Electronics Hardware Team Lead

Location: Rochester, Kent

Salary: Circa £60,000 (flexibility for the right background)

Working pattern: Predominantly on-site (4 days per week), with some flexibility for admin / paperwork

Contact: Emily-Karabelo Powell, Associate Director, Pearson Whiffin Recruitment

This is an opportunity to step into a senior, visible leadership role within a growing electronics engineering team working on complex, safety-critical hardware.

The role offers genuine flexibility in how hands-on you remain. If you enjoy staying close to the engineering, there is scope to balance technical delivery with team leadership. Equally, if your strengths sit more in coordination, planning and mentoring, the role can lean that way too – with strong technical support around you.

What matters most is a credible electronics background, confidence leading engineers, and the ability to take ownership of delivery.

What you’ll be responsible for

Leading and developing a hardware engineering team (typically 5–10 engineers across mixed experience levels)

Ownership of work packages, including planning effort, tracking cost and monitoring delivery

Providing day-to-day technical oversight and mentoring, particularly for junior engineers

Ensuring work is delivered in line with engineering governance, quality and risk expectations

Working closely with project and programme stakeholders, reporting progress and risks

Supporting a growing workload driven by business expansion and team development

What we’re looking for

A strong electronics / hardware engineering background – this is not a generic people-management role

Experience leading engineers within a hardware, electronics or embedded environment

Confidence managing delivery: estimates, schedules, priorities and cost awareness

Comfortable providing technical oversight, even if you’re not the deepest technical specialist

Experience from defence, aerospace, automotive, advanced electronics or other regulated environments is highly relevant

What’s on offer

Competitive salary with flexibility for the right experience

Excellent benefits package, including a strong pension, generous annual leave and additional wellbeing benefits

Long-term, secure projects with real investment in people

A supportive leadership structure – you won’t be left carrying everything alone

The opportunity to shape how the role works around your strengths

Candidates with existing security clearance are highly attractive, but those eligible to progress through clearance are very welcome to apply