R&D Manager - Heat Pumps

Location: Portadown, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Workplace: On-site

Company

Octopus Centre for Heating Technology is the hardware division of hirify.global Group, developing and manufacturing air source heat pumps and associated hardware for residential installations.

What you will do

• Lead engineers and technicians developing air source heat pumps and associated components across the full product lifecycle.
• Define the technical roadmap and direction for heat pump research and development.
• Oversee hardware design, testing, validation, system integration, and component selection.
• Manage laboratory and field testing, using installation data to guide product decisions.
• Lead compliance testing against MCS, CE/UKCA, EN 14511, F-Gas, ErP, and related standards.
• Specify and maintain test rigs and laboratory facilities while managing technical risks, schedules, suppliers, and team development.

Requirements

• Graduate or postgraduate engineering qualification in mechanical, electrical, or a closely related discipline.
• Proven experience managing an engineering team, including delivery, workload planning, and development.
• Substantial heat pump, HVAC, or refrigeration product development experience with strong knowledge of thermodynamics and system components.
• Track record of taking hardware products from concept through to market.
• Systems-level understanding across mechanical, electrical, controls, and software domains.
• Strong communication skills and experience managing competing priorities in a fast-paced development environment.

Nice to have

• Experience with field-deployed products and operational data-driven improvement.
• Familiarity with UK and EU heat pump and low-carbon heating regulations.
• Design-for-manufacture experience, particularly for volume consumer hardware.

Culture & Benefits

• Work in an R&D environment focused on moving hardware products from ideas to real-world deployment.
• Collaborate with platform, firmware, design, product, commercial, manufacturing, supplier, and certification teams.
• Inclusive, equal-opportunity workplace that values honesty, empathy, and diverse perspectives.
• Interview accommodations can be arranged to support individual needs.