Technical Illustrator – Sequential Assembly Instructions

Zero Surplus - Sales Industry Insight & Talent Strategy; Harlow; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Zero Surplus is seeking a Technical Illustrator to join its R&D team, crafting diagrammatic installation guides from engineering data so customers can assemble products without words. You will generate compliance markings and coordinate with engineers, using SolidWorks Composer, InDesign, and Illustrator to communicate complex sequences through imagery.

This role rewards a precise, craft-focused approach over flashy design, with ownership of multi-launch workloads in a global market and a

Qualifications

• Ability to communicate a physical process through images alone.
• Strong eye for clarity, sequence and simplicity.
• Comfortable with Adobe InDesign and SolidWorks; experience with SolidWorks Composer is advantageous.
• Experience generating compliance markings is useful but not essential.

Responsibilities

• Create clear, step-by-step diagrammatic installation instructions from engineering data to finished guides.
• Generate product markings for compliance purposes.
• Work with SolidWorks Composer and Adobe suite to assemble final documentation.
• Manage workload and meet product launch deadlines with minimal supervision.

Skills

Technical illustration

Sequential instructions

CAD/Illustration

Artworker

Education

Product design degree

Tools

SolidWorks Composer

InDesign

Illustrator

SolidWorks

Job description

Can you explain how to assemble something without using a single word?

That's the heart of this role. We're working with a leading design-led brand in the luxury interiors sector to find a Technical Illustrator to join their R&D team. Founded in the late 1990s and still driven by the same design philosophy, they've grown from a British start-up into a globally recognised name, with products now selling in over 90 countries and established subsidiaries in the US and Asia. It's a business built on craftsmanship, precision and the belief that good design demands simplicity, and that thinking extends all the way to the documentation that goes in the box.

The Role

You'll create clear, step-by-step diagrammatic installation instructions for new and existing products, taking a design from engineering data through to the finished guide a customer or installer actually uses. Alongside this, you'll generate product markings for compliance purposes.

Because these products ship to over 90 countries, the instructions have to work without language. The skill here is figuring out how to communicate a sequence — order, orientation, which way a part turns, what "done" looks like, purely through images. The creativity is in the problem-solving, not the visual flourish.

Most product imagery is generated in SolidWorks Composer and then brought together in Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, with some illustration created directly within the Adobe suite. You'll also work with a bespoke Product Lifecycle Management system.

You'll report to the Technical Manager and work closely with product development engineers, but you'll manage your own workload against product launch deadlines, so this suits someone organised and self-directed who can keep multiple launches moving at once.

Being Straight With You

This isn't a fancy creative design role. If you're looking for brand work, campaigns or a portfolio full of visual showpieces, this won't be the one. What it is: a genuinely satisfying craft, where success is measured by someone opening a box and getting it right the first time, without ever reaching for words.

You do still need a good eye. Layout, hierarchy, consistency and clarity all matter enormously here, they're just in service of comprehension rather than aesthetics.

What We're Looking For

We're open on background. You could already be doing this exact job, or you could be coming from an adjacent role and looking for something different:

• Someone already producing sequential assembly or installation instructions
• A technical illustrator, CAD technician or artworker wanting a change of direction
• A product design graduate open to a different kind of design career

What matters most:

• The ability to communicate a physical process through images alone
• A strong eye for clarity, sequence and simplicity
• Confidence with Adobe InDesign and/or Solidworks (SolidWorks Composer experience is a real advantage, but we'll consider people keen to learn it)
• Comfortable working from engineering data and collaborating with development engineers
• Self-managing, with the discipline to hit launch deadlines without being chased
• Experience generating compliance markings is useful, though not essential

If you're someone who takes an interest in how things go together — whether that's DIY, assembly or self-build, and can bring that practical, user's-eye perspective to your work, you'll do well here.

Why This One

• A specialist, craft-focused role within a premium, design-led brand with real heritage
• Direct involvement in product launches, working alongside R&D engineers from early in the process
• Genuine ownership of your workload and output
• Room to grow into the role if you're coming from an adjacent discipline
• A creative environment where quality and attention to detail are taken seriously at every level

Due to the location of the offices, this position will suit those commuting from areas such as Bishops Stortford, Harlow, Cambridge, St Albans, Chelmsford, Cheshunt, Hertford, Enfield, London, Brentwood, Basildon, Colchester, Braintree and Welwyn Garden City.