Product Value Engineer

Headturner Search; Ledbury; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Headturner Search is seeking a Product Value Engineer – Cost Reduction in Ledbury. The role focuses on cost-out opportunities, product improvement, and commercial performance across engineering, procurement, production and commercial teams.

You will assess designs, materials and components to deliver tangible value while ensuring manufacturability and performance. This position emphasizes product cost reduction rather than process optimization.

Qualifications

• Solid mechanical engineering foundation with practical experience in manufacturing.
• Experience in value engineering, product improvement or cost reduction.
• Ability to interpret designs, drawings and materials for cost and manufacturability.

Responsibilities

• Review existing products to identify cost-out opportunities and simplifications.
• Evaluate designs, specifications and materials from engineering and commercial perspectives.
• Develop and manage a pipeline of value engineering projects and track savings.

Skills

Mechanical engineering

Cost reduction

Value engineering

Design for cost

Materials selection

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

CAD

3D modeling

Job description

We are exclusively representing an established and successful business in Ledbury in the appointment of a Product Value Engineer – Cost Reduction.

This is an interesting opportunity for a mechanically minded engineer who enjoys looking at an existing product and asking: could we make this better, simpler or more cost-effectively?

Sitting at the intersection of engineering, manufacturing and commercial performance, the role will take ownership of product cost-out and value engineering activity – reviewing designs, specifications, materials and components to identify practical improvements that deliver measurable value.

While Continuous Improvement principles will naturally form part of the role, the emphasis is product rather than process.

We are therefore particularly interested in engineers who are comfortable getting into the detail of products, drawings, specifications, materials and components and applying both engineering judgement and commercial thinking.

The opportunity

Working collaboratively across Technical, Procurement, Production and Commercial teams, you will identify and deliver opportunities to improve existing products and their commercial performance.

• Reviewing existing products and identifying cost-out opportunities
• Exploring ways to simplify and standardise products and components
• Reviewing designs, specifications and material choices from both an engineering and commercial perspective
• Identifying alternative materials, components and manufacturing solutions
• Working with Procurement and suppliers to explore alternative sourcing opportunities
• Supporting product redesign and improvement projects
• Testing and validating design changes and alternative components
• Ensuring improvements remain practical, manufacturable and fit for purpose
• Developing and managing a pipeline of value engineering and cost-reduction projects
• Tracking savings and measuring the impact of completed projects
• Working cross-functionally to take ideas from initial opportunity through to implementation

About you

We are looking for someone with a solid mechanical engineering foundation and practical experience within a manufacturing environment. You may already be working in Value Engineering, Product Engineering, Design Engineering, Cost Reduction or Product Improvement, or your current role may combine elements of several of these. More important than your current job title is your ability to understand an engineered product and consider how its design, specification, materials or components could be improved.

Ideally, you will bring:

• A relevant Mechanical Engineering degree
• Strong practical engineering knowledge
• Experience interpreting engineering designs, drawings and specifications
• An understanding of materials, components and manufacturability
• Experience contributing to product improvement, value engineering, cost reduction or design-to-cost activity
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Good commercial awareness and an understanding of the relationship between engineering decisions, product cost and margin
• Confidence working collaboratively with technical, operational, procurement and commercial colleagues
• The ability to turn improvement ideas into practical, measurable results

Experience working with suppliers to explore alternative materials, components or sourcing options would be particularly valuable.

A role with tangible impact

This is a great opportunity for an engineer who enjoys the combination of technical problem solving and commercial thinking.

Rather than focusing predominantly on manufacturing process efficiency, the role provides the opportunity to get closer to the product itself – understanding how it is designed and specified, challenging where appropriate and identifying changes that can improve cost, manufacturability, performance and ultimately customer value.

You will have genuine ownership of your projects and be able to see the measurable impact of the improvements you deliver.