Senior Manufacturing Engineer

Salary: £42,479 - £49,976 per annum (dependent on experience)
Contract Type: Permanent
Hours: Full Time
Location: Poole, Dorset, England
Location Description: RNLI Support Centre - site essential role
Interview Date: Week of 15th June (TBC)
Closing Date: 07-06-2026
Reference: 21564

About us

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a charity that provides, on call, a 24-hour lifeboat search and rescue service and a seasonal lifeguard service. Our lifeboat crews and lifeguards need a dedicated, professional, and talented team behind them. 

The RNLI is undergoing a significant transformation as part of its industrial strategy. This includes the closure of the Inshore Lifeboat Centre in East Cowes and the transfer of its work to the All-weather Lifeboat Centre in Poole. This role will play a key part in delivering this transition, ensuring a safe, effective and timely transfer of production capability by the end of 2027.

Some of the benefits

- £42,479 to £49,976 (dependent on experience)
- Performance-related pay scheme annually reviewed
- 26 days’ annual leave plus Bank Holidays
- Time off in lieu available
- Flexible working opportunities
- Competitive pension scheme 
- Life assurance
- Health and dental cashplan

Your role

As a Senior Manufacturing Engineer, you will play a key role in ensuring RNLI has the manufacturing capability, processes and standards required to safely and consistently build lifesaving assets across all production sites.

You will lead the development, validation and continuous improvement of manufacturing processes, ensuring they are robust, repeatable and aligned to design intent. A significant part of your role will involve leading manufacturing engineering activity for Production transfer, New Product Introduction (NPI) and major design changes, ensuring production readiness and successful transition into build.

You will act as a senior technical authority for manufacturing methods, working closely with Engineering, Production and Quality teams to ensure manufacturability, efficiency and compliance.

As a Senior Manufacturing Engineer, you will:

- Lead the development and optimisation of manufacturing processes across RNLI production facilities
- Own manufacturing readiness for NPI, including process design, validation and production sign-off
- Develop and maintain standardised manufacturing methods, process documentation, and Bills of Process
- Design and specify tooling, fixtures and equipment to support safe and efficient build
- Lead complex problem-solving activities related to manufacturing and process performance
- Drive cross-site Continuous Improvement initiatives to improve flow, quality and productivity
- Assess manufacturing capability, capacity and process performance, identifying opportunities for improvement and investment
- Ensure effective implementation of engineering changes from a manufacturing perspective
- Provide technical leadership and mentoring to engineers and production teams
- Support the development of manufacturing standards, best practices, and future capability across the RNLI

About you

You’ll be a technically strong and collaborative engineer who enjoys developing and improving manufacturing processes, coaching others and leading cross-site initiatives. To be considered as a Senior Manufacturing Engineer, you will need:

- Significant experience in a manufacturing or process engineering role, ideally involving composite structures, marine products or low-volume technical manufacturing
- Strong experience developing manufacturing processes, tooling, verification activities and process documentation
- Demonstrated ability to lead manufacturing engineering tasks and cross-functional projects
- Proven competence in Lean/CI tools, including Standardised Work, 6S, flow mapping, and structured problem solving
- Experience leading NPI and manufacturing process validation activities
- Knowledge of digital manufacturing tools, CAD/CAM, ERP systems and manufacturing data models
- Experience in leading or mentoring engineering teams

You will have excellent communication skills, a proactive mindset, and the confidence to act as a subject matter expert for manufacturing engineering within a multi-disciplinary environment.

Join us in shaping the future of lifeboat manufacturing and help save lives at sea.

Safeguarding

The RNLI is committed to safeguarding; protecting a person’s health, wellbeing, and human rights, enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect. We expect all employees and volunteers to share this commitment and have a zero-tolerance approach. The suitability of all prospective employees and volunteers will be assessed during the recruitment process in line with this commitment. This will include relevant criminal record checks being carried out, dependent on the eligibility of the role. (England & Wales; DBS check, Scotland; Disclosure Scotland PVG, Northern Ireland; Access NI, Republic of Ireland; Garda Vetting; International, International Child Protection Certificate process).

Diversity at the RNLI

Our staff and volunteers have been saving lives at sea without prejudice for 200 years. We respect and value diversity of background, skills and perspectives within our teams, and consider it essential to help us deliver a world-class lifesaving service. We are an inclusive organisation and welcome applications from everyone. In addition to having the skills needed for the role, we also look for applicants who share our commitment to living our RNLI values (trustworthy, courageous, selfless, and dependable), and helping us work towards Our Vision: To save Every One.