Group Chief Engineer

Job Description:

Group Chief Engineer

Vehicle Certification Agency

Apply before 11:55 pm on Monday 26th January 2026

📍 Location: Nuneaton (Hybrid)

💷 Salary: £57,515 - £68,597 - A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
Retention and Recruitment Allowance - £5,289 p/a

🕒 Contract Type: Permanent – Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced automotive specialist to lead technical compliance activities in line with UK, UN and EU legislation. This role demands a great degree of knowledge in type approval processes, vehicle technology, and quality standards, alongside strong leadership and customer-facing capabilities.

Your oversight will be pivotal in maintaining technical competence, managing accreditation standards, and driving operational excellence across the VCA’s engineering and certification functions.

Adopting our values, you will deliver quality at pace and will play a key role in the safety and security of millions of road users. Our international operations will enable you to travel in post, experiencing new countries and cultures whilst working alongside a diverse range of customers and the world’s automotive experts.

We are passionate about offering all our colleagues' equal opportunities to develop and learn new skills that will enable us to thrive together. We also ensure we promote a work-life balance where you can benefit from flexible and hybrid working, regular health and wellbeing webinars and a friendly community of colleagues who will support you to succeed. 

Top Responsibilities

• Stewardship of the Agency’s systems, processes and procedures to ensure the Agency is technically competent and future protected for the delivery of its Type Approval services.
• Provide strategic leadership and effective line management to the Central Operations team.
• Create practical solutions to operational and engineering challenges as well as overseeing cross-functional teams that are responsible for implementing those solutions.
• Management of ISO 17020/25 accreditation process including development and maintenance of VCA/VCA Europe wide procedures for compliance with ISO(phone number removed) and ISO(phone number removed) standards.
• Assist VCA Europe to Manage Technical Service designations with other Approval Authorities.
• Working with Heads of all VCA operations to ensure that all work is carried out in accordance with relevant and current international and VCA internal standards, and external accreditations (UKAS, Accredia, Taiwan, TRIAS, OECD).

For further insight on the applicable responsibilities of the role, please see the full job advert using the link provided.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £57,515, Vehicle Certification Agency contributes £16,662 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Your wellbeing is important to us, which is why we’re pleased to offer a wide range of benefits to all our colleagues, inside and outside of work.

About you

To be successful in this role, you will need the following:

• Experience in an automotive regulatory or testing role, being a subject matter expert for key technical areas.
• Be skilled in working in a customer-oriented environment.
• Have proven financial and leadership development skills, showing an aptitude for developing a business relationship with key clients.
• Have demonstrable project management skills.
• Possess the ability to adapt to changing priorities and workload.
• Be willing to travel extensively in Japan and overseas (including stays of up to 4 weeks several times per year, if required).
• Extensive experience and understanding of UK, EU, and UN vehicle legislation.
• Extensive knowledge and understanding of vehicle technology.
• Expert knowledge of type approval operations and processes.
• Attributes of leadership, project management and commercial acumen, a good team working approach to develop the respective operational teams.
• Strongly analytical, with well-developed problem-solving skills.
• Working experience of Conformity of Production processes and quality assessment.
• Working experience of ISO 17020, ISO 17025 and ISO 9001 standards.
• Proficient in Microsoft platform including Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Be a holder of a UK driving licence.

Licences

A full UK Category B Driving Licence is essential.

Qualifications

Qualification in an engineering or technical discipline equivalent to Bachelor's degree, including Honours and Foundation degree and Diplomas of Higher Education.
NQF level 5 and 6, or equivalent experience.

You will be required to provide evidence that you hold any essential qualifications at some point during the recruitment process. If you cannot provide evidence, your application will be withdrawn.

How to Apply
👉 Read the full job description and apply at Civil Service Jobs using the link provided.

This vacancy closes at 23:55 on Monday 26th January 2026