Job Description

To lead and assure the engineering function across a complex, high-value project delivery organisation. The Chief Engineer ensures technical excellence, regulatory compliance, and strategic alignment across the asset lifecycle — from concept to decommissioning. This role drives engineering authority, capability development, and innovation to enable safe, efficient, and mission-critical delivery.

Principal Accountabilities

• Shapes the organisation’s engineering strategy to align technical delivery with long-term mission outcomes.
• Influences senior decision-making through expert advice and systems-level insight to ensure engineering supports strategic priorities.
• Owns and leads the engineering assurance framework to ensure compliance with legislation, internal standards, and regulatory expectations.
• Acts as the final Engineering Authority on high-risk or novel solutions to safeguard technical integrity and manage escalation.
• Drives lifecycle engineering strategies to optimise asset performance and reliability to arrest degradation and maximise value.
• Leads engineering delivery across major frameworks (IDP and PACE) to integrate design, construction, commissioning, and handover for effective portfolio execution.
• Oversees centralised engineering services to provide specialist support and resolve cross-cutting asset issues to improve operational resilience.
• Leads engineering strategy for manufacturing and product development to deliver innovation and ensure technology readiness for mission delivery.
• Develops and deploys engineering capability across the profession to ensure long-term capacity, succession, and resource optimisation.
• Builds trusted relationships with regulators, suppliers, and industry bodies to influence standards and ensure alignment with external expectations.
• Champions continuous improvement and LEAN thinking across engineering functions to enhance delivery efficiency and technical performance.
• Manages a combined engineering budget of £395m pa to ensure strategic investment and value for money across services and programmes.

Knowledge & Experience

Knowledge
• Multi-Disciplinary Engineering – Strong technical foundation across civil, mechanical, electrical, and systems engineering disciplines.
• Regulatory Frameworks – In-depth understanding of UK nuclear regulations, safety cases, and quality systems.
• Asset Lifecycle Management – Knowledge of lifecycle engineering strategies, reliability-centred maintenance, and asset degradation arrest.
• Manufacturing & Innovation – Familiarity with advanced manufacturing, prototyping, and technology readiness processes.
• Emerging Technologies – Awareness of innovation trends and digital engineering practices relevant to mission delivery.

Experience
• Senior Engineering Leadership – Extensive experience leading engineering functions in large-scale, regulated, and high-risk environments.
• Portfolio Delivery – Demonstrated success in delivering complex programmes (e.g., IDP, PACE) with multi-billion-pound value and integrated delivery.
• Centralised Services Management – Experience managing centralised engineering services and specialist support functions.
• Talent Development – Proven ability to build engineering capability, lead professional development, and shape future talent pipelines.
• Product Development – Experience in leading new product development, industrialisation, and technology deployment to support operational needs.

Essential Skills

• Strategic Engineering Leadership – Ability to lead complex engineering functions across a multi-billion-pound portfolio, shaping long-term strategy and enabling mission-critical delivery.
• Stakeholder Engagement & Influence – Skilled in building strong relationships and influencing senior stakeholders, regulators, and delivery partners to align engineering outcomes with organisational goals.
• Governance & Assurance – Expertise in engineering assurance, risk-based decision-making, and regulatory compliance within high-hazard environments.
• Operational Excellence – Proven ability to embed LEAN principles and drive continuous improvement across engineering operations and services.
• Decisive Leadership – Comfortable making high-impact decisions in complex, ambiguous, or high-risk scenarios, balancing technical, commercial, and safety priorities.

Qualifications
• Chartered Engineer (CEng) – Required.

Desirable Skills

• Degree in Engineering or Related Discipline – Master’s level preferred.

• Leadership Development – Desirable (e.g., strategic leadership programmes, senior management training).

Additional Information

• Open VN
• Number of Vacancies: 1
• Contact/s: Daniel Milward – daniel.a.milward@sellafieldsites.com
or Stuart Latham – stuart.m.latham@sellafieldsites.com

If you choose to apply for this role and your application is shortlisted by the hiring manager, you will be invited to a competency based interview. In the interview, you will be assessed against the NDA Leadership Standard.

Shortlisting will take place on 7th November 2025.
Interviews will take place w/c 17th November 2025.

Technical competencies and confirmed interview dates will be provided at a later date.

Sellafield Ltd are recognised as a Disability Confident Employer (Level 3). Disability Confident employers offer an interview to disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for a vacancy. Sellafield Ltd define the minimum criteria as the ‘essential skills’ which are listed on the vacancy notice. Whilst completing your application form, you will be able to indicate if you wish to be considered under the disability confident scheme. If you would prefer to discuss this directly with us, please contact the GBS Recruitment team on recruitment@sellafieldcloud.co.uk.

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