LFAM Mould / Tooling Designer in Devon

Location: Exeter, UK (Clyst Honiton) — office-based, with occasional site travel

Travel: Occasional, UK and international | Salary: Competitive, DOE | Type: Full-time, permanent

About Rapid Fusion

Rapid Fusion designs and manufactures large-format additive manufacturing (LFAM) systems built around KUKA robotics, serving the defence, aerospace, marine, and commercial sectors. Our Zeus, Apollo, Cerberus, and Medusa platforms are installed at customer sites across the UK and internationally. Rapid Fusion is part of Evolution AM Holdings, alongside Evo 3D and Evolution Media.

The Role

We're looking for an LFAM Mould/Tooling Designer to join our engineering team at our Exeter office. You'll design large-format moulds, patterns and tooling for production on our LFAM robotic platforms, working closely with our applications, materials and manufacturing teams to turn customer requirements into manufacturable, print-ready tooling for sectors including marine, aerospace, defence and industrial composites. This is a hands-on design role at a fast-growing company, offering direct exposure to live customer projects — from large-scale mould tooling for marine and composite applications through to bespoke fixtures and jigs — and the chance to shape best practice in an emerging manufacturing technology.

Key Responsibilities

• Design large-format moulds, tools, patterns, jigs and fixtures for production via LFAM robotic printing (pellet and filament-based systems)
• Translate customer requirements, CAD models and surface data into manufacturable, print-optimised tooling designs
• Apply design-for-additive-manufacturing (DfAM) principles, including toolpath, infill, shrinkage, thermal and post-machining allowances specific to LFAM processes
• Work closely with materials, applications and production engineering colleagues to select appropriate materials (e.g. reinforced pellet composites) for each tooling application
• Prepare detailed design packs, drawings and specifications suitable for internal manufacture and, where relevant, CNC post-machining
• Support slicing/toolpath validation and liaise with software partners and internal teams on build simulation and print strategy
• Contribute to costing and technical proposals for tooling projects, working with sales and commercial colleagues
• Support root-cause investigation and design iteration where print or in-service tooling issues arise
• Maintain design documentation and contribute to the continuous development of Rapid Fusion's tooling design standards and best practice

Requirements

• Proven experience in mould, tooling, pattern or fixture design, ideally within composites, marine, aerospace, automotive or industrial manufacturing
• Strong 3D CAD skills (e.g. SolidWorks, Siemens NX, Fusion 360, Autodesk Inventor or similar)
• Solid understanding of manufacturing processes and DfM principles; exposure to additive manufacturing, composites layup or large-format tooling highly desirable
• Ability to interpret customer surface data