The Opportunity
We’re looking for a Senior Customer Support Engineer who can bring direction, energy and focus to a small engineering team while staying hands-on with advanced defence technology.
This opportunity would suit an experienced engineer who enjoys leading people as much as solving technical problems. You’ll combine practical electro-mechanical expertise with the ability to motivate colleagues, organise competing priorities and anticipate what needs to happen next. Your background could be in field service, customer support, production supervision or another engineering environment - you don’t need to have held an identical role.
Who We Are
OpenWorks is a rapidly growing business operating globally with a passion for exceptional engineering and building on a legacy of defence innovation in the North East of England.
Our products provide ultra-high performance, real-time detection, tracking, identification and targeting of dynamic aerial threats. They have been deployed internationally to protect high profile military and civilian assets, and contribute towards the defeat of nuisance, misguided and maliciously deployed drones during operations.
We are very proud to have supported a wide range of law enforcement and military operators, protecting many of the most high profile sites and individuals around the world.
The amazing things we do are only possible because of a dedicated and passionate team.
Security Vetting Information
OpenWorks Engineering operates within the defence sector. Applicants for this role must be eligible to obtain UK Security Check (SC) clearance. As part of our recruitment and onboarding processes, we collect information that may be required to support security vetting and clearance requirements.
Why You’ll Love Working With Us
Join a high-energy, collaborative team where great ideas thrive, challenges are embraced, and people genuinely love what they do.
Here’s what our benefits have to offer:
Rewarding Success - Competitive salary, starting from £41,520, plus a discretionary annual bonus of up to 25% of salary alongside a structured pay progression framework.
Enhanced Pension – Up to 8% employer-matched contributions to help you plan for the future.
More Time to Recharge – 25 days’ holiday plus public holidays, long-service rewards, and the option to buy up to 5 extra days.
Breakfast & Lunch on Us – Enjoy team breakfasts and freshly prepared lunches every day courtesy of Chef Mark and his team.
Health & Wellbeing – Private healthcare and life assurance for added peace of mind.
Sustainable Travel – Salary sacrifice schemes, including EV car and Cycle to Work options.
Team Socials – Regular events, from quiz nights and football to board games and more.
Learning & Growth – A culture that empowers you to challenge, grow and make an impact, plus a £250 annual learning budget to invest in the development that matters most to you.
What you’ll be doing:
- Lead and motivate the team: Provide day-to-day supervision, set clear expectations and keep engineers focused, supported and accountable for delivery.
- Organise and prioritise work: Triage support requests and returned equipment, allocate tasks and balance priorities across workshop, remote and field support activities.
- Stay hands-on: Diagnose and repair electrical, electronic and mechanical faults, delivering preventative and corrective maintenance both in Prudhoe and at customer sites.
- Plan ahead and maintain momentum: Track progress, anticipate resource needs and resolve barriers to reduce outstanding work and meet customer commitments.
- Lead complex investigations: Act as the senior technical escalation point, investigate equipment failures and support root cause analysis.
- Develop team capability: Coach and mentor engineers, support onboarding and competency assessments, and contribute to performance and development plans.
- Strengthen service standards: Review technical findings, repair recommendations and documentation, identifying improvements to reliability, efficiency and customer satisfaction.
- Support customer operations: Provide clear technical advice, support customer escalations and deputise for the Customer Support Manager when required.
What we’re looking for:
Essential
- Proven people supervision: Experience managing or supervising engineering colleagues and their workloads, with the ability to motivate others, set expectations and follow through on delivery.
- Hands-on engineering expertise: Extensive experience diagnosing and repairing electrical, electronic and mechanical equipment, including preventative and corrective maintenance.
- Strong technical judgement: Experience investigating complex faults, supporting root cause analysis and making sound technical and operational decisions independently.
- Organisation and foresight: The ability to manage competing demands, allocate work effectively and anticipate what the team needs to deliver successfully.
- People and customer skills: An approachable, confident communicator who builds effective relationships with colleagues and customers and produces clear technical reports.
- Travel and security requirements: A full UK driving licence, willingness to undertake UK and international travel, and eligibility to obtain UK Security Check (SC) clearance.
Desirable
- Relevant systems and service experience: Experience in field service or supporting electro-optical, surveillance, defence or other complex engineered systems. Familiarity with ERP or service management systems would also be useful.
- Qualifications and development: An engineering qualification such as an HNC, HND, Foundation Degree or apprenticeship, or equivalent industry experience. Leadership, coaching or management qualifications would also be welcome.
More about us:
Vision
Help protect the territory and airspace of NATO countries and their allies.
Mission
Be a world-leading provider of autonomous technology for Surveillance applications and Defence
Values
Be a Good Egg: Earn respect, have mutual trust and be honest
Do cool stuff: We develop cool tech with an awesome team, and we get stuff done
Be empowered: We are autonomous, reliable and take personal responsibility
We are one team: Look out for each other and the team
Things go wrong: Fail fast, learn and move on
Have fun: We’re doing amazing things with passionate people
We Get It Done: Focus on what matters and work with energy to bring ideas to life
Applicants must have the right to work in the UK. We are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.