Head of Engineering

Fortress Recruit are supporting a leading defence engineering business in the recruitment of a Head of Engineering, providing functional leadership across the engineering organisation and ensuring engineering capability, resource and output are aligned to programme and business requirements. Key responsibilities will include:

• Taking overall responsibility for the day-to-day leadership and performance of the engineering function
• Leading and coordinating engineering Team Leads across mechanical, electrical, electronics and systems/software disciplines
• Ensuring engineering resource is effectively aligned to live programmes, customer requirements and business priorities
• Taking ownership of engineering workload prioritisation and resource allocation across multiple concurrent programmes
• Leading the engineering function in supporting programme delivery and achievement of key milestones
• Taking a proactive approach to identifying and resolving resource, delivery and technical challenges
• Leading the development and capability building of the engineering team
• Ensuring appropriate engineering processes, controls and governance are in place and consistently applied
• Leading continuous improvement across engineering processes, ways of working and team performance
• Working closely with PMO, Operations, Production, Quality and other business functions to maintain alignment and delivery
• Acting as a key interface between Engineering, PMO and wider business functions
• Ensuring engineering best practice is applied across the function, including appropriate use of DFMA, FMEA and structured engineering governance To be successful in this role, you will have:
• Significant engineering experience, including several years in a leadership or functional management position
• Experience leading engineering teams within a complex manufacturing, defence, aerospace or similarly regulated environment
• Strong understanding across multiple engineering disciplines
• Proven experience managing engineering resource and delivering against programme delivery requirements
• Experience working through organisational change, competing priorities and resource constraints
• A structured and process-driven approach, with the ability to improve processes without creating unnecessary bureaucracy
• Strong people leadership and team development capability
• The confidence to challenge, prioritise and make decisions across competing demands
• Eligibility for SC clearance (5 years UK residency with no visa or sponsorship requirement) This is a key functional leadership role for an experienced engineering leader who can bring structure, clarity and accountability to a busy engineering organisation while ensuring the right people and capability are aligned to programme delivery. This is a full-time, permanent role based on-site in Poole with hybrid flexibility, offering a competitive salary and bonus scheme, plus further training and development opportunity. For a confidential conversation or to request the full job description, please click apply and send a full copy of your CV to Becki.