Senior Design Engineer

To Apply

Please send a CV (two pages maximum), and a cover letter (up to two pages) to recruitment@thewashingmachineproject.org with the job title in the subject line. Please outline clearly in your cover letter:

Your reasons for wanting to join the team at The Washing Machine Project
What can you bring to the role and team?
Your eligibility to work in the UK

The deadline for applications is midday (BST) on 21st August 2023. We will review and progress with shortlisted candidates from when an application is received. This is a rolling recruitment process, so please apply early to avoid disappointment.

Life at The Washing Machine Project — Meaningful work. Exceptional people.

An introduction to the company:

Handwashing clothes may sound like a simple task, but it poses a significant obstacle to the well-being and livelihood for many women worldwide. We recognise that unpaid labour is compromising lives. This needs to change.

We're The Washing Machine Project (TWMP). Our mission is to empower women to take charge of their lives by providing displaced and low-income communities with accessible, off-grid washing solutions. We create resourceful products and solutions.

Founded by Navjot Sawhney in 2018, TWMP develops extraordinary innovations designed to improve women’s lives. People are at the heart of everything we do, and listening to communities is integral to our work and design process. At TWMP, you’ll be surrounded by people who want to improve everything and everyone around them. People who are passionate about our mission. People who are driven to solve problems and constantly consider the best ways to improve the health and wellbeing of women.

We're deeply proud of our values, which are intrinsic to our daily behaviour:

We make an impact: We’re mission-driven and unafraid to break boundaries. We relentlessly focus on going the extra mile to solve problems.

We’re innovators: We are passionate, curious, and data-driven. We continuously embrace change and innovation.

We’re in it together: we fail and learn fast — always as one team — and have fun. We stay authentic and embrace our differences.

The purpose of the role:

The Senior Design Engineer position in R&D exists to bring to market products for the humanitarian and development setting. They are specifically involved in the research, designing, testing, developing and manufacturing of innovative products.

Who we are looking for:

You have a level of expertise you might achieve after around 5+ years of experience within the Product Development industry with a broad range of experience across the product lifecycle. You understand the needs and challenges of Quality, Customer Care, Manufacturing and Operations teams because working with such groups represents part of your professional experience. You have experience with various mass production processes, gained through taking concept designs through to production, experience managing manufacturers and experience in taking a design from concept through all stages to product manufacture.

You always strive to empathise with the end-user and put their needs at the centre of what you do. You are keen to understand issues at a fundamental level and enjoy seeing projects through from initiation to completion. You thrive when you are resolving intricate product problems constrained by multiple factors, breaking them down into logical steps to form a clear path.

You enjoy working hands-on and have plenty of experience hacking together proof-of-concept prototypes and test fixtures. You are someone who enjoys taking responsibility for driving design enhancements and thrives on getting your sleeves rolled up to deliver change through to production. You thrive in fast-paced environment and you are able to respond and adapt to changes.

Key Results

Designing products to appropriate standards, specifications and target costs.
Taking designs from concept through to manufacturing.
Providing timely after sales support.

Qualifications:

Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Product Design Engineering or similar. Candidates without a degree can be considered if able to demonstrate a similar level of engineering ability.

Knowledge & skills:

Ability to empathise with end-users to resolve conflicting technical and human factors is essential.
Experience with mechanical, domestic product development, developing novel mechanisms or similar.
Proven track record of solving complex product problems through root cause analysis and understanding the fundamental principles of the issue at hand. Using creative problem solving to produce effective design solutions.
Experience in the entire design process. Concept generation, testing prototypes, validating design decisions and designing for high volume manufacturing.
Experience in concept generation and detailed design
Confident developing designs using 3D CAD (preferably SolidWorks or Inventor) and proven ability to manage medium-sized assemblies.
Working knowledge of plastic manufacturing techniques (including injection moulding, rotational/blow moulding) and metal manufacturing techniques (including sheet metal, machining, stamping, spinning etc)
Experience developing test methods and conducting product testing, including product benchmarking.
Experience managing external manufacturers
Hands-on experience in rapid and manual prototyping (including 3D printing and hand/power tools).
Experience with DFM tools such as FMEA, and Tolerance Analysis.
Defining product specifications and design of production parts, including engineering drawings.
Effectively be able to work across multi-disciplinary teams with multiple decision-makers and able to handle ambiguity.
You are a self-starter with good communication skills, including verbal, report writing and engineering drawings.
Ability to maintain a composed and professional demeanour within a flexible work environment.
FEA experience, backed up with robust hand calculations.
Project management experience
Experience in the humanitarian sector, field experience, different cultures

If you feel you fit most, but not all of these requirements, we would still like to hear from you.

Understanding the user experience is central to our solutions. This means you must be willing to travel to where our users are. Recent field trips have taken us to homeless communities in the US and Uganda.

Other Requirements

Able to travel to the Bristol R&D facility on a regular basis to collaborate.
Travel to London on an ad-hoc basis. We meet with the whole team once a month.
Willing to travel internationally.
Have the right to work in the UK

Location

Hybrid (Bristol R&D facility and remote)

Salary

£43000 - £48000 based on a 40-hour workweek (experience-dependent, pro-rata, flexibility available)

The benefits you’ll get

We offer you a genuinely purpose-led career with a culture built on trust, autonomy, and flexibility. In addition, we'll give you:

Lots of flexibility: working from home or doing the school run, we understand that flexibility is essential.
An annual discretionary bonus scheme.
28 days holiday, including 8 statutory bank holidays (pro-rata) + your Birthday off.
Work phone and laptop.
5=10 leave: 10 days’ additional leave on your 5th and 10th years of service!
£100 contribution to your home working set up to spend as you see fit.
An annual personal development allowance of £200.
A tax-efficient group pension scheme.
Wellbeing support and access to mental health support.
International travel.
Lovely working offices at our corporate partners in great locations, with drinks and snacks provided and fun social events.

Equal Employment Opportunity

We are an equal-opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. This job description is intended to convey information essential to understanding the scope of the job and the general nature and level of work performed by job holders within this job. However, this job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of qualifications, skills, efforts, duties, responsibilities or working conditions associated with the position.

To Apply

Your reasons for wanting to join the team at The Washing Machine Project
What can you bring to the role and team?
Your eligibility to work in the UK

What you can expect after you’ve applied

A team member will reach out after reviewing your application. You must ensure your application is completed correctly, and we strongly encourage you to add a cover letter or note to let us know why TWMP is the right fit for you.

We would like to know your background, attitude, and experience and understand your motivation to work with us. Our selection process typically looks like this:

• 20-30-minute video call with one of our team

• 45-60 minute competency-based interview with the hiring team (you will also complete a task/presentation)

• for some positions an additional interview with senior leadership

At TWMP, you'll have a voice, make an impact, and have the opportunity to mould your role. So be ready to learn, have fun, and be inspired by our passionate, talented team.

We can’t wait to hear from you!