Senior Mechanical Engineer

Overview

In this role you own mechanical design for avionics and payload installations within a fast-paced aerospace & defence program. You will take hardware from concept through qualification to production, collaborating with cross-functional teams to address thermal, electrical and environmental challenges. You’ll shape reliable, flight-ready solutions and see tangible impact as designs move quickly from CAD to airborne hardware. This position offers ownership, breadth across disciplines, and hands-on problem solving in a growing program.

Pay / Benefits

• discretionary annual bonus
• Pension contribution up to 10%
• 25 days holiday + Bank Holidays
• Private Medical Insurance and wellbeing support
• Flexible hybrid working from Bristol
• Opportunities for national and international travel

Responsibilities

• Design avionics and payload installations and airframe components in SolidWorks
• Own models, drawings and design packs through the lifecycle
• Develop thermal management solutions for high-power electronics (heatsinks, ducting, fans, interface materials)
• Plan installations with harness routing, grounding and serviceability considerations
• Design sealing and environmental protection for maritime/extreme conditions
• Support qualification testing across vibration, shock, temperature, humidity, salt exposure
• Coordinate mechanical interfaces with electrical, systems and aerodynamics teams
• Collaborate with suppliers and manufacturing on machining, additive manufacturing and composites
• Support design reviews and generate analysis and test documentation
• Provide guidance to engineers earlier in their careers

Key requirements

• Degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering
• mechanical design experience in aerospace/defence or similar demanding environment
• Experience taking hardware through environmental qualification and testing
• Experience with low-to-medium volume manufacturing including machining, additive manufacturing and/or composites
• Ability to use structural or thermal FEA/CFD for initial analysis
• Strong SolidWorks and engineering drawing experience; GD&T knowledge beneficial
• Interest in working across mechanical, thermal and electrical interfaces
• Practical engineering approach with hand-calculation and sanity checks before simulation
• Ability to make decisions and deliver under changing priorities and tight timescales

• Cross-functional collaboration
• Decision-making under pressure
• Strong communication and mentorship
• SolidWorks
• Engineering drawing and GD&T
• FEA/CFD (structural/thermal)

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