Mechanical Product Engineer

Hausbots; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 50,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private dental cover

Pension contribution

On-site parking

Potential share options

Job summary

HausBots is seeking a Mechanical Product Engineer to own the design and delivery of industrial hardware across our product range. This hands-on role requires building, testing and iterating real parts in a fast-moving environment, not just CAD.

You will own projects end-to-end, from brief to completion, balancing performance with manufacturability while collaborating with a small, agile team at Stirchley, Birmingham.

Qualifications

• 5+ years' mechanical or product engineering experience
• Strong mechanical design fundamentals
• DFM capability and fabrication awareness
• Knowledge of machining, sheet metal, moulding, additive
• Genuine hands-on design, build and test
• Ability to produce manufacturing-ready drawings

Responsibilities

• Own delivery from brief to completion, managing scope, timelines and resources
• Design hardware that survives the field in hostile environments
• Design for manufacture with DFM discipline, tooling and supplier considerations
• Prototype, test, refine with iterative development
• Support junior engineers and technicians to remove blockers and improve processes

Skills

Mechanical design

DFM capability

Manufacturing knowledge

Hands-on design

Project delivery

Communication

Portfolio

Tools

SolidWorks

Job description

Portfolio required. Applications without one will not be reviewed.

About us

HausBots designs and manufactures advanced robotics for the inspection and maintenance of critical infrastructure: offshore platforms, storage tanks and steel structures in some of the harshest environments on earth.

We're a VC-backed scale-up, around 18 months into a soft launch of our flagship product with real customers, building the use cases and confidence to move into full-scale distribution. The team is small and deliberately lean, which means every engineer here has genuine influence over what gets built and how well it survives the field.

The role

We're looking for a Mechanical Product Engineer to own the design and delivery of industrial hardware across our product range.

We operate more like a fast-moving consultancy than a conventional product company. We design, prototype quickly, test in the real world and iterate hard, rather than perfecting everything on screen before we build.

You'll own individual projects end to end. This is hands-on. You'll design, build and test, not manage from a screen.

What you'll do

• Own delivery. Take projects from brief to completion, managing scope, timelines and resourcing with a bias towards action.
• Design hardware that survives the field. Design mechanical assemblies and product enclosures for genuinely hostile environments: vibration, impact, water ingress, corrosion and temperature. Make the material, process and tolerance decisions that determine whether a part works on the twentieth unit as well as the first.
• Design for manufacture. Bring real DFM discipline to our hardware: selecting processes, designing for the tooling and suppliers we actually use, reducing part count and assembly time, and producing drawings and documentation a manufacturer can build from without guessing.
• Prototype, test, refine. Work iteratively. Build it, break it, learn, revise. We'd rather test early than model indefinitely.
• Support the wider team. Help our junior engineers build good habits around documentation, reasoning and process, and work with our technicians to clear the practical blockers that slow builds and tests.

What we need

Essential:

• 5+ years' mechanical or product engineering experience designing physical hardware that has reached real users
• Strong mechanical design fundamentals: materials selection, tolerances and fits, fastening and joining, structural and loading considerations
• Demonstrable DFM capability. You design for how a part will actually be made, not just for how it looks in CAD
• Working knowledge of manufacturing processes and their constraints (machining, sheet metal, fabrication, moulding, additive)
• Genuine hands-on experience: design, build, test, iterate, not screen-based design alone
• Strong CAD skills and the ability to produce manufacturing-ready drawings and documentation using SolidWorks.
• Track record of owning project delivery and managing timelines in a fast-paced, consultancy-style or similarly high-tempo environment
• Strong communicator who gathers information proactively and integrates quickly into a small team
• A portfolio of your hands-on design work. This is non-negotiable.

Desirable:

• Industrial design sensibility: an eye for form, usability and how a product is handled in the field, not just whether it functions
• Harsh-environment, outdoor or industrial equipment design (IP sealing, corrosion resistance, serviceability)
• Robotics or critical infrastructure equipment
• Production handoff, BOM ownership, supplier liaison or change control
• Experience supporting or informally guiding junior engineers

We will not consider any application that arrives without a portfolio. No portfolio, no submission. This isn't a formality. We need to see what you've actually designed and built.

Benefits

• £45,000-£50,000 depending on experience
• Private dental cover
• Pension contribution
• On-site parking
• Potential share options, dependent on performance and length of service

Location

On-site at our Stirchley, Birmingham workshop. Given the hands-on, fast-iteration nature of the work, this is not a remote or hybrid position.

Interview process

• Introductory conversation. Your background, your experience owning delivery, and what draws you to HausBots. We're gauging communication style and pace as much as content.
• Technical test. A remote design exercise spanning mechanical reasoning, manufacturing process selection and DFM judgement under realistic constraints.
• Face-to-face panel. In person at our Stirchley workshop. Expect questions on owning a live project, handling shifting priorities, and working with our existing engineers.

HausBots is an equal opportunities employer.