Role Purpose
The Project Design Engineer converts customer and business requirements into robust, manufacturable product and tooling solutions for new product introduction and product improvement. The role owns defined engineering deliverables through the development lifecycle, balancing technical performance, quality, cost, throughput and delivery while working closely with customers, commercial teams, quality and manufacturing.
What the Role Needs to Deliver
• Customer requirements translated into clear, controlled design briefs and technical specifications.
• Manufacturing-ready product, tooling and shop-aid designs that achieve required performance, quality, cost and throughput.
• Engineering deliverables completed to agreed project milestones, with risks, assumptions and dependencies visible and actively managed.
• Validated design decisions supported by appropriate analysis, simulation, prototyping, and testing.
• Complete, accurate and traceable engineering documentation that supports repeatable production and quality compliance.
• Practical improvements to design, tooling and process capability that reduce risk, waste, variation and time to industrialisation.
Key Responsibilities
• Act as a technical partner to customers and internal stakeholders, developing design briefs, clarifying requirements and converting them into practical engineering solutions.
• Own assigned design-engineering deliverables across the project lifecycle, ensuring milestones, technical outputs and documentation are completed to agreed timing and quality standards.
• Create detailed 3D models, product and tooling designs, shop aids and engineering drawings for composite and hybrid overmolded products using SolidWorks, in accordance with applicable ISO and ANSI standards.
• Apply Design for Manufacture and Assembly principles to ensure solutions are robust, scalable, cost-effective and aligned with manufacturing capability and process constraints.
• Support product innovation, optimisation and validation through concept development, tolerance analysis, prototyping, Finite Element Analysis, Moldflow simulation and other appropriate engineering methods.
• Develop and maintain manufacturing-ready engineering packages, including controlled drawings, tooling documentation, work instructions, bills of material where applicable, and engineering masters.
• Plan and support design verification and validation activity, using evidence and engineering judgement to confirm that product and process requirements have been met.
• Identify, assess and mitigate technical, manufacturing and project risks, escalating material issues early and recommending clear actions.
• Work closely with manufacturing, quality, project and commercial colleagues to resolve design and production issues and ensure designs can be safely and reliably industrialised.
• Consider commercial requirements when making engineering decisions, including material usage, tooling investment, cycle time, scrap, capacity, repeatability and lifecycle cost.
• Provide accurate and timely technical input to customer discussions, project reviews, quotations, change control and production readiness activities.
• Drive continuous improvement in product design, tooling, engineering standards and development processes to improve quality, throughput, delivery and overall performance.
• Share technical knowledge and contribute to the development of engineering standards, lessons learned and best practice across the team.
Qualifications & Experience
• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related engineering discipline, with typically 5 to 10 years of relevant product design and engineering experience, or an equivalent combination of education and professional experience.
• Proven experience designing products and tooling in composite materials, polymer molding, injection or overmolding, or a comparable advanced manufacturing environment.
• Advanced proficiency in 3D CAD and engineering drawing, with strong preference for the SolidWorks suite.
• Strong practical application of Design for Manufacture and Assembly, tolerance management and engineering drawing standards.
• Working knowledge of engineering analysis and simulation tools such as Moldflow, FEA or equivalent process and performance-modelling software.
• Experience taking designs from concept through validation and into repeatable manufacture, including configuration control and engineering change management.
• Demonstrated project-delivery capability, with the ability to manage priorities, dependencies and deadlines across several workstreams.
• Experience working directly with customers and cross-functional teams to resolve technical issues and make balanced decisions.
• Strong analytical, critical-thinking and structured problem-solving capability, focused on practical, evidence-based solutions.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical matters to engineering and non-engineering audiences.
Measures of Success
• Engineering milestones and deliverables achieved to plan.
• Right-first-time quality and completeness of drawings and engineering packages.
• Design verification and validation completed with risks appropriately closed or controlled.
• Manufacturing readiness, including achievement of agreed quality, throughput and process capability.
• Reduction in design-related production issues, rework, scrap and engineering changes after release.
• Customer and internal stakeholder confidence in technical delivery and responsiveness.
• Demonstrable continuous-improvement contribution to products, tooling or engineering processes.
Scope & Working Relationships
Works across customer, commercial, project engineering, quality, manufacturing and supply-chain interfaces. The role has no direct reports but is expected to provide technical leadership within project teams and to influence decisions through expertise, evidence and sound engineering judgement.
NO RECRUITMENT AGENCIES PLEASE.
At present, we are not accepting any candidates via a recruitment agency or third party.
