Head of Service Engineering

Job Description

Head of Service Engineering

Full time – Hybrid

Derby  

Why join Rolls-Royce?

At Rolls-Royce we are proud to be a business that has truly helped to shape the modern world and are committed to always being a force for progress; powering, protecting and connecting people everywhere.

By joining Rolls-Royce, you'll have the opportunity to work on world-class solutions, supported by a culture that believes individuality is our greatest strength, and all perspectives, experiences and backgrounds help us innovate and enable our high-performance culture.

Our Services Business Unit is unique, bringing together multiple engineering, testing, digital and repair capabilities with the ultimate goal of maintaining safe, capable and available Submarines for the Royal Navy. In addition to supporting our current products in-service, we are designing the support solution and entry into service for a brand-new generation of nuclear steam raising plant (NSRP), which will continue to provide the UK’s continuous at sea deterrent (CASD).

To enable this, we are revolutionising how we deliver service engineering and support. We will adopt the latest industry best practice frameworks, processes and engineering techniques, as well as embracing data and digital products to leverage our decades of engineering insights. We're looking for a dynamic and inspirational engineering leader to make a real impact by becoming our new Head of Service Engineering. This is a new position, created to support our enduring commitment to improving our products and support solutions; focussing on ensuring we have safe, capable and available NSRPs to meet the needs of the Royal Navy.

Key Accountabilities

As Head of Service Engineering, you'll be technically accountable for our key availability, reliability and maintainability outputs, aligning with our developments in digital, technologies, innovation and capabilities. You'll also have direct line management responsibilities for the service engineering teams within the Services DBU, as well as our engineering service data centre.  You will respond to the demands placed by the Integrated Product Support managers, delivering the engineering outputs required at the time and to the right quality.

Day to day, we’ve built our in-service support through 3 pillars:

• Strategic – We want to deliver class-leading products to meet the needs of our customer, the Royal Navy. You’ll do this by setting out a challenging and inspiring vision and driving innovative ways of achieving the required maintainability and availability of our product. This will include influencing our future designs as well as challenging our current maintenance definitions and techniques

• Proactive – You will evolve our engineering offerings, taking lessons learned, best practice and insights to optimise our maintenance requirements, reacting and adapting to how our product is performing in service

• Reactive – We deliver a complex product that operates in a complex environment. Your team will provided critical engineering thinking to our customer and front-line support teams

Key Experiences and Qualifications

The successful candidate will have a high level of autonomy to manage the supportability discipline to meet the requirements of projects

• Demonstrable ARM experience for complex products or systems

• Knowledge of engineering governance and assurance activities

• Professionally registered, degree qualified in a STEM subject

• Leadership and management experience of multi-disciplined teams

• Cost and budget management for large teams

Regional Benefits

• Generous Annual Leave

• Retirement Savings through the Rolls-Royce Retirement Savings Trust

• Group Life Assurance provides for a lump sum benefit if you die whilst employed by Rolls-Royce

• Group Income Protection provides an income in the event that you are unable to work due to illness or injury

• Your Shares: Matched is a simple way to own Rolls-Royce shares and invest in our future, together. Buy one share, get one free!

Our vision is to ensure that the excellence and ingenuity that shaped our history continues into our future. Our multi-year transformation programme aims to turn Rolls-Royce into a high-performing, competitive, resilient and growing company. Join us, and it can be your future vision too.

Rolls-Royce are committed to being a respectful, inclusive, and non-discriminatory workplace where individuality is valued, diverse perspectives fuel innovation, and everyone can thrive.

Please be aware that the priority will be given to employees identified as being at high risk. The professional level and salary of the position will be dependent on the skills and experience of the successful candidate.

This job is advertised at the grades shown, and this is the desired operating level for this role. We encourage applications from candidates with relevant experience from any grade.

It is advised that you inform your current manager of your application for this role.  

Grade: Management Level

For more information, please contact: Alison Connaughton alison.connaughton@Rolls-Royce.com

As part of our selection process, candidates in certain locations may be asked to complete an online assessment, which can include cognitive and behavioural aptitude testing relevant to the role. If required, full instructions for the next steps will be provided.

Job Category

Nuclear Engineering

Posting Date

03 Aug 2026; 00:08

Posting End Date

10 Aug 2026