Senior Mechanical Engineer

Unicorn Biotechnologies Ltd.; Sheffield; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension with SIPP

Team pastries

Monthly all-hands lunches

Conference attendance

Professional development

Job summary

Unicorn Biotechnologies Ltd. in Sheffield is seeking a senior mechanical engineer to own the full lifecycle of product design, prototyping, and release to manufacture. You will report to the principal engineer and balance hands-on design, project delivery, and mentoring of team members.

We value rigour, complete documentation, and a disciplined approach to design reviews. The role involves close collaboration with suppliers to build field-ready systems for real-world applications.

Qualifications

• Proven track record delivering electromechanical products that work in real-world conditions.
• Deep CAD proficiency, Onshape preferred; SolidWorks acceptable.
• Experience in design for manufacture and assembly; tolerance stacks & materials understood.
• Experience leading or managing engineering projects with timely delivery.

Responsibilities

• Lead mechanical design projects from concept to release to manufacture.
• Own design-for-manufacture and design-for-assembly decisions for reliability and cost.
• Manage project timelines, deliverables, and priorities with the principal engineer.
• Collaborate with suppliers and manufacturers to resolve issues and drive improvement.
• Contribute to design reviews, risk assessments, and technical documentation.

Skills

CAD proficiency

Onshape experience

Design for manufacture

Project management

Strong communication

Documentation & version control

Rapid shop-floor prototyping

GMP/ISO familiarity

Tools

Onshape

SolidWorks

CNC

Job description

Anticipated start date: As soon as possible

Salary Band: £50k - £60k (depending on experience)

Full Time, Sheffield, UK (Onsite)

Do you want to utilise your skills to help cure cancer and make a real-world impact?

AI Science and Autonomous Labs are buzzwords; we're building the actual robotics and software tooling to enable scientists to design, execute and analyse experiments without human intervention.

We seek a mechanical engineer who's been through the full product lifecycle more than once; someone who knows what good looks like because they've learned the hard way what bad looks like. You'll be a person our principal engineer can delegate projects to with confidence, knowing they'll come back done properly.

This isn't a role where you'll be handed a specification and left alone with CAD. You'll be deeply involved in decisions about how we build, how we manufacture, and how we ship products that work in the field. If you've spent your career building things that actually had to perform under real-world constraints, and you're ready to bring that experience to a team building something genuinely new, we'd like to talk.

WE VALUE

• A bias for action to build products with customer value.
• Engineers who care about what they build, not just how.
• Clear thinking, pragmatism, and sound judgment over buzzwords.
• Friendly, organised, efficient, and enthusiastic people with a can-do attitude.
• People who take responsibility and follow problems through.
• Low-ego individuals who love asking questions & go above and beyond to help the team succeed.

THE ROLE

You'll report to our principal engineer and work across our mechanical engineering function. Day-to-day, you'll split your time between hands‑on design work, managing engineering projects through to delivery, and mentoring team members.

A big part of this role is raising the bar. We need someone who brings rigour, proper documentation, clean CAD practices, structured design reviews, and an instinct for catching problems before they become expensive. You'll help us build the engineering discipline that lets a small team deliver products at a level our customers expect.

Key Responsibilities:

• Leading mechanical design projects from concept through detailed design, prototyping, and release to manufacture.
• Owning design-for-manufacture and design-for-assembly decisions, making sure what we design can actually be built reliably and cost-effectively.
• Managing engineering project timelines, deliverables, and priorities in coordination with the principal engineer.
• Working with suppliers and manufacturing partners to resolve production issues and drive continuous improvement.
• Contributing to design reviews, risk assessments, and technical documentation.

NEED TO HAVE

• A strong track record of delivering manufactured physical products and electromechanical systems that work in the real world.
• Deep proficiency in CAD (we use Onshape; proficiency in SolidWorks or similar is fine).
• Proven experience with design for manufacture and assembly: you understand tolerance stacks, materials, joining methods, and what makes something manufacturable.
• Experience managing or leading engineering projects: scoping work, tracking progress, and delivering on time.
• Strong communication skills: you can explain your design decisions clearly and push back constructively when something isn't right.
• A methodical approach to documentation, version control, and engineering rigour.
• Experience with, and willingness to do, rapid prototyping on the shop floor using hand tools, additive manufacturing, CNC, etc.

NICE TO HAVE

• Familiarity with GMP, ISO, and regulated manufacturing environments.
• Experience with FEA, CFD, or other simulation tools.
• Exposure to sheet metal, machining, injection moulding, and/or additive manufacturing processes.

While we consider applicants from any relevant background, you will likely have 7-10+ years of prior professional experience.

BENEFITS

• A senior role with genuine influence: you won't be a cog in a machine; you'll be shaping the next generation of our product family.
• The opportunity to work on real systems with real-world impact; you will have direct access to the scientists using the equipment you design to discover and manufacture new medicines.
• Pension with SIPP options and support managing your investments if you want it.
• Weekly team pastries and monthly all-hands lunches.
• Conference attendance and professional development support.
• A culture that values autonomy, responsibility, and thoughtful work.
• Based in Sheffield, the UK's greenest city, on the doorstep of the Peak District, <15 minutes from our purpose-built R&D and manufacturing facility.

ABOUT US

Unicorn Biotechnologies is building the infrastructure for autonomous cell biology. We combine robotics, biology, and software into powerful, easy-to-use platforms that let scientists and manufacturers standardise, scale, and automate their workflows, from bench to factory floor. We're a Sheffield-based team with deep R&D foundations, now scaling to meet growing demand from our global customer base. You'll have real ownership over your work, genuine influence on product direction, and the chance to shape a company at a scale-up inflection point.

Unicorn Biotechnologies is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing a working environment that embraces inclusion and diversity.