Senior Design Engineer* in Hampshire

Kenwood’s R&D Department based in our Havant Headquarters on England’s South Coast is the centre of excellence within our parent De’Longhi Group for the design and development of food preparation appliances which are sold in many international markets for use in both domestic and semi-commercial environments.

Our engineers work closely with colleagues from other functions such as Marketing, Industrial Design, Approvals, Quality Assurance, Production and Aftersales Support as well as with our in-house Development Chefs and performance team to create, refine and develop technical specifications for new and often innovative products. These design concepts are then progressed through the manufacture and evaluation of prototypes in collaboration with colleagues from our overseas manufacturing facilities to ensure a smooth transition into production and ultimately a successful and timely product launch.

Your main activity will be to design and develop domestic food preparation appliances such as stand mixers and food processors in line with Kenwood’s New Product Development programme. We’re looking for a talented individual who can elevate those around them, strengthening a very collaborative and sharing team by bringing on-board additional specialist skills such as stress analysis, computational fluid dynamics or similar disciplines.

The role is wide-ranging and variable so you will get involved in concept definition, competitor evaluation and cross-functional working with other departments whilst also engaging in ‘hands-on’ practical test work and prototype manufacture in support of your primary role of new product design. This is a great opportunity for you to take a leading role in the design of often iconic products that are widely respected and admired by consumers (and our competitors) throughout the world.

In this end-to-end role, you’ll help us to design and develop food preparation appliances for manufacture and sale worldwide. We’re keen to see you ideate and evaluate concepts, combining and modifying your ideas before then producing and evaluating prototypes to thoroughly validate your design proposal. You’ll need to be able to get down into the detail of design and step back to review your project load and ensure you’re on-plan.

Success in this role means coming up with a design that satisfies both internal and external customers, ensuring the timely delivery of the right product at the right price and to the required quality. Taking a leading technical role in the planning, undertaking and reporting of design and development tasks to ensure successful project completion. Identification of technical issues and risks: proactive mitigation, resolution or avoidance during product development. Managing your workload to meet key project objectives set by the Design Development Team Leader. Ensuring activity is delivered in line with project plans, highlighting any issues to relevant stakeholders.

Supporting the Design Development Team Leader in interpreting and translating the project requirements into the Product Design Specification, generating product design proposals and ultimately a finished design, at or below target cost. Operating CAD and other software as applicable. Leading or participating in design reviews. Have a good understanding of relevant Approvals and Regulatory requirements and design for these accordingly, ensuring robust and complete pre-compliance and verification work.

Success in this role will depend not only upon your technical skills but also on how effectively you communicate, not only with your local Havant-based colleagues but also with other De’Longhi Group employees across the world, our commercial teams and suppliers. You must be comfortable stepping up to help support the team as necessary during peaks of work. We’re particularly looking for someone who can strengthen our technical capabilities and elevate those around them with skills in a relevant discipline such as NVH, CFD, FEA, Thermal or Electric Motor design.

You’ll need a relevant Degree/HNC/HND in Engineering, with experience in an engineering product development role (preferably Electromechanical/small domestic appliances). You’ll have demonstrable ability to take NPD projects from concept through to mass production and must be competent using proprietary 2D/3D CAD software. You’ll combine knowledge of materials and manufacturing processes with knowledge of applicable design technology such as rapid prototyping techniques, specialised test equipment and so on.

You’ll need a pragmatic approach to design and development that goes beyond just modelling into thinking clearly about how a product will be manufactured to the required cost and quality before ultimately being used by the final consumer. We are seeking a highly motivated and ambitious professional who is looking for career progression in the future.

You’ll be joining a great team working with first-class laboratories and technical facilities and a lot of cutting-edge technology, particularly as Kenwood products become more software-based. Our culture and office environment is outstanding, with the kind of investment into learning and development that will allow you to excel in your role.

An important part of your role will be the provision of support to our manufacturing facilities in China and to other De’Longhi Group colleagues based in Germany and Italy so you must be comfortable with the idea of occasional international travel, restrictions permitting.