Our client is a well-established, market-leading engineering company with over 56 years of experience designing, manufacturing and installing control solutions across the UK and Europe.

With offices in Hertford and extensive manufacturing facilities in Thetford, they pride ourselves on delivering consistently high standards of service and technical excellence. As a family-owned business, they also recognise that our people are central to our continued success and growth.

The Opportunity

They have an excellent opportunity for an experienced Design Manager from a similar or larger organisation who is looking to use their expertise to shape, lead and improve design operations within a growing business.

Reporting directly to the Head of Projects, you will lead two drawing offices:

• Hertford - front-end and concept design
• Thetford - fabrication and manufacturing design

You will split your time between both sites, providing strong leadership, improving processes and ensuring high-quality right-first-time design output.

You will be a confident, hands-on Design Manager with strong leadership skills and a practical engineering background.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Hertford and Thetford drawing offices (currently 9 team members)
• Streamline processes between both offices, including the introduction and implementation of 3D CAD software
• Work closely with production teams to improve efficiency and manufacturability
• Establish, maintain and enforce high standards of drawing practice
• Implement and manage a robust drawing checking and approval system
• Build and maintain a comprehensive library of standard design details
• Plan, allocate, and manage drawing workloads to meet customer and internal deadlines
• Facilitate lessons-learned reviews to drive continuous improvement
• Organise and lead design review meetings with internal and external stakeholders
• Liaise closely with directors, senior leadership, customers and third parties to ensure designs meet acoustic performance, commercial requirements, health & safety standards, quality and installability and statutory and regulatory requirements
• Provide full people leadership, including performance reviews and 1-to-1's, recruitment and onboarding, training and development, and discipline and goal setting
• Produce and report monthly KPI's to the Head of Projects

Experience

• Engineering experience in sheet metal xbpsjku fabrication
• Experience designing products for the construction industry
• Proficient in AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor or Solidworks
• Experience producing 2D drawings and co-ordinating designs with customers and third parties
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Desirable Experience

• Experience using Autodesk Revit and RADAN 30
• Experience conducting dimensional site surveys
• Experience working with an ISO9001- accredited business

What They Offer

• Company laptop and mobile phone
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays (3 days to be taken between Christmas and New Year
• Private Health Insurance (after qualifying period)
• Pension Scheme
• Death in Service benefit
• Training and continued professional development