Hardware Engineering Manager

Job Title:  Hardware Engineering Manager
Location: Reading
Salary: We know salary transparency matters. While we can’t list a figure on this advert, the client is genuinely flexible and open to shaping the package around the right person.
Employment Type: Permanent
Working Arrangements: Hybrid Working

We’re seeking a Hardware Engineering Manager to lead a highly skilled hardware engineering team and play a pivotal role in an ongoing engineering transformation. This is a senior leadership position with significant influence over technical direction, team capability, and cross-functional collaboration.

While this is not a hands-on design role, the successful candidate must bring strong technical foundations and deep experience across the full lifecycle of hardware development - from hardware architecture and PCB layout through manufacturing, bring-up, and design proving for complete electronic systems (CPU, memory, power). Expertise in Intel x86 or ARM-based architectures is highly desirable.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives on guiding talented engineers, asking the right technical questions, facilitating problem-solving, and ensuring decisions are made with a holistic, system-level mindset.

Key Responsibilities for the Hardware Engineering Manager:
- Lead, manage, and develop a high-performing hardware engineering team
- Provide technical oversight and challenge, ensuring robust decision-making
- Facilitate problem-solving sessions and guide engineers through complex issues
- Ensure hardware decisions consider impacts across mechanical, software, and manufacturing disciplines
- Drive alignment and engagement across cross-functional teams from early design phases
- Support the organisation’s engineering transformation by contributing to senior leadership discussions and strategy
- Oversee the end-to-end lifecycle of hardware development, ensuring quality, reliability, and timely delivery
- Build and maintain a strong engineering culture focused on collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement

What You’ll Bring:
- Strong technical background in hardware/electronics engineering
- Extensive experience across hardware design lifecycle: PCB layout, manufacturing, bring-up, validation, and system proving
- Expertise with Intel x86 or ARM architectures (highly advantageous)
- Ability to guide and challenge engineers through intelligent questioning and structured thinking
- Experience collaborating across mechanical, software, and manufacturing teams
- Proven leadership experience — or strong technical foundations with readiness to step into senior leadership
- Confidence managing highly skilled engineers and navigating the unique challenges of senior technical teams
- Clear communication skills and a calm, structured leadership style

What’s In It for You
- Impactful Leadership: Drive a major engineering transformation and shape the future of hardware development
- Technical Depth: Lead a team working on complex, cutting-edge hardware challenges
- Strategic Influence: Play a key role in cross-functional decision-making and organisational direction
- Growth Potential: Opportunity to step into an even more senior leadership role as the new structure evolves
- Dynamic Environment: Join a company investing in its people, infrastructure, and long-term engineering capability

This role requires the successful candidate to pass BPSS screening and meet the eligibility criteria for Security Check (SC) clearance.

For more information, please contact Cathy Swain. 
T: (phone number removed)
E: (url removed)