Product design and development engineer (degree)

About the role

This occupation is found in cross sectors such as aerospace, automotive, motorsport, maritime and other product design engineering or manufacturing sectors. Employers may be directly involved in these activities or as a service provider, original equipment manufacturer or approved solutions provider in large or small to medium organisations providing services such as system design or development, product or component design or development. Products can form part of any mechanical, electrical or electromechanical systems, assemblies, components or complete integrated packages. Design and development of any products, whether they be concepts or approved for manufacture, must conform to appropriate standards and legislation, be environmentally and sustainability informed, and have a design considered approach to the end-to-end life cycle. To design or develop components, products or systems the engineer must be able to understand and apply core fundamentals in mathematics and scientific principles. It is typical for engineers in the industry to understand fundamentals principles such as calculus, equations, integration and differentiation, estimation, data collection and modelling, materials, international system of units, forces, mechanics and electrical and electronic theory. In a number of cases, engineers will have a deep understanding in a number of these areas.    

The broad purpose of the occupation is to be able to plan and lead projects or other relevant programmes of work that provides critical analysis, continuous improvement and problem solving to support research, design and development activities. As part of the development of new products and technology, designers and engineers have to analyse requirements and consider any legal implications and limitations to ensure conformity to national or international legislation, standards or directives as well as complying with customer requirements. It is imperative that material properties, capabilities and failures are understood and recognised to allow appropriate material selection. Product design and development engineers use a range of computer packages in order to complete the design or development activity efficiently and effectively including presenting their conceptual ideas. They utilise cutting edge technology to realise a project from initial concept studies to integrated analysis of a complete system. This is made possible with the introduction of advanced Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software packages and the availability of Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software packages to support the design and development process. Complex, rigorous and extensive testing is utilised to reach the optimum of design and therefore can speed up the design and testing process through the use of simulation packages such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). It is the job of the engineer to design, validate and maintain the mechanical, electrical or integrated system components to ensure they meet the required specification and customer requirements including taking into account how they may interact with other components or systems that could impact on factors such as safety, quality, reliability, performance, power, noise, vibration, harshness, speed, weight, heat generation, ingress of foreign bodies, signal interference and cyber security, are the day to day dealings of an engineer in this field. They must also consider environmental and sustainability when undertaking design and development activities such as material selection, recycling and reusability options The use of physical tools, software and simulation tools and utilising technologies for test, diagnostic and telemetry instruments are fundamental to carrying out tasks associated with designing, developing, testing, building, installing, verification testing and final release of products and any associated equipment or systems.

In their daily work, an employee in this occupation will report to a senior manager or director and will normally be part of a multi-disciplinary team for example as a leader or member of a specialist project team that could include personnel from a range of functional areas such as senior design engineers, stress engineers, materials engineers, integration engineers, manufacturing engineers, quality engineers, production engineers, cost engineers, procurement managers or test engineers, maintenance engineer or installation and commissioning teams. This occupation can be plant based, office based, working in the field or a mixture of all of these areas. Some sectors may require the research or design engineers to work outside, such as at outdoor test facilities or in harsh environments.

An employee in this occupation will be responsible for ensuring the design, development and optimisation of mechanical or electrical systems, component or product performance, equipment integration or reliability and compliance of systems. Product design and development engineers will also be responsible for identifying and supporting opportunities for cost savings, efficiency and continued improvement in a business environment. They will exercise considerable judgement and autonomy for the work they undertake coupled with a high-level of personal decision making and influence, setting out recommendations and potential options to the employer or customer.