Established in 2022, Navantia UK is a subsidiary of Navantia SA, a Spanish state-owned company with over 300 years of naval shipbuilding history.

In January 2025, Navantia UK completed the acquisition of Harland & Wolff and its four historic facilities in Belfast, Appledore, Methil, and Arnish.

By combining Harland & Wolff’s proud heritage and facilities with Navantia’s global expertise, Navantia UK is well-positioned to strengthen Britain’s defence, maritime and energy industrial capabilities, supporting jobs and economic growth across the country.

Design Manager – Naval Ship Design

Shaping the Future of Naval Innovation

Navantia UK is a leading provider of innovative naval solutions, specializing in the design, construction, and lifecycle support of naval ships. As part of the global Navantia Group, we pride ourselves on delivering cutting-edge technologies and world-class services across the maritime sector. Based in Bristol, we are seeking an experienced Design Manager for Naval Ship Design to lead ship design projects and ensure the delivery of innovative, efficient, and compliant naval vessels.

This role offers an opportunity to oversee complex ship design projects, coordinate multidisciplinary teams, and ensure that design solutions meet operational, safety, and regulatory standards. The successful candidate will play a key role in shaping the future of naval ship design within our organization.

Role Overview:

We are looking for a visionary Design Manager for Naval Ship Design to lead ship design teams for allocated projects in a senior technical leadership capacity. This pivotal role will be responsible for managing the ship design process, from concept development through definition design, ensuring integration of all technical disciplines, and maintaining high standards of quality and innovation.

You will oversee the integration of key design elements such as arrangements, hydrodynamics, structural integrity, systems integration, and compliance with international and naval standards. Your leadership will ensure that design solutions are optimised for performance, cost, and operational requirements, while adhering to safety and environmental regulations.

As the Design Manager, you will coordinate multidisciplinary teams, provide technical guidance, and foster innovation in ship design. You will also liaise with stakeholders, including clients, regulatory bodies, and internal departments, to deliver high-quality, compliant naval vessels.

You may be required to act in the role of Chief Engineer for allocated ship design projects and therefore you will have experience of leading significant naval ship design projects. This role may also extend through functional and detail design phases subject to project and business requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

Reporting to the Design and Project Development Director you will lead the ship design team for allocated ship design projects, ensuring the development of innovative and compliant naval ship designs. Key aspects of this include:

Developing innovative ship designs adopting new technologies to improve capabilities, sustainability and to reduce or eliminate crew. Ensuring integration of all technical disciplines to arrive at a coherent compliant and suitably mature design solution. Coordinating with project management to meet technical milestones, budgets, and quality standards. Ensuring designs meet operational requirements, reliability, availability, safety standards, and environmental regulations. Promoting the adoption of advanced design methodologies, including PLM, digital modelling and simulation tools to improve efficiency, compliance, coherency and traceability. Collaborating with manufacturing, systems engineering, and other technical teams to ensure design feasibility and manufacturability. Implementing design to cost methodologies and cost / capability trade-off to ensure the developed design can be built within budgetary constraints. Oversee the design process, from initial concept to definition design delivery ensuring suitable maturity is reached to support contract placement, capturing assessing and managing technical risks. Develop design delivery strategy, scopes of work and project schedules aligned to client requirements and the internal needs of the business.

Maintain awareness of industry standards, regulations, and emerging technologies relevant to naval ship design. Mentor and develop engineering staff, fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. Contribute to Navantia’s innovation strategy and product development. Ensure all work is conducted in accordance with governance requirements including quality management system and design review procedures.

Qualifications

What You’ll Bring

A degree in Naval Architecture, Marine Engineering, or a related discipline.

Proven experience leading complex naval ship design projects.

Expertise in ship design principles and industry regulations.

Proficiency with digital design, CAD, and simulation tools.

Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills.

Chartered or professionally recognised status (desirable).

Additional Information

Equal Opportunity: We are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. To ensure equal opportunities for all candidates, we commit to a fair and unbiased recruitment process at every stage. This includes ensuring hiring managers are aware of legislation, providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities, and actively seeking to eliminate any form of discrimination based on , , , , , or any other protected characteristic. Our goal is to create a recruitment environment where every candidate feels valued and has an equal chance to succeed.

If you experience difficulties or are unable to apply for a role on-line please contact us at people.skills@harland-wolff.com and one of the team will be in contact to help you.

If you experience difficulties or are unable to apply for a role on-line please contact us at people.skills@harland-wolff.com and one of the team will be in contact to help you.