Head of Engineering
Role Overview
InnaLabs designs, develops, and manufactures precision inertial sensors and navigation systems used in demanding aerospace, defence, and industrial applications. The Head of Engineering is a senior technical leadership role responsible for the performance, output, and culture of the engineering function – from concept through to qualified, manufacturable product. This person combines credible engineering depth in inertial sensing technologies with the people leadership skills needed to build and sustain a high-performing, collaborative, and accountable engineering organisation.
The role sits at the intersection of technology, people, and customers: leading new product development and continuous product improvement, representing engineering in front of customers and partners, and instilling a culture where ownership, high standards, and collaboration are part of the daily routine – not an occasional initiative.
Key Responsibilities
1. Technical & Product Leadership
- Lead new product development (NPD): own the engineering roadmap for new inertial sensor and navigation products, from requirements definition through design, prototyping, qualification, and transfer to manufacturing.
- Drive product improvement: prioritise and lead sustaining engineering activity – performance upgrades, cost-down programmes, reliability and yield improvements, and resolution of field or production issues.
- Maintain technical credibility: stay close enough to the technology (gyroscopes, accelerometers, IMUs, sensor fusion, calibration, and test methodologies) to challenge designs, unblock teams, and make sound trade-off decisions under time and resource pressure.
- Own technical governance: ensure design reviews, verification & validation, risk management, and change control are applied consistently and proportionately across programmes.
- Balance the portfolio: make transparent, data-informed trade-offs between new development, sustaining work, and customer-driven requests, and communicate the rationale clearly to stakeholders.
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2. Team Leadership & People Development
- Build a high-performing team: recruit, develop, and retain strong engineers and engineering leads; structure the team to match the product and technology roadmap.
- Set clear direction: translate business and product strategy into engineering goals, priorities, and measurable targets that individuals and teams can act on.
- Coach and develop leads: invest regular, genuine time in developing team leads and senior engineers as future leaders, through mentoring, delegation, and honest feedback.
- Manage performance fairly and consistently: run a disciplined cycle of goal-setting, feedback, and performance reviews that reward both results and behaviours.
- Plan resource and capability: maintain a rolling view of skills, headcount, and capacity needs, and act early to close gaps.
3. Customer-Facing & Commercial Engagement
- Represent engineering to customers: lead or actively participate in customer-facing technical meetings, design reviews, audits, and qualification discussions, building customer confidence in InnaLabs' engineering capability.
- Translate customer needs into engineering plans: work closely with Sales, Business Development, and Programme Management to turn customer requirements and feedback into realistic, well-scoped engineering commitments.
- Support the commercial process: contribute technical input to proposals, quotations, and contract reviews, and help assess technical risk on new business opportunities.
- Manage expectations honestly: communicate progress, risks, and trade-offs to customers and internal stakeholders directly and early, rather than after the fact.
4. Culture, Innovation & Collaboration
- Foster a culture of innovation: create space and mechanisms (e.g. technical forums, innovation time, cross-team reviews) for engineers to explore new ideas, technologies, and ways of working.
- Break down silos: actively promote collaboration across mechanical, electronics, optics/photonics, software, and test disciplines, and between engineering and Operations, Quality, Sales, and Supply Chain.
- Model a results-oriented, collaborative style: hold the team to high standards while reinforcing that outcomes are achieved through teamwork, transparency, and mutual support – not individual heroics or blame.
- Champion continuous improvement: encourage teams to routinely question and improve processes, tools, and ways of working, using data and root-cause thinking rather than assumptions.
5. Ownership, Accountability & Values in Daily Practice
- Embed ownership as a daily habit: ensure engineers and leads take end-to-end responsibility for their work – from problem definition through to a working, qualified solution – rather than handing off unresolved issues.
- Lead by example: demonstrate the standards, transparency, and follow-through expected of the team in your own daily behaviour, especially when things go wrong.
- Reinforce values consistently: use routine mechanisms – stand-ups, reviews, one-to-ones, recognition – to visibly reward ownership, honesty, and collaboration, and to address their absence promptly and fairly.
- Be accountable upward and outward: take responsibility for engineering's commitments to the business and to customers, and communicate proactively when those commitments are at risk.
Essential Knowledge, Skills & Experience
Technical Background
- Strong working knowledge of inertial sensor technologies (e.g. fibre-optic, MEMS, or ring laser gyroscopes; accelerometers; IMUs) and their design, manufacturing, and test challenges.
- Track record of taking sensor or precision electro-mechanical/opto-electronic products from concept through qualification and into production.
- Comfortable engaging with detailed technical content across multiple disciplines (mechanical, electronics, optics/photonics, software, test) without needing to be the deepest expert in every area.
- Familiarity with the quality, reliability, and certification expectations typical of aerospace, defence, or other high-reliability industries (e.g. AS9100, MIL-STD, DO-160/178, or equivalent) is a strong advantage.
Leadership Experience
- Significant experience (typically 10+ years) in engineering roles within precision electronics, sensors, or a related hardware discipline, including direct people-leadership responsibility for engineering teams.
- Demonstrated ability to lead through others – setting direction, delegating effectively, and developing team leads – rather than solving every problem personally.
- Experience managing competing priorities across new product development, sustaining engineering, and customer commitments in a resource-constrained environment.
- Comfortable operating in front of customers and senior stakeholders, including in technically challenging or commercially sensitive discussions.
Qualifications
- Degree in Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline (Mechanical, Electronic, Electrical, Optics/Photonics, or Software Engineering); a postgraduate qualification is an advantage but not essential.
- Formal management, leadership, or project management training/certification (e.g. Lean/Six Sigma, PMP, Agile) is desirable.
Leadership & Behavioural Competencies
- Ownership: takes personal responsibility for outcomes, follows through on commitments, and does not leave problems for others to resolve.
- Results orientation: keeps the team focused on delivering measurable outcomes for the business and the customer, while maintaining engineering rigour.
- Collaborative leadership: builds trust and cooperation across disciplines and functions; resolves disagreement constructively and focuses on shared goals.
- Clear communication: explains technical issues, trade-offs, and risk in plain language to audiences ranging from engineers to executives to customers.
- Sound judgement under pressure: makes timely, well-reasoned decisions with incomplete information, and is transparent about the trade-offs involved.
- Coaching mindset: genuinely invests in developing others, gives direct and constructive feedback, and creates room for people to grow into greater responsibility.
- Integrity and consistency: applies standards and values evenly, including to themselves, and is a stabilising, trustworthy presence for the team.
How Success Will Be Measured
- On-time, on-quality delivery of new product development milestones against the agreed roadmap.
- Measurable improvement in product performance, reliability, and cost through sustaining engineering initiatives.
- Customer feedback and confidence in engineering, evidenced through repeat business, successful audits/reviews, and qualification outcomes.
- Team health indicators: retention of key engineers, internal promotion of team leads, and engagement/survey results.
- Evidence of a strengthening culture of ownership and collaboration – e.g. issues surfaced and resolved early, cross-team initiatives, and a healthy rate of internally-driven improvement ideas.
Appendix: Best-Practice Operating Rhythm for the Role
The following practices reflect what “good” typically looks like for a Head of Engineering in a technical, customer-facing organisation. They are intended as guidance for the person taking on the role – and as a benchmark for the hiring panel when assessing candidates – rather than as a rigid checklist.
Goal-Setting & Prioritisation
- Set and cascade clear, time-bound engineering objectives (e.g. quarterly OKRs or equivalent) that connect individual and team work to business and customer priorities.
- Maintain a visible, prioritised roadmap covering NPD and sustaining engineering, and revisit it on a fixed cadence rather than only when problems arise.
Team Rituals & Cadence
- Run regular team stand-ups or syncs focused on progress, blockers, and decisions – kept short and action-oriented.
- Hold structured design and technical reviews at defined project gates, with clear criteria for moving forward.
- Conduct project/programme retrospectives after major milestones to capture lessons learned and feed them back into process.
- Protect regular one-to-one time with direct reports for coaching, feedback, and career development – not only status updates.
Culture, Ownership & Recognition
- Make ownership visible and low-friction: clear decision rights, named owners for key initiatives, and a habit of closing the loop on commitments.
- Create psychological safety to raise problems early – treat early bad news as valuable, and near-misses or mistakes as learning opportunities when handled with integrity.
- Recognise both results and behaviours (collaboration, mentoring, quality of judgement) publicly and specifically, not only project completion.
- Protect time for innovation and improvement – e.g. periodic “improvement days”, internal tech talks, or rotation across disciplines – so continuous improvement is a routine, not an afterthought.
Customer & Cross-Functional Engagement
- Prepare deliberately for customer-facing technical meetings: align messaging with Sales/Programme Management beforehand and agree on what can and cannot be committed to.
- Close the loop on customer feedback by routing it into the engineering roadmap with a visible owner and timeline.
- Maintain a standing forum with Operations, Quality, and Supply Chain to catch cross-functional risks (manufacturability, component availability, compliance) early in development.
Continuous Improvement of the Function Itself
- Periodically review engineering processes (design control, change management, test) for proportionality – rigorous enough for the risk involved, without adding unnecessary bureaucracy.
- Track a small set of meaningful engineering metrics (e.g. schedule adherence, defect/escape rates, NPD cycle time) and use them to drive conversation, not blame.
- Revisit team structure and skills planning at least annually against the medium-term product and technology roadmap.
This job description reflects the general nature and level of work expected of this role. It is not an exhaustive list of duties, and responsibilities may evolve as the business and product portfolio develop.
