Principal Manufacturing Engineer

Principal Manufacturing Engineer

Advanced Manufacturing & Defence

Up to £80,000

Location: Dorking, Surrey

Engineering expertise meets customer engagement, innovation and growth.

Are you an experienced engineer who enjoys solving complex manufacturing challenges, working directly with customers and turning technical problems into practical solutions?

This is a rare opportunity to join a growing specialist engineering business and play a key role in developing its presence across advanced manufacturing and UK defence, while remaining closely connected to engineering and manufacturing.

This is not a traditional sales role. Your technical credibility is at the heart of the position.

You'll work with customers to understand requirements, review drawings and specifications, develop manufacturing solutions and support projects from initial enquiry through to delivery. Internally, you'll work closely with engineering, production and purchasing teams to ensure solutions are technically sound, commercially viable and manufacturable.

Key responsibilities

• Build strong relationships with existing and prospective customers.
• Provide technical leadership during customer discussions and project development.
• Review drawings, specifications, CAD models and technical enquiries.
• Conduct DFM and manufacturing feasibility reviews.
• Support technical problem solving and investigations.
• Develop new opportunities across advanced manufacturing and defence.
• Prepare and support quotations, estimates and technical proposals.
• Assess manufacturing methods, risks, cost, lead time and resource requirements.
• Represent the business at industry events and networking activities.
• Support defence supply-chain engagement.

About you

You'll be an experienced Mechanical, Manufacturing or Production Engineer with strong knowledge of:

• CNC machining and precision manufacturing
• Fabrication and sheet-metal processes
• Electromechanical assembly
• Engineering drawings and GD&T
• Manufacturing methods and process planning
• CAD and associated models

You'll also have experience dealing directly with customers and developing practical engineering solutions, ideally alongside preparing quotations or technical proposals.

We're looking for someone who is commercially aware, confident, proactive and solutions-focused, someone who can move comfortably between customer meetings, engineering discussions and the manufacturing environment.

Experience in aerospace, defence, scientific instrumentation, JOSCAR, ERP/MRP or ISO 9001 would be advantageous.

Why this role?

You'll have genuine autonomy, direct access to senior decision makers and the opportunity to influence both engineering and commercial direction.

You'll be joining a specialist precision engineering environment working on technically demanding products and assemblies, while helping develop new opportunities within the defence and advanced manufacturing sectors.

If you're an engineer who wants greater variety, responsibility and visibility and enjoys combining technical expertise with customer engagement and business growth, this could be an excellent next step.

Our commitment:

Equal opportunities are important to us. We believe that diversity and inclusion at Morgan Ryder Associates are critical to our success as DE&I positive company, so we want to recruit, develop, and keep the best talent. We encourage applications from everyone, regardless of background, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, ethnicity, belief, age, family or parental status, and any other characteristic.

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