Head of Platform Engineering (Automation & Robotics)

Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom; based at the hirify.global Campus, approximately 10 miles south of Cambridge.

Company

Cellular Origins is building an automation platform that enables reliable, repeatable and scalable manufacturing of cell therapies.

What you will do

• Set the platform engineering strategy, priorities, roadmap, investment plans and resource choices.
• Lead managers and discipline leaders across software, hardware, electronics and firmware, robotics, and systems integration.
• Drive delivery through realistic planning, measurable outcomes, early risk management and decisive blocker resolution.
• Establish engineering practices covering architecture, design review, integration, verification and validation, configuration control, reliability and lifecycle support.
• Protect platform coherence while balancing customer needs, modularity, reuse, technical debt, product integrity and long-term scalability.
• Represent platform engineering in technical discussions with customers, partners and suppliers, while building future capability through talent, skills and succession planning.

Requirements

• Proven experience leading a substantial multidisciplinary engineering department through senior managers or discipline leaders.
• Experience delivering integrated automation, robotics, electromechanical systems or other complex capital equipment from concept through deployment and support.
• Technical breadth across software, embedded systems, electronics, hardware, controls, robotics and systems integration.
• Experience balancing architecture, modularity, reuse, technical debt and lifecycle needs with product and customer programme demands.
• Practical knowledge of quality, safety, design assurance, verification and validation, configuration and change management, reliability and continuous improvement.
• Strong commercial judgement, communication, stakeholder influence and customer-facing technical leadership.

Nice to have

• Experience in a regulated, safety-critical or high-reliability environment.
• Life sciences or GMP experience.

Culture & Benefits

• Entrepreneurial working culture with shared ideas, collaboration and autonomy.
• Annual bonus and employer pension contribution of 10% of salary.
• 25 days of holiday, enhanced family-friendly leave and private medical insurance for employees and dependants.
• Life insurance worth six times salary.
• Electric car leasing, cycle-to-work scheme and season-ticket loan.