Director of Engineering

Director of Biosystems Engineering – R&D Leadership

We’re supporting a senior R&D engineering leadership search within a highly complex biosystems and instrumentation environment.

This is a platform-level engineering leadership role, sitting at the intersection of life sciences instrumentation, systems engineering, software, and biological systems, with responsibility for taking technology from early development through to scaled production and deployment.

This is not a single-discipline engineering position.

The role requires someone who can operate across multiple engineering domains (mechanical, electrical, optical, microfluidics, software, and biological interfaces) and translate complex scientific and technical concepts into scalable, production-ready systems.

You will lead a multidisciplinary biosystems engineering function and play a key role in shaping the long-term strategy and execution of advanced instrumentation platforms.

• Lead and develop a biosystems engineering team (25+ engineers across multiple disciplines)
• Drive the development of next-generation life sciences instrumentation and platform technologies
• Translate scientific concepts into robust, scalable, production-ready systems
• Own technical execution across complex, cross-functional R&D programmes
• Contribute to and execute long-term technology and platform strategy
• Manage collaboration across engineering, biology, software, and manufacturing teams
• Support scale‑up from R&D through to production and field deployment
• Apply structured programme management approaches (stage-gate / milestone-based delivery)
• Interface with senior stakeholders and external collaborators
• Ensure compliance with regulatory and quality standards (CE, FDA, NRTL, RoHS, etc.)
• Foster a high‑performance, collaborative, and accountable engineering culture

• Leading multidisciplinary engineering teams (typically 20–30+ people)
• Complex instrumentation or systems development from R&D through to production
• Regulated or highly structured industries (medical devices, diagnostics, biotech, pharma, aerospace, or similar)
• Systems-level thinking across hardware + software + biology interfaces
• Technical leadership combined with strong programme execution experience
• Building and scaling engineering teams in high-complexity environments
• Advanced degree in Engineering (PhD strongly preferred / required)
• 10+ years’ experience in complex systems / instrumentation / life sciences engineering environments
• 5+ years in engineering leadership roles managing multidisciplinary teams
• Strong background in systems engineering, programme management, and product lifecycle delivery
• Travel: 15% domestic and international
• Senior leadership role within a global R&D organisation
• Focus on innovation, scale-up, and platform development