Design Manager

Domin Fluid Power Limited; Bristol; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading engineering company in the UK is seeking a Mechanical Design Team Leader to guide a team of engineers. This role involves ensuring high-quality mechanical designs, fostering team development, and enhancing performance. The ideal candidate should have over 5 years of experience in mechanical engineering and a proven track record in team management. Responsibilities include direct oversight of design quality and execution, as well as driving improvements in team processes and project delivery. This position offers the opportunity to significantly influence engineering outcomes and team growth.

Qualifications

• Proven experience managing and developing engineers.
• Strong technical background in relevant mechanical engineering discipline.
• Experience working in multi-project or matrix environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of ~7 mechanical design engineers.
• Ensure mechanical designs meet performance and cost standards.
• Improve team structures and processes for better performance.
• Act as hands-on contributor on selected projects.

Skills

Team leadership

Technical oversight

Feedback and coaching

Decision-making

Project leadership

Education

5+ years in mechanical engineering

2 years in line management

Job description

This role leads one of Domin’s mechanical design teams, responsible for creating an environment that maximises the potential of this team across multiple products and projects. We’re looking for a leader who can take full responsibility of a mechanical design team and intentionally raise its capability, standards, and impact. You will look critically at engineers as individuals, recognise their strengths and limits, and act with positivity, humility, and grit to help them grow – holding people to account while earning trust through clarity, consistency, and follow-through. You will bring strong technical judgement, moving quickly and decisively under constraint, knowing where rigour matters most and where progress must take precedence over perfection. You will create alignment in a complex, matrix environment, intervene when standards slip, and remove friction that slows delivery. Alongside leading others, you will stay close to the work through technical or project leadership, fully owning outcomes and consistently driving execution in service of maximising the team’s potential.

This is a great role for someone who enjoys building capability, setting high standards, and helping others succeed, while still staying close to real engineering problems. You’ll have meaningful influence over Domin’s products, its people, and its ability to execute on ambitious goals in 2026 and beyond.

Key Responsibilities:

Team leadership & development

• Full line-management responsibility for a team of ~7 mechanical design engineers.
• Develop individuals through regular 1:1s, clear expectations, feedback, teaching and coaching.
• Identify skill gaps and capability risks; recruit to strengthen the team where needed.
• Magnify an environment where high standards, growth, and accountability are normal.

Technical quality & execution

• Ensure mechanical designs meet required standards for performance, reliability, manufacturability, and cost.
• Provide technical oversight across CAD, manufacturing definition, CFD, and FEA activities.
• Review and challenge work constructively, raising the quality bar without slowing delivery.
• Balance speed and rigour in line with Domin’s action-oriented culture.

Ways of working & enablement

• Improve structures, processes, and interfaces that allow the team to work faster and better.
• Clarify ownership, decision-making, and handovers in a matrix project environment.
• Contribute to defining what “good” looks like for mechanical design at Domin.

Individual contribution

• Act as a hands-on contributor on selected projects, either through:
• Technical leadership
• Project leadership on key development efforts
• Support delivery of critical 2026 objectives, including valve evolution and suspension development.
• Proven experience managing and developing engineers, with at least 2 years in a line management role.
• Strong technical background with 5+ years’ experience in a relevant mechanical engineering discipline (e.g. mechanical design, analysis, CFD, FEA).
• Demonstrated ability to hold high technical standards while delivering work on real timelines.
• Experience working in multi-project or matrix environments.
• Confidence giving clear feedback, making decisions, and owning outcomes.
• Strong alignment with Domin’s virtues: Positive, Grit, Action-Orientated, Trust, Gratitude, and Humility.

Beneficial Requirements:

• Experience in high-performance, automotive, aerospace, or advanced manufacturing environments.
• Track record of hiring or scaling engineering teams.
• Experience taking products from prototype through industrialisation or production.
• Familiarity with regulated or safety-critical engineering contexts.
• Exposure to cross-functional leadership with manufacturing, supply chain, or product teams.
• Experience leading technical work under commercial pressure.

We are seeking a motivated individual to join our growing team at our state-of-the-art serial production facility in Bristol.