Staff Engineer – Continuous Product Development

Kohler Co.; Cheltenham; Hybrid; GBP 56,000 - 68,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private health care

Generous pension scheme

Company bonus

Job summary

Kohler Mira Ltd. in Cheltenham is seeking an experienced, multi-skilled engineer to join the Continuous Product Development (CPD) team.

This senior role leads design engineering projects across brands to improve and sustain products throughout their lifecycle, with accountability from concept to implementation. You will provide technical direction, identify improvements, manage risks, and ensure compliant, auditable changes while coaching less-experienced engineers.

Qualifications

• A degree, apprenticeship or equivalent professional qualification in a relevant engineering discipline.
• Substantial engineering experience, typically more than six years, including responsibility for complex product or design changes within a regulated or quality-controlled environment.
• Proven ability to lead design engineering projects from concept through detailed design, validation and implementation, working independently and providing technical guidance to others.
• Proven application of structured root cause analysis, risk assessment and validation planning, focused on robust solutions and preventing recurrence.
• Experience producing and reviewing controlled engineering documentation, while translating applicable standards and approval constraints into practical engineering actions.
• Strong decision-making and prioritisation skills, balancing customer need, technical risk and business priorities across competing projects, including urgent or uncertain situations.
• Clear communication and stakeholder management across the business, including influencing decisions through evidence and supporting less-experienced engineers.

Responsibilities

• Lead cross-functional design engineering projects across product categories and brands, remaining accountable from problem definition and concept development through to implementation and benefit realisation.
• Proactively identify product and business improvement opportunities; define the benefit, assess priority and feasibility, build stakeholder support and lead self-started projects through to implementation.
• Own value engineering and lifecycle cost activity, redesigning products and components to deliver measurable savings without compromising safety, compliance or performance.
• Lead technically complex product changes by investigating issues, identifying root causes, balancing key technical and commercial risks, and implementing proportionate solutions that share learning across the businesses.
• Act as the product-development technical authority for the current product portfolio, providing clear guidance during urgent production, supplier and approval issues, working alongside the accountable Manufacturing, SQA and Approvals teams.
• Ensure engineering changes remain compliant, controlled and auditable, with applicable requirements reflected in the relevant engineering and change-control documentation.
• Work with suppliers and external partners to define technical expectations, review evidence, resolve issues and implement sustainable design and cost improvements.
• Use customer feedback, warranty trends and field performance reporting to identify patterns, prioritise improvement activity and measure the effectiveness of completed changes.
• Support effective handover from New Product Development into CPD, ensuring key design intent, risks, evidence and lessons learned are understood and retained.
• Improve engineering methods, standards and processes within CPD and NPD, maintaining appropriate technical rigour while improving consistency and efficiency.
• Provide technical leadership through coaching, design reviews, knowledge sharing and the development of less-experienced engineers.

Skills

Lead design engineering projects

Root cause analysis

Stakeholder management

Mentoring / coaching

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Tools

Creo Parametric

Job description

Hybrid-with at least 3 days out of 5 per week onsite in Cheltenham

Base salary up to £62k (subject to skills & experience) + company bonus, private health care and generous pension scheme

Designing award-winning products for our market‑leading brands – Mira Showers, Rada and Recoup - is our lifeblood. We focus on investment; investing in the best technology and resources available and investing in each and every individual. Whether you arrive at our facilities in Cheltenham, Worcester or Hull, have a visit from a Service Engineer or pick up the phone to our Customer Service team, you’ll instantly see that, no matter our department or location, we all share the same cultural values at Kohler Mira.

From day one you’re part of the Kohler Mira community – a collaborative, forward focused team with a shared pride in our work and commitment to delight our customers, develop innovative products and services and inspire our people.

We are looking for an experienced, multi-skilled engineer to join our Continuous Product Development (CPD) team. This is a senior technical role working across multiple product categories within the Kohler Mira, Rada and Recoup businesses to improve and sustain products throughout their lifecycle.

You will lead design engineering projects and complex product changes, proactively creating improvement projects and redesigning products to improve performance throughout their lifecycle. Working across the wider business, you will provide technical direction, make sound decisions where information can be incomplete and help develop capability across the team.

About The Role

• Lead cross-functional design engineering projects across product categories and brands, remaining accountable from problem definition and concept development through to implementation and benefit realisation.
• Proactively identify product and business improvement opportunities; define the benefit, assess priority and feasibility, build stakeholder support and lead self-started projects through to implementation.
• Own value engineering and lifecycle cost activity, redesigning products and components to deliver measurable savings without compromising safety, compliance or performance.
• Lead technically complex product changes by investigating issues, identifying root causes, balancing key technical and commercial risks, and implementing proportionate solutions that share learning across the businesses.
• Act as the product-development technical authority for the current product portfolio, providing clear guidance during urgent production, supplier and approval issues, working alongside the accountable Manufacturing, SQA and Approvals teams.
• Ensure engineering changes remain compliant, controlled and auditable, with applicable requirements reflected in the relevant engineering and change-control documentation.
• Work with suppliers and external partners to define technical expectations, review evidence, resolve issues and implement sustainable design and cost improvements.
• Use customer feedback, warranty trends and field performance reporting to identify patterns, prioritise improvement activity and measure the effectiveness of completed changes.
• Support effective handover from New Product Development into CPD, ensuring key design intent, risks, evidence and lessons learned are understood and retained.
• Improve engineering methods, standards and processes within CPD and NPD, maintaining appropriate technical rigour while improving consistency and efficiency.
• Provide technical leadership through coaching, design reviews, knowledge sharing and the development of less-experienced engineers.
• The position reports to the CPD Manager and works within a multi-disciplinary team. The role will primarily be based onsite in Cheltenham, with travel required to support business needs.

Key Requirements

• A degree, apprenticeship or equivalent professional qualification in a relevant engineering discipline.
• Substantial engineering experience, typically more than six years, including responsibility for complex product or design changes within a regulated or quality-controlled environment.
• Proven ability to lead design engineering projects from concept through detailed design, validation and implementation, working independently and providing technical guidance to others.
• Proven application of structured root cause analysis, risk assessment and validation planning, focused on robust solutions and preventing recurrence.
• Experience producing and reviewing controlled engineering documentation, while translating applicable standards and approval constraints into practical engineering actions.
• Strong decision-making and prioritisation skills, balancing customer need, technical risk and business priorities across competing projects, including urgent or uncertain situations.
• Clear communication and stakeholder management across the business, including influencing decisions through evidence and supporting less-experienced engineers.

Desirable Requirements

• Experience within Continuous Product Development or a related product lifecycle environment.
• 3D and 2D CAD capability, preferably using Creo Parametric, with a practical understanding of design for manufacture and assembly.
• Working knowledge of electrical and electronic systems and their interaction with mechanical product design.
• Experience of product approvals, supplier technical management and formal engineering change processes.

We can offer you a lot in return!

We empower each associate to #BecomeMoreAtKohler with a competitive total rewards package to support your health and wellbeing, access to career growth and development opportunities, a diverse and inclusive workplace, and a strong culture of innovation. With a genuine commitment to creating better tomorrows, we’re driving meaningful change in our mission to help people live gracious, healthy, and sustainable lives.

About Us

In the UK, Kohler Mira Ltd. is made up of three market leading brands: Mira Showers, Rada Controls, and Recoup. Where our brands differ in market position, they are equal in their commitment to design, innovation, and providing a single level of quality regardless of price.

Kohler Mira is committed to diversity and inclusion to drive our business results and create a better future every day for our diverse associates, consumers, partners, and global communities. As an equal opportunities employer, it is Kohler Mira’s policy to recruit, hire, and promote qualified people in all job classifications without prejudice. If, as an individual with a disability, you require adjustments during the recruitment process, please contact [e-mail].

Note for Recruitment Agencies: The Kohler Talent Acquisition team is responsible for managing all current vacancies through direct hiring and referrals wherever possible. We do work with recruitment agencies, and where we require external support, we will formally release those vacancies to the agencies on our Preferred Supplier List deemed best placed to assist us. Speculative CVs sent by any agency to Kohler Co. without a specific request by our Talent Acquisition Team will not be accepted and with no introduction fee applicable.