Senior Mechanical Design Engineer

Delve Search - Global Search Consultants; Leicester; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Delve Search - Global Search Consultants in the UK is seeking a Senior Mechanical Engineer to join its Custom Projects Team, focusing on bespoke, customer-driven engineering for high-precision instruments.

Take projects from concept through design, validation, manufacture and implementation within six-month development cycles, working closely with customers, manufacturing and R&D to balance creativity with engineering rigour.

Qualifications

• Mechanical engineering degree or equivalent experience.
• Proven track record in mechanical product development.
• Experience designing precision mechanisms.
• Strong 3D CAD capability.
• Knowledge of manufacturing methods and materials.
• Excellent practical problem solving.

Responsibilities

• Design bespoke mechanical solutions meeting customer requirements.
• Modify and develop existing high-precision products for new applications.
• Take ownership of projects from concept to implementation.
• Create innovative design concepts and evaluate multiple approaches.
• Perform engineering calculations, tolerance analysis, and FEA where required.
• Collaborate with manufacturing to ensure producible designs.
• Support testing, validation, and product introduction activities.
• Lead technical reviews and contribute to engineering best practice.
• Collaborate with customers to understand application requirements and performance expectations.

Skills

3D CAD

Problem solving

Project ownership

Customer-focused

Education

Mechanical Engineering degree

Tools

FEA

CAD software

Job description

A highly respected engineering and technology business is seeking a Senior Mechanical Engineer to join its Custom Projects Team.

This is not a traditional product maintenance or incremental design role.

Instead, you'll work on customer-driven engineering projects, developing bespoke solutions and modifications to sophisticated precision instruments for some of the world's most technically demanding applications.

Every project is different. Every challenge is unique.

We're looking for an engineer who enjoys taking ownership of a problem, developing a creative solution, and delivering it right first time.

The Opportunity

You'll be responsible for transforming customer requirements into practical, high-performance engineering solutions, typically delivering projects within development cycles of approximately six months.

Working closely with customers, commercial teams, manufacturing, and R&D colleagues, you'll take projects from concept through design, validation, manufacture, and implementation.

Success in this role comes from balancing creativity, engineering rigour, and commercial urgency.

If you enjoy solving complex engineering problems rather than repeatedly refining existing products, this role offers an exceptional level of variety and technical challenge.

What You'll Be Doing

• Designing bespoke mechanical solutions to meet specific customer requirements.
• Modifying and developing existing high-precision products for new applications.
• Taking ownership of projects from concept through to implementation.
• Creating innovative design concepts and evaluating multiple technical approaches.
• Performing engineering calculations, tolerance analysis, and FEA where required.
• Working closely with manufacturing teams to ensure designs can be delivered efficiently.
• Supporting testing, validation, and product introduction activities.
• Leading technical reviews and contributing to engineering best practice.
• Collaborating with customers to fully understand application requirements and performance expectations.

What We're Looking For

You are likely to be an engineer who enjoys the challenge of developing something new rather than maintaining existing designs.

You will ideally have:

• A Mechanical Engineering degree or equivalent experience.
• A proven track record in mechanical product development.
• Experience designing precision mechanisms or engineered assemblies.
• Strong 3D CAD capability.
• Knowledge of manufacturing methods, materials, and assembly processes.
• Excellent practical problem-solving skills.
• The ability to balance innovation with delivering solutions within demanding timescales.

Experience in precision engineering, instrumentation, machine tools, optics, automation, scientific equipment, aerospace, or other highly engineered products would be advantageous but is not essential.

The Type of Engineer Who Thrives Here

• Enjoys solving customer-specific engineering challenges.
• Thinks creatively when standard solutions won't work.
• Has a strong "right first time" mentality.
• Takes ownership rather than waiting for direction.
• Likes seeing concepts become reality quickly.
• Enjoys working at the interface of R&D, manufacturing, and customers.
• Motivated by technical achievement rather than people management.

Why Join?

• Highly varied project work with no two projects the same.
• Opportunity to work on world-class precision engineering products.
• Significant technical autonomy and ownership.
• Fast-moving development environment where good ideas become reality.
• Work on genuinely challenging engineering problems for global customers.
• Clear progression opportunities for ambitious engineers.

This opportunity would suit an experienced Mechanical Design Engineer, Senior Mechanical Engineer, Product Development Engineer, R&D Engineer, Precision Engineer, or Innovation Engineer looking for a role where creativity, technical excellence, and customer-focused problem solving are valued equally.