Title: Engine Workshop Manager
Department: Engines
Reporting to: Factory Manager
Salary: £38,000+ (candidate dependent)
About Us:
Radical Motorsport is one of the world’s most prolific sports car manufacturers, with over 3,000 cars produced in the past 28 years. From its 1997 inception, Radical set out to create a customer-lead niche in the world of motorsport, a race-bred thrill-a-minute driving experience. But the Radical philosophy extends much wider than just the cars. By launching our own race championships, we became the first manufacturer to bring long-format, doubleheader endurance racing to the club racer, and provided a comprehensive spares and technical support team at every event that continues to this day.
At our Peterborough manufacturing HQ, we produce up to 200 cars per year, exported to a global network of over 30 dealers. This is where we see our cars from start to finish before they hit the track -from our team of engineers who design and test new concepts, to the production teams who machine, fabricate, laminate, engine build, sub assemble, bay assemble, and dyno sign off every Radical car produced.
Role Overview:
Lead and own the technical delivery and operational efficiency of the engine department. A hands-on leadership role, completing engine builds and refreshes when required, whilst being responsible for workshop standards, technical quality, training/skills development, dyno operations, scheduling and continuous improvement. Accountable for final scheduling, staff performance, escalation of operational constraints and department efficiency.
Key Responsibilities:
Workshop delivery & quality
• Own day-to-day delivery of production engines rebuilds and refresh engines to schedule and quality standards.
• Be hands-on completing engine builds and refreshes as required.
• Responsibility for scheduling work: review operations input and set the workshop’s definitive plan to meet commitments.
• Sign-off technical inspections and release completed engines.
Failure analysis & quality interface
• Lead failure analysis activities, working closely with the Quality Manager.
• Record and analyse failure metrics and trends; own the non-conforming part process and corrective actions.
• Develop and implement in-house NDT testing capabilities where appropriate to support quality and R&D feedback loops.
Department efficiency & resource control
• Own department efficiency targets: monitor productivity, identify bottlenecks and introduce improvements to meet throughput and cost targets.
• Plan and allocate resources, tooling and labour effectively.
• Maintain H&S compliance, tooling calibration and housekeeping standards.
People leadership & time management
• Lead, mentor and develop the engine team (builders, technicians, dyno tech). Build interchangeable skills and accountability.
• Manage the time-and-attendance system (Tensor); own rota creation, absence management and time-related compliance.
• Run recruitment, appraisals, competency assessments and technical training.
Dyno, technical data & customer technical support
• Maintain and optimise dyno availability and reliability; analyse ECU/dyno data for tuning, diagnostics and development.
• Support Technical Support Engineers on customer issues raised, providing technical input, data analysis and remediation plans.
Processes, standards & continuous improvement
• Create and maintain SOPs, assembly guides and quality control documentation.
• Drive lean improvements to raise productivity and reduce rework/cost.
Cross-functional collaboration & escalation
• Work with R&D, production, procurement, aftersales and operations to support new platform development and parts availability (operational liaison).
• Escalate unresolved operational constraints to Factory Manager / senior management and propose mitigation.
Authority & decision-making
• Final technical sign-off on engines and release to customers/production.
• Final authority on workshop scheduling and resource allocation within agreed budgets.
• Authority to initiate non-conformance investigations and corrective actions.
KPIs
• On-time delivery (%).
• Department efficiency (throughput per FTE).
• First-pass quality / rework rate.
• Dyno utilisation / uptime.
• Failure rate/trend reduction and NCP closure time.
• Time & attendance compliance / absence rate.
• Safety and housekeeping audit scores.
Candidate Profile:
Essential: Hands-on experience building/rebuilding/tuning petrol (motorcycle) engines; supervisory/management experience; diagnostic and ECU/dyno data analysis skills; strong communicator; competent with ERP/MS Office.
Desirable: Dyno operation experience; NDT knowledge; engineering/technical qualification.
Package and Benefits:
• Full Time, Permanent Contract.
• 33 Days of Annual Leave – inclusive of UK Bank Holidays
• Company Pension Scheme – Matching up to 4% of contributions.
• Death in Service Insurance – Paying up to 3x salary to nominated beneficiaries.
• Enhanced Paternity and Sick Pay Scheme
• An inclusive and supportive company culture.
This role will be live until November 7th 2025, all applicants can expect a response by November 14th 2025.