Design readiness before release
• Decide what needs proving before a design is released, and how to prove it quickly. Judging which risks are worth testing early is the core of the role
• Design and build the prototypes and test setups that answer the question at hand: function, dimensional behaviour, robustness in use and how the subsystems come together
• Assess manufacturability and assemblability, both directly and by drawing on input from manufacturing
• Work hands-on with the other design engineers, devising the builds, measurements and trials that shorten the loop between a design question and an answer
• Make full use of our in-house prototyping — workshop, machine shop and printers — alongside sourcing and our manufacturers to get prototype parts in early, and shape how we pull development prototypes together across both routes
• Develop how we assess readiness, so each product benefits from what the last one taught us
Design feedback from production
• Work alongside production engineering on issues found in production, and own what the fix requires on the design side
• Correct CAD and drawings and take them through release quickly, so production isn’t held up waiting on a design fix
• Work within design control, including the medical device change process where it applies, and find ways to turn feedback around quickly inside that constraint
Principal product ownership is what the other mechanical design engineers do today, and your main scope is to work alongside them and close the manufacturing readiness gap. Full ownership of a product’s mechanical design is open to you where it fits: a smaller product, bandwidth alongside your main scope, or a shift in priorities that means a product needs an owner.