Manufacturing Engineer

Location: Templecombe, United Kingdom

Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust. Thales supports the security and stability of our nation by providing extraordinary technology to our customers, as well as delivering social value to the UK with our products and services.

Together we offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better, and keep us safer. We innovate across the major industries of Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space. Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

Our purpose is to be the leading provider of underwater sensors and decision superiority, helping navies across the world keep our friends, families and all of us safe. We cover four sectors: Mine Counter Measures, Anti-Submarine warfare, Services and Future Capabilities.

Manufacturing Engineer

Location – Templecombe

4 Day Week (Monday-Thursday)

Our Opportunity

We have an exciting opportunity for a Manufacturing Engineer to join our Towed Array manufacturing unit at Thales Templecombe, supporting the manufacture and repair of a critical sonar system used by the Royal Navy and allied navies worldwide.

This is a hands-on manufacturing engineering role within a complex electro‑mechanical environment. Working closely with Manufacturing Technicians, Quality and Engineering teams, you’ll provide day-to-day shop floor support and contribute to continuous improvement activities across the production lifecycle.

Reporting into the Lead Manufacturing Engineer, this role offers excellent exposure to defence manufacturing and long-term development within Thales.

Day to day tasks:

• Supporting manufacturing operations through process definition, optimisation, and troubleshooting.

• Assessing Manufacturing Readiness Levels (MRL) and working with project teams to identify and reduce production risk.

• Defining and implementing manufacturing processes, tooling, and supporting documentation.

• Identifying opportunities for capital equipment investment and completing financial assessments (ROI, cost-benefit analysis).

• Supporting Health, Safety and Environmental requirements within manufacturing.

• Contributing to cost reduction, workflow optimisation, and manufacturing innovation.

• Representing manufacturing at Material Review Boards (MRB) and Configuration Control Boards (CCB).

• Contributes to the capitalisation of the experiences fed back from the production line to ensure lessons learnt are captured in new product introduction.

About You

We’re looking for a motivated Manufacturing Engineer with experience in a manufacturing or production environment, who is keen to develop their skills within a structured and supportive team.

Ideally, you’ll have:

• Exposure to production processes such as machining, mechanical or electronic assembly, or test.

• An understanding of continuous improvement and lean manufacturing principles.

• Strong communication skills and the ability to document processes clearly.

• HNC (or equivalent) in an engineering discipline or experience in a related engineering field.

This role would suit someone early to mid‑career who is looking to grow their manufacturing engineering capability within a world‑class defence environment.

Due to the nature of the work that we do at Thales, many of our roles are subject to security restrictions. This role requires you to be a UK National and achieve Security Clearance (SC) without any caveats. It would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance prior to commencing employment. If approved by the MOD, a dual national from a non-ITAR country may be considered.

To be eligible for full SC, you generally need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years. In some circumstances, a minimum of 3 years’ residence in the UK over the last 5 years may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.

Please visit the UKSV website for further guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/national-security-vetting-clearance-levels.

Thales is an equal opportunities employer and diversity, and inclusion are integral to the success of Thales.

#LI-LG1

At Thales, we ensure equal opportunities, pay and working conditions for all. The benefits we offer include private medical insurance, buying or selling annual leave, cycle to work schemes, employee discounts, paid volunteering day, stocks and shares, annual bonus and much more depending on the role. Read more about our benefits here.

 

We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued for who they are and the unique strengths they bring. Discover more about our programmes, employee networks, wellbeing policies, and inclusive features here.

 

If this role isn’t quite right for you, we encourage you to join our talent community where your details will be shared with our recruitment teams for other potential opportunities.

Join the Talent Community here.

Join Thales in the UK – Innovate with us and shape the future!