Lead the engine room behind aerospace design delivery at Collins Aerospace, an RTX business. We help shape the systems that make flight safer, smarter, and more connected. Our WASP Switches site in Havant plays a key role in the design and delivery of advanced aircraft interior lighting and switching products used across the aerospace industry. We are looking for a Design Office Manager to provide operational leadership, structure, and coordination that keeps design engineering moving with purpose, pace and precision.
What you will be doing
As Design Office Manager, you will lead the day‑to‑day coordination and delivery of design engineering activity across a portfolio of development, production support, and aftermarket programmes. You will work closely with the Chief Design Engineer, Senior Product Engineers and the Programme Management Office, helping ensure engineering priorities are clear, resources are aligned, risks are visible, and deliverables remain on track.
Key responsibilities
- Lead and develop a team of Senior Design Engineers and Product Support Engineers
- Coordinate engineering workload across multiple concurrent programmes
- Manage engineering capacity, resource allocation and delivery priorities
- Monitor progress against programme schedules, budgets and milestones
- Identify resource conflicts, delivery risks and schedule pressures early
- Support development, production and aftermarket design change activity
- Promote a collaborative, accountable and high‑performing engineering culture
- Ensure adherence to design processes, standards and engineering governance
- Support configuration management and control of engineering data within PLM/PDM systems
- Monitor KPIs relating to process adherence, design milestones and change control
- Build better data capture and reporting methods to improve visibility
- Drive continuous improvement across engineering coordination, standards and delivery efficiency
What you will bring
- Significant experience within Design Engineering, ideally within aerospace or another regulated engineering environment
- Experience leading or managing engineering teams
- Strong experience delivering product development programmes
- Confidence coordinating engineering activities across multiple projects at once
- A strong understanding of design processes, governance and configuration management
- Experience managing engineering deliverables within a structured product development lifecycle
- Strong planning, workload management and resource allocation skills
- The ability to identify risks, manage competing priorities and resolve resource conflicts
- Excellent stakeholder management, communication and organisational skills
- A structured, process‑led approach to engineering delivery
- Awareness of how engineering decisions affect cost, schedule, certification and programme performance
- It would be great if you also have experience in aircraft interiors, cabin systems or aerospace electrical/electronic products
- Aerospace certification and design assurance environments
- Engineering process improvement or organisational development
- Multidisciplinary engineering teams across mechanical, electrical, electronics or software disciplines
- Production support, aftermarket engineering or product lifecycle support
- APQP or equivalent design assurance and development systems
Qualifications and experience
- A degree in Engineering, Management or a related technical discipline, or equivalent industry experience
- Strong experience within a Design Engineering environment
- Previous experience in engineering leadership, management or operational delivery roles
- For technical engineering positions, a STEM‑related background is typically expected, unless prohibited by local laws or regulations
RTX adheres to the principles of equal employment. All qualified applications will be given careful consideration without regard to ethnicity, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.
