturability or requirement fulfilment has not been adequately demonstrated.
• Escalate decisions involving material changes to approved scope, cost, schedule, product strategy, customer commitments or business risk to the Head of Engineering and relevant accountable owner.
• Exercise financial authority only within the company’s approved delegation-of-authority limits.

Deputy functions

• Nominate a suitably competent senior Product or Systems Engineer to act for routine operational and technical matters during absence.
• The Head of Engineering retains accountability for material people, budget, product-release and high-risk technical decisions when the Product Engineering Manager is unavailable.

Your profile

Essential

• Minimum bachelor’s degree in an STEM subject
• 7+ years’ experience as a product or systems engineer
• 3+ years in a technical leadership role
• Experience with all aspects of the product development lifecycle
• Committed to quality and on-time delivery
• Chartered Engineer
• Experienced managing teams
• Experience in the successful development and transfer to manufacturing of new products, manufacturing process, software, materials and test strategies for high-reliability products in a fast changing customer driven environment.
• An understanding of one or more of systems, software, electronics, mechanical or production engineering would be an advantage.
• Experience in Agile and Lean methods

Why HUBER+SUHNER Polatis?

Our aim is to be the employer of choice and as such you can be assured of a market leading remuneration package that matches your skills and experience.

Your employment and development is at the heart of our "Fundamentals".

We have an entrepreneurial and collaborative culture within the business.

Listing found on hubersuhner.com via Cambridge Network.