Design Engineer

The Company

Our client is an established and successful high-volume manufacturing company based in County Durham. As their business continues to grow, they are looking to recruit a new Design Engineer who will be responsible for producing clear and accurate designs in line with a product specification. The successful applicant's contribution to the organisation will be the generation of new cost-effective designs to meet the customer's needs. The individual's responsibility will be for the generation of new products and for ensuring long term product safety and reliability by contributing to validation and test programme development. If you are interested and meet the person specification of the job role, please apply as soon as possible.

The Role

• You will be responsible to support and lead technical communication with your customer(s), to establish innovative, cost effective and timely solutions to meet the technical objectives; translating these in to 3D CAD / 2D drawings and bills of materials (BOM).
• Capture product requirements and identifying any gaps versus the product capabilities; in line with the appropriate processes.
• Additionally, the Design Engineer, in conjunction with Program Management, is required to engage other departments with regular project updates and accurate information to support the overall business.
• Working as a cohesive team, close collaboration is essential with Platform Engineering, as well as Program Managers and business functions, to bring appropriate solutions to meet the customer's requirements. The Design Engineer is the "go to" person regarding all technical aspects of the product design, validation and application.
• Produce clear and accurate designs in line with project specification, timeline, target cost and associated standards
• Generate accurate detailed drawings and BOM for manufacture of all relevant components, including all requisite details such as materials, finishes and welds.
• Attend and contribute to project review meetings as required
• Organise and chair cross-functional design review meetings
• Generate a validation / DVP&R plan to mitigate any technical gaps versus project requirements
• Be responsible for the relevant design and simulation activities allocated to a specific project
• Verify third party (independent) calculations conform to standards and the project needs
• Explore alternative materials, manufacturing techniques and processes to enhance product functionality, durability and cost
• Follow quality control objectives as per Automotive Quality Standards. All relevant Procedures must be followed to ensure Customer Satisfaction and achievement of SCX objective

The Person

• A HND or Degree in an Engineering discipline (e.g.: mechanical, manufacturing or industrial design)
• Experience in a similar Design Engineer role
• Experience of using 3D CAD ideally Creo 3 (CATIA V5, Solid works)
• Originate from an engineering and/or manufacturing background with experience of modern manufacturing techniques and processes
• Knowledge and experience of the automotive industry
• Demonstrate engineering problem solving capabilities
• Computer literate with a very good knowledge of MS-Office
• Knowledge of Finite Element Analysis (FEA), including mechanical, thermal and CDF simulations
• Familiar with DFM / DFA, FMEA and VAVE (value engineering) processes
• Experience of DVP&R and product validation, as well as failure analysis
• Experienced with customer facing technical roles
• Ability to calculate simple structures, mechanisms and kinematics
• Knowledge of mechanical assemblies, including electrical / mechatronics experience
• Experience of using Siemens NX
• Very good English language communication skills (oral and written)
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to work within an International team and Global organisation
• Able to work under own initiative and as part of a team to achieve project timelines
• Reliable and flexible in their approach to everyday work requirements
• An ambitious self-starter with a positive attitude and be naturally inquisitive
• Have an analytical approach to their daily work