Design Manager

Rowden

Design Manager responsible for hardware product delivery from strategy through execution. Leading a cross-functional team at Rowden, enhancing national security with innovative technology.

Posted 6/19/2026full-timeBristol • 🇬🇧 United KingdomMid-LevelSenior💰 £70,000 - £90,000 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Own and develop the product roadmap aligned with market need and business strategy.
Define a clear product vision, translating customer problems into actionable requirements.
Prioritise features and capabilities across multiple platforms and constraints.
Communicate vision clearly to cross-functional teams, customers, and stakeholders.
Manage hardware product delivery across the full lifecycle; concept, design, prototyping, production.
Own schedule, quality, cost and technical risk across product lines.
Make trade-off decisions between performance, cost, timeline and capability in ambiguous environments.
Drive integration and manufacturing readiness; understand supply chain constraints and logistics.
Ensure products meet specification, reliability, cost targets and customer expectations.
Build and lead a small team (design, engineering, and operations as needed).
Support your team through technical decisions, problem-solving and career development.
Work cross-functionally with engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and customer teams.
Mentor engineers and establish a culture of accountability and pragmatism.
Maintain direct relationships with customers; understand their operational needs and constraints.
Respond quickly to market feedback and customer requests.
Contribute to go-to-market strategy, pricing, business cases and bid development.
Ensure customer and end-user needs are reflected in product priorities and decision-making.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Experience delivering hardware products from concept to production, with experience managing end-to-end product lifecycle.
Track record of leading cross-functional teams through complex, multi-disciplinary delivery.
Proven ability to prioritise, make trade-off decisions, and execute in resource-constrained or ambiguous environments.
Strong understanding of supply chain, manufacturing, cost management and production logistics.
Experience defining product requirements, managing roadmaps and translating customer needs into delivery.
Software product development or supporting software-hardware integration.
RF, electronics or communications domain knowledge.
Defence, aerospace or mission-critical systems background (familiar with compliance and demanding customers).
Familiarity with agile delivery, rapid prototyping and iterative development.

Benefits

Comp & perks

We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are!
We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid-working model, with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.
Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.
Finally, if you feel that you don’t meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we’d still love to hear from you!

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

product roadmap developmentproduct lifecycle managementproduct requirements definitionsupply chain managementcost managementproduction logisticssoftware-hardware integrationagile deliveryrapid prototypingiterative development

Soft Skills

communicationleadershipproblem-solvingteam buildingmentoringcross-functional collaborationdecision-makingaccountabilityadaptabilitycustomer relationship management