Position: Hardware Engineering Manager

Location: South Yorkshire, with travel to third parties as required

Salary: £55-65K DOE

Nicholas Associates has an excellent opportunity for a Hardware Engineering Manager, to join an established & progressive client in the South Yorkshire area. This is an exciting opportunity to make a significant impact on the delivery, technical quality & engineering integrity of hardware development.

The Hardware Engineering Manager will provide strong technical and people leadership, ensuring the team has clear priorities, realistic commitments and the capability and resources required to deliver the Product and Technology Roadmaps.

The role is responsible for driving hardware projects from concept through design, verification, compliance and production readiness; identifying and resolving technical or delivery risks early; and continuously improving engineering methods, tools and processes. Working closely with Product Management, Programme Management, Software/Firmware, QA, Manufacturing and Supply Chain, the role will ensure the company develops reliable, manufacturable and commercially appropriate products at pace.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Delivery and accountability

• Own delivery performance of the Hardware Engineering team against agreed milestones
• Establish clear ownership and deliverables and manage the team to be accountable for their commitments
• Identify technical and delivery risks early and take action to mitigate
• Work with programme and project management to ensure estimates and progress are managed and evidence based
• Drive work packages towards completion

Technical leadership

• Provide technical leadership and direction
• Lead and challenge technical decisions ensuring solutions balance performance, cost, time to market, compliance and manufacturability
• Lead HW design reviews, ensuring appropriate documentation and risk analysis
• Maintain engineering standards and technical documentation practices
• Remain hands on to support troubleshooting and resolution of complex challenge
• Verification and production readiness
• Ensure designs are robust and manufacturable (DFM)
• Work closely with QA and Production/Supply Chain to investigate and resolve quality issues

People

• Lead coach and develop the hardware team, setting clear expectations for performance
• Conduct regular performance reviews
• Create a culture that values ownership, pace and continuous improvement and delivery

Commerciality

• Ensure decisions are informed by deep customer and market knowledge
• Work with Product Management to understand the problem being solved
• Balance cost, engineering excellence, investment, and time to market.
• Engage with other departments (Technical Support, QA and customers) to understand real-world performance and identify areas for improvement

Cross-functional leadership

• Work well in the R&D leadership team with Embedded Software, System Engineering, Validation, Programme and Project Management and Product Management
• Resolve dependencies quickly
• Communicate issues, risks and recommendations early to technical and non-technical stakeholders

KEY SKILLS / EXPERIENCE

• Degree in Electronic/Electrical Engineering or related discipline
• Strong background in electronic hardware development
• Circuit/PCB design experience including analogue and digital circuitry, MCU based products and power supplies.
• Engineering leadership experience in delivery against project commitments
• Product development and lifecycle experience
• Technical communication
• Troubleshooting and excellent hands-on problem-solving skills
• Strong project management abilities with strong planning and prioritisation capability
• Have an excellent work ethic and be self-motivated.