Senior Mechanical Design Engineer - SAQ

Edwards Vacuum; West of England; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Culture of trust and accountability

Lifelong learning and career growth

Innovation powered by people

Comprehensive compensation andBenefits

Health and well-being

Job summary

Edwards Vacuum is seeking a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer - SAQ to provide reactive, customer-driven mechanical support for live service issues using an 8D framework. You will lead root cause analyses, coordinate with field service teams, and drive robust dispositions and corrective actions to protect customers and maintain product performance.

You will own sustaining activities across released products, manage ECR/ECO lifecycle, and champion safety, compliance, and continuous improvement in

Qualifications

• Engineering degree (or demonstrable equivalent).
• Registered Chartered Engineer or working towards registration (desirable).
• Accreditations/qualifications in Functional Safety (desirable).
• Moderate experience in mechanical engineering and design (essential).
• Experience in regulated, compliance-driven industries (essential). incl. semiconductor equipment and related safety standards.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical delivery of sustaining mechanical engineering activities for released products and subsystems.
• Lead mechanical investigation and resolution of field and factory issues, including root-cause analysis and verification of fixes.
• Drive engineering change management (ECR/ECO) with cross-functional stakeholders to deliver updates to drawings, BOMs, and specs.
• Manage component obsolescence and supplier changes, identifying alternatives and qualified replacements.
• Champion reliability, safety and compliance governance for sustaining work and regulatory standards.
• Identify and deliver continuous improvement and cost-down opportunities (DfX).
• Coach and support junior engineers and contribute to standard work and knowledge capture.

Skills

Advanced 3D CAD

Advanced 2D CAD

Mechanical design engineering

Regulatory/compliance experience

FMEA/HAZOP knowledge

V-model / product lifecycle

Cross-functional collaboration

Problem solving

Root cause analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Master's degree in engineering

Chartered Engineer (desirable)

Tools

CAD software

Job description

Your role

As a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer - SAQ, reporting to the Team Manager - Sustaining, this role provides reactive, customer‑driven mechanical engineering support through the Single Agenda for Quality (SAQ), addressing live service issues that require rapid engineering input. The role focuses on protecting customers, restoring product functionality, and maintaining confidence in equipment already deployed in the field by responding quickly and effectively to service escalations. The role operates primarily within the 8D problem‑solving framework, undertaking urgent failure investigation and root cause analysis, defining engineering dispositions, concessions, and corrective actions, and working closely with Field Service teams to enable timely closure of actions, ensuring safe, compliant, and robust engineering solutions under time‑critical conditions.

• Own the technical delivery of sustaining mechanical engineering activities for released products and subsystems, ensuring safe, compliant, and reliable operation through the product lifecycle.
• Lead mechanical investigation and resolution of field and factory issues, including root‑cause analysis, containment, corrective and preventive actions, and verification/validation of fixes.
• Drive engineering change management (ECR/ECO), coordinating cross‑functional stakeholders (manufacturing, quality, service, supply chain, and suppliers) to deliver timely, low‑risk updates to drawings, BOMs and specifications.
• Manage component obsolescence and supplier changes, identifying alternatives, qualifying replacements, and maintaining configuration control to protect supply continuity and product performance.
• Champion reliability, safety and compliance governance for sustaining work (e.g., risk assessments, FMEA updates, design reviews), ensuring adherence to relevant regulations, directives, and standards by design.
• Identify and deliver continuous improvement and cost‑down opportunities (DfX: manufacturability, assembly, serviceability, quality), improving yield, uptime and total cost of ownership.
• Coach and support junior engineers and contribute to standard work, documentation and knowledge capture to ensure consistent, high‑quality sustaining engineering execution.

To succeed, you will need

• Engineering Degree Bachelors (minimum, essential), Masters (desirable), or demonstrable equivalent.
• Registered Chartered Engineer, or working towards and committed to achieving registration with a recognised engineering institution (desirable)
• Accreditations and or formal qualifications in Functional Safety (desirable)
• Moderate experience of mechanical engineering and design in a relatable engineering industry (essential)
• Experience and understanding of working in a regulated, compliance‑driven industry (essential) such as the semiconductor manufacturing equipment industry (desirable) incl. strong understanding of product safety and compliance to applicable standards (desirable). i.e. EN 61511; Safety and design review methods, e.g., PHA, HAZOP, LOPA, FMEA; Semiconductor industry standards – SEMI S2; Risk assessment – Semi S10.
• Experience of designing and developing products through the V curve or similar product development lifecycle (Essential)
• Experience of design for x principles (x being manufacture, cost, assembly, maintainability etc) (Essential)
• Advanced 3D and 2D CAD skills (Essential)
• Ability to focus on delivering to project milestones and timescales (Essential)
• Ability to interpret requirements and technical deliverables and translate this into robust design solutions (Essential)
• Substantial knowledge and understanding of mechanical design engineering best practice (Essential)
• A willing, helpful attitude, a calm professional manner, and the ability to assess and set priorities with the support of their direct line manager (Essential)

In return, we offer

• 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).

About Edwards

Edwards is a leading developer and manufacturer of sophisticated vacuum products, exhaust management systems and related value‑added services. Edwards solutions are integral to manufacturing processes for semiconductors, flat panel displays, LEDs and solar cells. They are also used within an increasingly diverse range of industrial processes including power, glass and other coating applications; steel and other metallurgy; pharmaceutical and chemical; and for scientific instruments in a wide range of R&D applications. Edwards has over 4,000 employees worldwide engaged in the design, manufacture and support of high technology vacuum and exhaust management equipment. Edwards has state‑of‑the‑art manufacturing facilities in Europe, Asia and North America.