Senior Engineer, Combustion

Since launching the world’s first portable wood-pellet pizza oven in 2012, Ooni has grown into an award-winning, multinational company with a product range loved by pizza makers all over the globe. Our mission has always been to design innovative products that spark joy in our customers, and whilst we’re incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished so far - we’re only just getting started. We’re now entering an exciting new chapter in Ooni’s journey. As part of our growth strategy, we’re strengthening our core technical capabilities within the product team and that’s where you come in. We’re on the lookout for a Senior Tech Dev Engineer specialising in Combustion to join our product development team, and help take Ooni to the next level. In this role, you’ll play a pivotal part in shaping the next generation of Ooni products - transforming creative ideas into robust, production-ready, high-volume solutions.

You will work across multiple projects and product lines, playing a key role in ensuring outstanding performance, consistency, and safety across a range of fuel types and formats.

The Role

This is a hands-on, highly technical role where you’ll lead the development of combustion systems from initial concepts and simulations through the entire product lifecycle. From early technology prototypes to production-ready solutions, you’ll oversee every stage while working closely with our manufacturing partners in the Asia-Pacific region. Reporting to the Head of Design and Innovation, you’ll be part of an energetic, highly ambitious, and multifunctional team focused on delivering the next generation of Ooni’s products. This role will spend 4 days per week at our offices in Broxburn, Edinburgh.

What you’ll do

• Performance Definition & Requirements: Own the process of setting and maintaining combustion performance targets for new products, ensuring designs meet efficiency, reliability and compliance requirements.
• Design for Manufacture: Work with manufacturing partners (mostly in China) to optimise gas or solid fuel combustion systems for manufacture.
• System Development: Collaborate with designers to create modular, efficient gas burners and solid-fuel systems that are robust, scalable, and production-ready.
• Agile: Ability to quickly and confidently understand how systems function within a product, applying strong fundamentals to identify where adjustments are needed to ensure system-level prototypes perform effectively in real-world conditions.
• Simulation & Modelling: Use computational and physical modelling at both component and system levels to investigate performance limitations and identify opportunities for optimisation.
• Testing & Verification: Collaborate with test and mechanical teams to design test plans, fixtures, and methods that validate and refine combustion system performance.
• Design Rules: Further develop and own the combustion design rules for both gas and multi-fuel systems and support design teams to deliver as per these requirements.
• Proactive Design Improvement: Identify potential issues early in the design process that could affect combustion efficiency or system performance and implement solutions.
• Energy Efficiency Leadership: Champion initiatives that advance energy efficiency across Ooni’s product portfolio, contributing to sustainability goals.
• Technical Reporting: Produce clear, high-quality technical documentation and reports that provide actionable insights for project teams and guide future product improvements.

What you’ll need to succeed

This role is ideal for a technically strong, detail-oriented engineer who enjoys turning ideas into working prototypes and is comfortable operating across the entire product development lifecycle. You’ll thrive at Ooni if you’re a collaborative problem-solver who enjoys working in a fast-paced, innovative environment.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Significant and demonstrable experience in combustion systems, fluid flow simulation, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated track record of taking designs from concept through to production.
• BEng or MEng in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a closely related discipline.
• A “fail-fast” mentality - willing to test, learn, and iterate rapidly to find the best solution. Strong communication skills and an ability to simplify complex information for a less technical group.
• Strong expertise in combustion engineering, thermal systems, or related areas.
• Practical, hands-on experience with gas burners, solid-fuel systems, and thermal/fluid dynamics.
• Proficiency with simulation tools (e.g., CFD) and the ability to interpret results to refine and optimise designs.
• Proven ability to work effectively in cross-functional, multi-disciplinary engineering teams.
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills with strong attention to detail.
• Excellent communication skills, especially in discussing complex technical concepts with both technical and non-technical audiences.

Desirable Skills & Experience

• Experience with EN 498:2012 (Specification for dedicated liquefied petroleum gas appliances (barbecues) for outdoor use).
• Experience with EN 1860-1:2024 (Appliances, solid fuels and firelighters for barbecuing. Barbecues burning solid fuels. Requirements and test methods).

Why Ooni?

When you join one of our global teams, you’re joining a dedicated group who value Kindness, Passion, Innovation, Ambition and Rigour. We live, work and play by these values and are proud of what we’ve built here. As a member of our team, you will also receive the following:

• £1000 to spend on Ooni products each year, plus 50% discount on any other Ooni products.
• £500 every year to spend on your passion – whatever that may be.
• 35 days of paid time off per year, plus an additional 5 week sabbatical when you’ve been here for 5 years.
• Access to an employee assistance programme which includes on demand coaching and therapy.
• We believe in giving back to our communities, which is why we offer every team member five paid volunteer days each year to support causes they care about.
• Pizza is at the heart of everything we do, you’ll have access to our ovens in every office - and we’ll teach you to make pizza like a pro as part of your onboarding experience.

Having a fantastic culture is really important to all of us at Ooni. We work hard to make it diverse and inclusive, and want everyone to have access to the same opportunities.