Junior Product Development Engineer - DFM

Zero Surplus - Sales Industry Insight & Talent Strategy; Harlow; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Zero Surplus is collaborating with a leading design-led luxury interiors brand to recruit a Junior Product Development Engineer for their R&D team in Harlow. This is a genuine entry point for product design graduates who lean toward the engineering side, with a clear path to a full Product Development Engineer role.

You’ll support prototyping, 3D-printed models, drawings and specifications for quotation and manufacture, in-house testing, and certification liaising with external labs, while

Qualifications

• A BSc, BEng or MEng in Product Design Engineering, or in Product Design with a clear engineering focus.
• SolidWorks, or strong 3D CAD skills and the appetite to get up to speed quickly.
• A genuine commitment to a career in design for manufacture rather than concept design.
• Experience of, or a real interest in, manufacturing processes such as extrusion, die casting, injection moulding, pressing, fabrication and glass.

Responsibilities

• Prototyping and 3D-printed models, engineering drawings and specifications for quotation and manufacture.
• In-house testing and liaison with external test labs for certification.
• Sample evaluation reports back to the factories and managing the NPI timeline for own products.
• Flagging issues that threaten launch deadlines and ensuring compliance with IEC/UL directives.

Skills

SolidWorks

3D CAD

Design for manufacture

Education

BSc in Product Design Engineering

BEng in Product Design

MEng in Product Design Engineering

Tools

SolidWorks

3D CAD

Job description

We’re working with a leading design-led brand in the luxury interiors sector to find a Junior Product Development Engineer for their R&D team. A British business founded in the late 1990s, they now sell in over 90 countries with subsidiaries in the US and Asia. Everything they make is designed in house and manufactured through a global supply chain, and this is the role that takes a product from approved concept to something that can actually be built.

This is a genuine entry point into product engineering for product design graduates who leaned towards the engineering side of their course: the people who enjoyed working out how a product would be made, tested and certified as much as how it would look. It’s open to recent graduates and to people with up to two years’ experience, with a clear path to a full Product Development Engineer role.

The Role

Reporting to the Internal Product Development Leader, you’ll learn to engineer products from concept handover through to Tool Proof Sample approval, working to IEC and UL standards for the UK, EU, MEA, APAC and North American markets. You’ll start by supporting the experienced engineers in the team and take on your own products as you build up.

In practice that covers prototyping and 3D-printed models, engineering drawings and specifications for quotation and manufacture, in-house testing, liaison with external test labs for certification, and sample evaluation reports back to the factories. Over time you’ll take on the NPI timeline for your own products, calling the concept handover, engineering and compliance reviews, and flagging anything that threatens the seasonal launch dates.

You’ll work closely with suppliers, the packaging, quality and technical teams, and the supplier liaison managers in the China office. As you develop there’s scope to visit manufacturers overseas.

This is design for manufacture rather than concept design. There is no concept development in this role. The creative thinking goes into solving how something gets made to a very high standard, at the right cost, within a launch deadline. If you want to be the person sketching the product in the first place, this isn’t that job.

Compliance is also a real part of the week, not a footnote. IEC, UL and the various market directives sit behind every decision you make, so you need to be comfortable working within them rather than seeing them as an obstacle.

The role is based full-time at the Harlow HQ for the duration of your probation, so you’ll need to live within a sensible commute or be willing to relocate.

What We’re Looking For

• A BSc, BEng or MEng in Product Design Engineering, or in Product Design with a clear engineering focus. We’re particularly keen to hear from graduates of the University of East London, Brunel, Loughborough, Sheffield Hallam, the University of Nottingham, Strathclyde, Glasgow / Glasgow School of Art and Cardiff Met, though graduates of similar courses elsewhere are very welcome to apply
• SolidWorks, or strong 3D CAD skills and the appetite to get up to speed quickly
• A genuine commitment to a career in design for manufacture rather than concept design
• Experience of, or a real interest in, manufacturing processes such as extrusion, die casting, injection moulding, pressing, fabrication and glass