Going rate for this occupation: £46,800 · UK median pay £51,110
Home Office going rates from
Where this salary sits
UK pay for this occupation
This role£45,000 to £55,000stated
Going rate£46,800
UK median£51,110
ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025, full-time gross annual pay, UK. ONS published no separate row for this region and occupation, so the national curve is shown.View these figures as a table
ASHE pay percentiles for Mechanical engineers (professional) in UK
Percentile
Pay
10th
£33,274
25th
£39,125
50th
£51,110
75th
£62,237
Going rate
£46,800
UK median
£51,110
Sponsorship
Sponsorship chance
Low
·Not matched to a licence on the register
·Occupation is eligible for Skilled Worker
·Salary clears only at the top of the range
On the public records we hold, sponsorship for this role looks unlikely: not matched to a licence on the register, and occupation is eligible for Skilled Worker.
Confidence: high
We hold the employer, the occupation, a stated salary and the advert's own wording.
Why
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Mechanical Product Development Lead / Senior Mechanical Design Engineer Birmingham | £45,000-£55,000 + 10% bonus + benefits Take an ambitious product vision. Own it. And bring it to life.
We're partnering with an exciting, well-funded UK technology start-up at a pivotal point in its journey. Founded by two ambitious entrepreneurs and recently backed by US investment, the business has developed an innovative AI-enabled consumer product combining sophisticated mechanical, electrical, electronic, and thermal technologies. But what exists today is only the beginning. The architecture for the company's next-generation commercial product is already taking shape. Now they need an exceptional mechanical engineer to help turn that vision into reality. This is a rare opportunity to take genuine ownership of a product's development. We're looking for someone smart, creative, organised, intensely curious and hungry to build. The opportunity Working closely with the founders and wider engineering team in Birmingham, you'll become one of the key people responsible for developing the next generation of the company's technology. You'll start with an existing product, an established technology platform and a vision for its future commercial application. Your job is to connect the dots. What have we already built? Where does the commercial product need to get to? What do we already know will work? Where are the gaps? And what engineering, technology and design decisions will get us there? You'll take those questions and turn them into a structured product development programme. That means mechanical design, prototyping and testing - but it also means systems integration, research, certification, supplier engagement, technology selection, and real-world product discovery. What you'll own You'll take significant ownership for the mechanical development and integration of a complex physical product, including:
Developing the mechanical architecture from concept through prototype, validation, and manufacture
Owning parts, assemblies, and production drawings
Integrating mechanical, electrical, electronic, thermal, gas, and control systems into one cohesive product
Identifying technical gaps and creating structured development plans to resolve them
Exploring different technologies and engineering approaches rather than defaulting to what's been done before
Designing precision mechanisms, enclosures, seals, and thermally managed assemblies
Applying GD&T and tolerance stack-up analysis to ensure designs work reliably in production
Information from public records, not immigration advice.
Blocking: Not matched to a licence on the register
We could not match this employer to a licence on the Home Office register. That may mean they hold none, or that they trade under a name the register spells differently.
Home Office register of licensed sponsors
In favour: Occupation is eligible for Skilled Worker
Occupation code 2122 (Mechanical engineers (professional)) is eligible for the Skilled Worker route on the rules in force from 11 Nov 2025.
Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Occupations
In favour: Salary clears only at the top of the range
£45,000 to £55,000, from the advert, clears the going rate for occupation code 2122 of £46,800 only at the top of the range; the bottom falls £1,800 short.
Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Occupations
Not established: The advert says nothing about sponsorship
We searched the advert for the usual wording in both directions and found none of it.
The advert itself
Home Office register of licensed sponsors snapshot
Home Office going rates from
Skilled Worker general salary threshold from
Licence
Not on the sponsor register
We could not match this employer to a licence on the Home Office register. That may mean they hold none, or that they trade under a name the register spells differently.
Home Office register of licensed sponsors snapshot
Going-rate check
Going rate for this occupation
£46,800
This advert
£45,000 to £55,000
General salary minimum
£41,700
New entrant rate
£33,400
The range straddles the going rate: the top clears it by £8,200, the bottom falls short by £1,800.
Information from public records, not immigration advice.
Selecting materials and finishes for demanding environments
Using thermal and mechanical analysis to de-risk designs before prototyping
Designing for manufacture across sheet metal, CNC, additive manufacturing, fabrication, stamping, and casting
Developing prototypes, test methods, and validation programmes
Driving reliability, durability, and life testing
Working with suppliers to turn technical requirements into manufacturable components
Maintaining disciplined CAD, BOM, revision and engineering change data
Supporting product certification and generating the engineering evidence required to achieve it
Managing the day-to-day development activity required to keep the programme moving forward
Some of the most important answers won't necessarily be found in Birmingham. This role will involve international travel, including Canada and the US, as part of product research, certification, and development. That could mean working alongside certification specialists, visiting suppliers, investigating technologies, or spending time with potential commercial users to understand how products are used in the real world.
Who we're looking for Your background could come from: Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace, Biomedical / MedTech, Robotics, Consumer Products, Automotive, Industrial Design, Advanced Engineering. However, industry isn't the deciding factor. You may already have several years of product development experience and have taken complex mechanical products from concept into manufacture. Or you may be earlier in your career but able to demonstrate exceptional technical ability, creativity, and ownership. The person matters We're looking for someone who is genuinely hungry to create something. You'll probably be the sort of engineer who can't help asking why? You'll research technologies outside your immediate discipline. You'll be comfortable saying, "I don't know yet, but I'll work it out." And crucially, you'll be able to turn that curiosity into execution. Why join? Because you won't be joining to maintain somebody else's finished product. You'll be joining to create what comes next. The company has secured investment, developed its core technology and has significant ambitions for international growth. The next stage is about taking everything they've learned and applying it to an ambitious new commercial product. If you're looking for a tightly defined engineering role where somebody else has already decided what needs to happen and how to do it, this probably isn't for you. But if you're the kind of engineer who hears "this is what we've built, this is where we want to get to - now help us work out how" and immediately wants to get started, we'd love to hear from you.