Design Engineer

Salary: £27,600 – £30,000 per year

Taplanes® is the UK’s leading manufacturer of bespoke modular bathroom pods. We have been in business for over 42 years and are now looking to recruit two more talented Design Engineers to join our company.
We are offering two positions:
1. We are looking for a recent graduate to join our Graduate Development Programme and/or
2. We are looking for someone with a few years of experience in a design engineer role.
For both positions, we are looking for someone who is passionate about combining technical innovation with aesthetics to create specialised modular bathroom pods that are both functional and good looking.
Experienced Design Engineer and/or Graduate Design Engineer
We have two opportunities for an experienced Design Engineer and/or a talented recent graduate Design Engineer to join our technical team.
Recent graduates (graduated within the last couple of years) are invited to apply to join our Graduate Development Programme within the technical team at our factory near Harrogate. Our Graduate Development Programme is now heading into its fourth year and it offers the opportunity to grow and develop in a supportive environment, getting involved in interesting projects from day one. This is a permanent position.
The technical team is involved in all aspects of product design: designing new products to bring to market, providing bespoke solutions and drawings for our customers, and creating technical instructions for our manufacturing facility. The design engineer will work closely with the project team and once familiar with our products the role will progress to include direct customer involvement. Our clients are based throughout the UK and Europe and the role will eventually include occasional travel to customer sites.
The key areas of the role include:
* New product design
* Product development and improvements
* On-site surveys and specification
* Detailed drawings
* Bill of materials & product costing
* Providing technical support to clients
* Working closely with programmers, machinists & fabricators
* Working closely with project managers (sales engineers) and customers to specify solutions and designs
* Creating and maintaining our configurated product library, technical documents such as product data sheets, OEM Manuals and contributing to product marketing and website materials.
As a Design Engineer you should have/be:
* Degree in Product Design or similar technical degree (essential)
* SOLIDWORKS expertise – you must be a confident SOLIDWORKS user (this is an ESSENTIAL requirement! Using SOLIDWORKS once for a university project in your second year is not sufficient. Training will be given but you have to be able to use SOLIDWORKS competently from day one)
* 2D AutoCAD experience (desirable)
* DRIVEWORKS experience (HIGHLY DESIRABLE for the experienced Design Engineer position but not essential)
* Understanding of designing for manufacture
* EdgeCAM or other CNC programming experience (desirable but not essential)
* A proficient user of Microsoft Office (WORD & EXCEL are essential)
* A proficient user of Adobe Creative Cloud (desirable)
* Understanding/appreciation of the built environment (desirable but not essential)
* Excellent literacy and numeracy skills (essential)
* Experience of working directly with customers (desirable but not essential)
* Full UK driving licence (essential)
* A self-starter, resourceful with a can-do, will-do attitude (essential).
* Excellent communication skills (essential)
Whilst initially office-based, the roles will involve visiting clients and assisting with site surveys prior to preparing drawings, training for which will be provided. We are looking for people who are confident, personable and adaptable – people who are keen to learn and develop a career.
Your level of experience will depend on whether you are applying as a Graduate Design Engineer or more experienced Design Engineer.
We remain open-minded about where you might currently be in your career – you may have no experience, a little experience or several years of experience and now be looking to develop a career with an innovative and ambitious company. The most important things are excellent technical design skills, spatial awareness, good people skills and a positive attitude.
Starting remuneration is dependent on experience:
* For Graduate Design Engineers: circa £27,600 – £30,000per annum. This is a 2-year Graduate Programme with salary increments throughout upon achieving milestones. Please Note: This is a permanent position – we are looking for people who want to build a career! Successful completion of the programme will result in a minimum salary of £27k at the end of the 2 years.
* For more experienced Design Engineers: starting remuneration from £27,600 – £30,000+ depending on experience.
Taplanes is an accredited Living Wage Employer and we offer a relaxed working environment with 25 days’ holiday + bank holidays, flexible working hours, a dog friendly policy, an employee assistance scheme in place and a commitment to ensuring that Taplanes is a good place to work.
Please apply with a CV and short covering letter telling us which position you are applying for, why you are interested in working with Taplanes and what you would bring to our company. Applications without a proper covering letter will not be considered.