Senior Mechanical Engineer

STU STEMCELL Technologies UK Ltd.; Cambridge, Waterbeach; On-site; GBP 46,000 - 69,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Excellent benefits

Career development opportunities

Job summary

STEMCELL Technologies is seeking a Senior Mechanical Engineer to join our Instrumentation UK engineering team in Cambridge. You will lead sustaining engineering for cell-sorting instruments, drive DFM/DFA, and collaborate with optics, electronics, and manufacturing to ensure robust, scalable designs.

You will optimize manufacturing processes, manage supplier partnerships, and embed DFM principles into future instrument developments from day one.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or related field with relevant experience.
• Master's degree with 4–8 years of experience, PhD with 2–5 years of experience, or equivalent.
• Experience with ISO 13485 or regulated environments and engineering change control.
• Proficiency in SolidWorks for 3D design and drawings.
• Strong GD&T knowledge and tolerance stack-up analysis.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead mechanical sustaining engineering for current instruments and lifecycle updates; ensure changes are verified and transferred to production.
• Lead supplier evaluation, design transfer, and quality verification with specialist manufacturers.
• Collaborate with optical physicists and electronics engineers to support optical alignments, stiffness, tolerances, and thermal stability.
• Support quality initiatives in regulated environments; lead root-cause investigations and CAPA.
• Provide DFM input for future instrument developments; ensure manufacturability and cost efficiency from the start.
• Design, develop, and test precision mechanical, opto-mechanical, and electro-mechanical systems using SolidWorks.

Skills

DFM/DFX

Root-cause analysis

Thermal stability

Tolerance stack-up

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering

PhD in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

SolidWorks

Job description

Job Description Summary

As a global leader in life sciences research support, STEMCELL Technologies is looking for a Senior Mechanical Engineer to join our Instrumentation UK engineering team. In this role, you will play a pivotal part in the continuous improvement and sustaining engineering of our innovative cell-sorting instruments, working closely with Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain. Our cell-sorting instruments combine precision mechanics, optics, electronics, and microfluidics. As a Senior Mechanical Engineer, you will provide critical technical leadership in the development and design for manufacture (DFM) of complex mechanical, opto-mechanical, and electro-mechanical assemblies. You will optimize our current manufacturing and assembly processes, manage strategic partnerships with specialist suppliers, and ensure that advanced DFM principles are embedded into the architecture of future instrument developments from day one.

Job Description Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead mechanical sustaining engineering activities for current instruments, managing lifecycle design updates and continuous improvement initiatives, ensuring all changes are rigorously verified and seamlessly transferred to production and scaled appropriately.
• Scope and manage technical partnerships with specialist suppliers acting as the primary engineering lead for supplier evaluation, design transfer, and quality verification.
• Collaborate closely with internal optical physicists and electronics engineers to ensure mechanical designs seamlessly support sensitive optical alignments, vibrational stiffness, tolerance stack-ups, and thermal stability.
• Support quality initiatives within our regulated environment, leading mechanical root-cause investigations and implementing corrective and preventive actions to ensure ongoing product reliability and manufacturing excellence.
• Provide technical guidance and DFM input for future instrument developments, ensuring manufacturability, serviceability, and cost-efficiency are designed into the architecture from the start.
• Design, develop, and test precision mechanical, opto-mechanical, and electro-mechanical systems using SolidWorks.

Knowledge and Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering (or a related discipline) with 6-10 years of relevant experience, Master's degree with 4-8 years of relevant experience, or PhD with 2-5 years of relevant experience.

Strong track record of applying Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFM/DFA) principles to transition complex instrument designs into stable, scalable production with experience leading engineering risk assessments (e.g. dFMEAs).

Experience operating within a regulated environment or controlled Quality Management System (e.g. ISO 13485), with proficiency in engineering change control, root-cause investigations, and design verification.

Deep proficiency with CAD (ideally SolidWorks) for 3D mechanical design and engineering drawings.

Advanced working knowledge of dimensional tolerancing, GD&T, and tolerance stack-up analysis.

Strong technical communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to translate complex optical requirements into practical mechanical and manufacturing realities.

#LI-JS1 #LI-Onsite STEMCELL Technologies is a privately owned, Vancouver-based biotechnology company that helps power leading-edge life science research around the world. Driven by our love of science and passion for quality, we are a company of Scientists Helping Scientists - standing by our customers to provide the outstanding products, technical support, and training they need to advance their research. Scientists performing stem cell, immunology, cancer, regenerative medicine, and cellular therapy research are among those who rely on our cell culture media, cell separation products, instruments, accessory products, and services. Through our many regional offices, as well as our distribution centers in Vancouver, Seattle, Grenoble, and Singapore, we deliver our innovative, specialized products to more than 100 countries. With over 1,800 employees globally, most with scientific or engineering degrees, STEMCELL is proud to be the largest biotechnology employer in Canada. This is an opportunity to work with highly motivated colleagues in a science-oriented, creative, and dynamic environment. We offer a competitive salary, excellent benefits, and meaningful career development opportunities. STEMCELL is well recognized for exceptional leadership and business practices. We are one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies and operate an ISO 14001-certified environmental management system to measure and reduce our environmental impact. As an equal opportunity employer, STEMCELL is dedicated to ensuring that every employee feels safe, valued, and respected for who they are. We know that scientific progress and innovation occur when diverse, creative minds come together and we are committed to nurturing a culture of inclusivity and belonging. STEMCELL enforces a zero-tolerance policy for any form of discrimination. Selection decisions are solely based on job-related factors.

The annual salary for this job ranges from: £46,100.00 - £69,100.00 STEMCELL determines an individual’s pay within the range based on multiple factors including experience, education, job-related skills, and equity within the team or organization. For jobs that are eligible for sales incentives, the range noted above is inclusive of target incentives; actual incentives are based on individual performance results in accordance with company policy.

In addition to base salary, STEMCELL offers a comprehensive total rewards package that may include health benefits, retirement savings, and more (depending on region).

We all begin our lives curious about the world around us, the way it works and our place in it. To drive the field of dist