THE ROLE:

The Head of Engineering Function is a core role in the senior leadership of UKIFS. You will be leading a team of 10-12, with a budget of circa £1M and indirectly leading a larger team of strategic and whole plant partners to oversee all Engineering Functional support to the UKIFS organisation and STEP programme.
You will own and set the functional direction of the programme within the framework of a systems engineering approach by maintaining and evolving the engineering strategy and taking responsibility for driving a culture of continuous improvement.
The Head of Engineering Function is accountable to the Director of Engineering Programme for all elements of Engineering Capability (People, Tools, Data, and Functional Services). You will work a across all the four engineering dominated IPTs (Tokamak Machine, Power & Cooling, Fuel Cycle, Tokamak Complex) and the Design Authority to enable Engineers to deliver. As UKIFS is Design Authority for STEP, you will manage a significant portfolio of technical risk, ensuring the Engineering organisation has the right capabilities, and is properly equipped and resourced at the right time to deliver a first of a kind fusion power plant. As many systems currently have low technical readiness you must evolve the function, in-line with the plant design, to ensure Engineering needs are met – and risks are mitigated – proportionate to the phase of the engineering lifecycle.
Finally, you will work with the PM team to oversee and validate progress to plan.
Establishing a fusion company in the UK is pioneering work. You’ll thrive in this role if you can embrace uncertainty and ambiguity whilst simultaneously creating strong relationships as we build UKIFS and its team. You’ll shape functional ways of working as we grow, whilst also seeking new technologies, efficiencies, and leadership opportunities in nuclear fusion.
This role requires employees to be eligible for SC Clearance (must have resided in the UK for the last 5 years) , including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions.