Senior Mechanical Design Engineer

Adaptive Careers; Glasgow; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Adaptive Careers is seeking an experienced Senior Mechanical Design Engineer to join a multidisciplinary engineering team in Glasgow. The role covers the full product development lifecycle from concept through to manufacture.

You will work across diverse projects, with emphasis on plastic design and injection moulding, while mentoring junior engineers and contributing to technical strategy.

Qualifications

• Strong experience in mechanical design and product development.
• Excellent hands-on CAD capability with SolidWorks, Creo, Inventor or NX.
• Practical knowledge of plastic component design and injection moulding.
• Experience across multiple manufacturing technologies: injection/rotational moulding, overmoulding, vacuum casting, 3D printing, casting, extrusion, machining.
• Ability to lead projects and mentor engineers across disciplines.

Responsibilities

• Lead mechanical design projects from concept to manufacture.
• Develop mechanical architectures, detailed designs, assemblies and drawings.
• Act as a mechanical design authority, providing technical leadership.
• Design with DFM/DFA principles and clear manufacturing insight.
• Collaborate with electronics, optics, software and other teams.
• Support prototyping, testing, reviews and iterative development.
• Provide technical input on manufacturing approaches and liaise with suppliers.
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers.
• Contribute to project planning and estimation.

Skills

Mechanical design

Product development

Mentoring

Project leadership

Tools

SolidWorks

Creo

Inventor

NX

Job description

Location: Glasgow, On-site Employment Type: Full-time, Permanent

We are seeking an experienced Senior Mechanical Design Engineer to join our clients multidisciplinary engineering team. This is a hands-on, technically influential role working across a diverse portfolio of innovative products in sectors such as optical systems, imaging, industrial instrumentation and electro‑mechanical technologies.

You'll work across the full product development lifecycle — from concept and detailed design through to prototyping, verification and manufacture — and play a key role in shaping mechanical design direction across multiple projects.

The Role

This position suits a rounded, versatile mechanical engineer with strong practical design capability and broad manufacturing knowledge. Projects vary significantly, so the ideal candidate will be comfortable switching between technologies, industries and engineering challenges.

A particularly important area is plastic product design and injection moulding, which is one of the most common and technically demanding manufacturing processes used across their projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead mechanical design projects from concept through to manufacture.
• Develop mechanical architectures, detailed designs, assemblies and manufacturing drawings using CAD.
• Act as a mechanical design authority, providing technical leadership across projects.
• Design products with strong DFM/DFA principles, materials knowledge and manufacturing insight.
• Collaborate closely with electronics, optics, software and other engineering disciplines.
• Support prototyping, testing, design reviews and iterative development.
• Provide technical input on manufacturing approaches and liaise with external suppliers.
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers.
• Contribute to project planning, estimating and technical problem-solving.

Experience Required

• Strong experience in mechanical design and product development.
• Excellent hands-on CAD capability (SolidWorks, Creo, Inventor, NX or similar).
• Strong understanding of manufacturing processes and Design for Manufacture.
• Practical experience with plastic component design and injection moulding is highly desirable.
• Experience across a range of manufacturing technologies:
  • Injection/rotational moulding and overmoulding
  • Vacuum casting / soft tooling
  • 3D printing
  • Casting, extrusion and metal forming
  • Machining
• Strong understanding of materials selection, tooling and manufacturing considerations.
• Comfortable working across multiple projects and multidisciplinary teams.
• Ability to provide technical leadership and mentor other engineers.
• Experience with FEA/CFD, precision engineering, medical devices, optical systems or instrumentation is advantageous.

Why Apply?

This is an opportunity to join a highly skilled company where no two projects are the same. You'll work on innovative products, influence mechanical design from concept through to manufacture and gain exposure to a wide range of technologies — all while playing a key technical role within a collaborative engineering team.

Please note that sponsorship is not available with this role, therefore, applicants must have the right to live and work in the UK