mechanical engineer jobs

Job Description

Lifecycle Engineer – SSNA (Nuclear Watchkeeper) - Submarines

Full Time

Derby

A vacancy has arisen for a Lifecycle Engineer to join the SSNA Chief Engineering team based in Derby.

The SSNA Chief Engineering team in a key role responsible for improving submarine availability, by influencing design to consider maintainability, supportability, operability, and reliability principles. Improvement in the availability of the submarine flotilla is one of our customer’s key priorities and in this position you will be responsible for ensuring we meet their expectations.

You’ll be working with key stakeholders across the Rolls-Royce Submarines business and wider enterprise, including the MoD, BAE Systems and Babcock, to ensure all through-life aspects of the Naval Reactor Plant are optimised to achieve this outcome. You’ll be the driving force behind these activities, and to succeed, you’ll be an experienced and pragmatic engineer, with excellent communication skills, as collaboration is essential as part of this role. You will provide technical leadership and support to the programme teams to enable delivery of these activities through alignment of key business areas and supporting functions. We’re expecting that you’ll be up for the challenge that a complex technical programme with tight timescales brings.

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.

What you will be doing:

In this role you’ll form a key part of the SSNA Chief Engineering team and be responsible for identifying and enabling delivery of work packages across the business. You’ll be an experienced and pragmatic engineer that’s able to identify and deliver solutions to complex problems, often requiring innovative approaches affecting multiple stakeholder groups.

• Developing the strategy and providing technical leadership for the Integrated Product Support programme of work for the SSNA Naval Reactor Plant
• Working closely with key stakeholders (internal and external) in a collaborative manner, to ensure effective solutions are identified and the ‘best-for-enterprise’ solution adopted
• Representing Rolls-Royce at external meetings with the SSNA Support Integrator organisation (comprising MoD, BAE Systems and Babcock).
• Ensuring LfE from in-service programmes is considered and implemented on the SSNA programme where appropriate.
• Identifying opportunities to reduce the maintenance burden associated with the Naval Reactor Plant and enabling delivery of associated work packages.
• Ensuring environmental, sustainability and disposal aspects are appropriately considered for the Naval Reactor Plant.
• Providing technical leadership and supporting the project teams to ensure successful and timely delivery of work packages and ensuring the required level of quality is achieved.

Position Qualifications:

To be successful in the role you will have:

• Detailed knowledge of the Naval Reactor Plant is highly desirable.
• The ability to initiate strategies for solving complex problems and the making of accurate decisions and recommendations.
• Self-starter who can take the initiative and make risk-based, informed judgements, whilst recognising when to escalate or consult specialists and subject matter experts.
• Ability to work effectively across a range of tasks and collaboratively with stakeholders from multiple disciplines, both internally and externally.
• Strong planning and organising skills to manage short, medium and long-term activities and deliverables.
• Engineering degree or equivalent.

For more than 60 years Rolls-Royce Submarines has designed, supplied and supported the nuclear propulsion plant, providing power for all UK Royal Navy nuclear submarines.

To work for Rolls-Royce Submarines an individual must hold a Security Check clearance. We will support the application for Security Clearance if you don’t already have it. Due to the nature of work we conduct, we can only progress applications from individuals who are a UK national or, in MoD approved cases, a dual national.

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.

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

Engineering for Services

Posting Date

02 Jan 2026; 00:01

Posting End Date

09 Jan 2026