Luke Simpson
Chessington,SRY
Summary
Mechanical design and manufacturing engineer with full product lifecycle and business operations, and defence experience. I feel most comfortable when being challenged in high pressure environments and my friendly and confident manor means I work fantastically in teams but can also take my own initiative to complete objectives.
Overview
8
8
years of professional experience
2
2
years of post-secondary education
Work history
Mechanical Design Engineer
Thales
Crawley , West Sussex
2025.04 - Current
- Designed and validated safety-critical components in Creo and Creo Simulate (FEA) for marine environments, ensuring structural integrity under worst-case conditions and produced analysis-backed justifications for Design Authority approval.
- Applied defence design standards and manuals at concept stage to ensure compliance from initial design through to release.
- Conducted on-vessel investigations, prototyping, and iterative design changes to diagnose and resolve in-service issues.
- Developed modification kits enabling customer-led installation of design changes, including full design packs: investigation, concept development, detailed design, drawings, BoMs, and installation instructions.
- Produced and released engineering documentation to a high standard, passing multiple layers of peer review and quality assurance before release.
- Used the windchill PDM system extensively for managing, tracking and recording all design's, document's, and changes throughout my employment.
Aero-mechanical Design Engineer
Evolve Dynamics
Guildford , Surrey
2024.07 - 2024.10
- Worked closely with production to generate a complete pack of complex solidworks assemblies & assembly/manufacturing drawings for the Sky Mantis V2 aircraft, including detailed multi level BoM's.
- Liaised with electronics to design a charger for the Nano V2 drone, iterating mechanical designs around PCB changes, and compliance requirements.
- Was always working on multiple concurrent design tasks required for business critical engineering changes, raising ECN's and ensuring all relevant parties are kept informed to assure implementation into production.
Director & Co-founder
Xtreme RC
Datchet, Berkshire
2022.06 - 2024.01
- Founded & directed company that designed, manufactured and built high speed radio controlled robotic platforms.
- Designed our complex product using my design and FEA skills in solidworks from the ground up.
- Took product from conception to market, including securing investment to acquire the required machinery and premises to manufacture our robotic platforms.
- Setup manufacturing including jig and fixture design, CNC programming in fusion 360, tooling selection and scheduling using lean principles for efficient production of components.
- Worked with customers to determine their intended use case, specification, budget and timeline to create tailored packages for customers in the security, inspection and defence industry, with the most notable client being the MOD.
- Ran machining sub contract business in tandem, providing precision components to sectors such as drones, automotive and manufacturing. Ensuring quality and on time delivery, also providing design consultancy and cost engineering services.
Advanced Manufacturing Engineer (Placement year)
GE Measurement and Sensing
Leicester , Leicestershire
2018.06 - 2019.07
- Helped introduce a new helpdesk system that allowed metrics to be analysed and increased efficiency. Required organising and leading meetings with experienced production leaders.
- Pioneered sites first automation in the form of a COBOT. Designed tooling, programs, and procedures to automate solder process which achieved 6-month ROI. Pitched business justification to head of site which helped secure second COBOT.
- Supported multiple production areas designing tooling using lean manufacturing principles and for quality. A tool I designed in few hours showed direct cost savings of £7K + per year.
- Designed tooling and programs for LASER CMM machine to inspect pressure sensor diaphragms. Adapted programs in high pressure situations such as product failures to measure wire bond heights vs allowable tolerance.
- Performed and compiled data from capability testing on 10 electron beam welders so weld depths for different machines could be mapped. This went towards securing site NADCAP approval.
- Worked in highly regulated environments such as aerospace and defence, ensuring compliance across all work.
Education
BEng (Hons) First Class - Motorsport Engineering
Oxford Brookes University
Oxford 2020-06
A-Levels - Physics (A) , Mathematics (B), Chemistry (C)
Chessington Community College
Chessington2016-06
GCSEs -
Chessington School
Chessington 2012.08 - 2014.05
Skills
Key skills
- Leadership - Able to know when to step in with constructive advice and when to take a step back My leadership philosophy is to serve my team, not the other way around
- Effective Communication - Prioritise communication with all departments and levels of personnel This has resulted in great relationships being formed at workplaces allowing tasks to be executed more effectively
- Performance under pressure - Demonstrated exceptional performance in the highest pressure scenarios From re designing tooling that was stopping an airbus line, to quickly adapting CNC programs to ensure failed parts were in spec, all whilst being constantly pressured by customers and engineering leads
Software
- Solidworks - Modelling, Drawing, FEA
- Autodesk Fusion 360 - CAM programming
- MSC ADAMS - Vehicle dynamic modelling
- SAP ERP System - Document control, change notes etc
- Excel
Programming
- MATLAB - Modelled a space shuttle launch and created a lap time simulator for university projects
- COBOT Programming - Used in placement year to increase efficiency and health and safety of a solder process
- CMM Programming - Programmed LASER CMM machine and designed tooling to accurately measure pressure sensor diaphragms
Manufacturing
- CNC - Lathe and mill programming, setup, operation (Haas)
- Production Support - Can deal with production issues effectively and quickly whilst keeping all relevant parties updated
- 3D Printing - Extensive experience with FDM, Polyjet, SLS
- Tool and Jig Design - Designed for many different processes with a focus towards lean manufacturing
Other
- First aid - Hold St John's ambulance first aid at work qualification
- Fire marshal - Hold St John's ambulance fire marshal qualification
Affiliations
- Motorsport - Been a huge motorsport fan for as long as I can remember, love everything to do with performance and racing. Regularly attend race days at Brands Hatch and go karting as often as I can.
- Flying - I have a passion for aviation and aircraft, enjoy taking flying lessons when funds allow
- Cars - Being a huge petrol head I enjoy taking performance cars to the edge as well as tuning and repairing cars myself.
- Fitness - I thoroughly enjoy keeping fit and active as it increases performance in every other aspect of life
Timeline
Mechanical Design Engineer
Thales
2025.04 - Current
Aero-mechanical Design Engineer
Evolve Dynamics
2024.07 - 2024.10
Director & Co-founder
Xtreme RC
2022.06 - 2024.01
Advanced Manufacturing Engineer (Placement year)
GE Measurement and Sensing
2018.06 - 2019.07
GCSEs -
Chessington School
2012.08 - 2014.05
BEng (Hons) First Class - Motorsport Engineering
Oxford Brookes University
A-Levels - Physics (A) , Mathematics (B), Chemistry (C)
Chessington Community College