If you’re a knee design engineer at a corporate orthopaedic business who feels like one engineer of twenty on someone else’s programme, this is worth a read.
I am supporting an orthopaedic manufacturer hiring a Senior Design Engineer to take technical ownership of the knee product line.
What you’ll actually own:
Roughly 70 percent of your time goes into the knee product line. You’ll look at the test reports and biomechanical evidence behind the product, judge whether the justifications still hold, and write the rationale that lets the team proceed. Where retesting is needed, you’ll scope it and hand the project management to a junior engineer working alongside you.
The remainder is real design work. Redeveloping existing instruments, refining legacy product, contributing CAD into the wider pipeline. Twelve months out, the business plan to add a third bearing configuration to the product. You’ll be part of shaping that from the requirements stage onwards.
Why this role is different to most UK orthopaedic design roles:
You are the technical owner of the product line, not one CAD operator on a programme run by someone else. The remit pulls on regulatory, quality and operations. You help develop a junior engineer organically, without the formal line-management overhead. And the longer term pathway is building a junior pipeline behind you as the function grows.
It’s also one of the rare UK businesses still running implantable and instrumentation design in house.
What they need:
Minimum 5 years in orthopaedics. Knee experience strongly preferred. Hip, shoulder or instrumentation considered if the orthopaedic foundation is strong.
SolidWorks primarily with a track record of leading projects across disciplines.
Confidence in biomechanical justification and gap analysis on existing technical files.
Package and working arrangement:
Senior level supports up to 85 percent remote with a couple of days a month in the office.
Apply with an up to date CV and I’ll be in touch.
