“We are on a mission to transform the future of grocery retail through sustained technology innovation.”

Ocado Technology is putting the world’s retailers online using advanced artificial intelligence, robotics, big data, the cloud and IoT. We develop the innovative software and hardware systems that power Ocado.com, as well as the unique ‘Ocado Smart Platform’ which is being implemented by ambitious retailers across the world from Europe to America, Asia and beyond. With everything from websites to highly automated warehouses that we design in-house, our employees are skilled specialists with expertise across a wide range of technologies, working on cutting-edge innovations that are shaping the future of our society.

We are a fast- growing company: today we have colleagues in 7 development centre across the UK and Europe, with offices open in London, Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City (UK), Krakow, Wroclaw (Poland), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Barcelona (Spain), with a satellite office in Stockholm (Sweden). 

We champion a value-led culture to get our teams working at their very best and to help create a collaborative working environment with inspiring projects that our people love. Core values of Trust, Autonomy, Craftsmanship, Collaboration and Learn Fast help drive our innovative culture.  But don’t just take our word for it, have a look at what our people are saying about us on Glassdoor.

Within our Retrieval Robotics department sits our Grid Development function, which is responsible for the design, testing and manufacture of our automated products relating to our Grid and its storage and safety functionality. Our Mechanical Engineering team is looking for an accomplished Mechanical Design Engineer, who will be responsible for the smooth transition of Ocado’s technology systems, developed by our Development team, into manufacture. 

Imagine the challenges of developing an ultra high throughput automated system that is the size of 4 football pitches; imagine having to consider tolerance, scale, static and dynamic loads, manufacturing and rapid deployment for systems of this scale; imagine the challenges of developing a system with all of these requirements that must be “fit and forget” over a 20 year period of 24/7 use; imagine our latest tasks to achieve all of this within a system that must remain safe and operational after an earthquake; imagine working on products that are in high demand for deployment across multiple large scale clients sites globally; imagine the opportunity that making millions of components gives you to work on industry leading mass manufacturing methods.

The future of Grid development will include instrumentation and telemetry within our products, higher levels of automation and the continuous journey of improving and differentiating our product offerings. The Grid and Tote are core products with the OSP system and present some great engineering puzzles. If you strive for interesting work and you want to work in a fast paced, exciting company on innovative solutions to the problems that have never been solved, then imagine yourself in this role. 

How you’ll spend your days...

• Collaborating with our Design Engineers to ensure all developed products use the best manufacturing and assembly techniques for the target volumes
• Accountable for  transitioning our developed products from prototype to full manufacture.
• Collaborate closely with our manufacturing partners in order to optimise and document the manufacturing processes.
• Able to identify, specify  and deliver test and assembly fixtures.
• Use your manufacturing expertise to support the  identification of  the right product  critical to quality parameters.
• Detail the process capability requirements based on product critical to quality parameters .
• Run measurement system analysis on our products.
• Use your manufacturing  expertise to drive value engineering  of our products.
• Act as the primary technical interface with our suppliers.
• Actively participate in the Patent process for Ocado Technology
• Mentor and coach team members and share knowledge to upskill the team and Ocado in manufacturing best practice 

We want to talk to people with...

• Proven experience in design for manufacture in  large scale automation, high precision large scale structures, high volume, complex, tight tolerance steel aluminium and plastic components 
• Demonstrable understanding and application of analytical tools to aid the manufacturing process PFMEA; Critical Parameters; 6 Sigma
• Experience of process capability, statistical process controls and critical parameter management
• Proven track record of successfully introducing new suppliers and building  appropriate supplier relationships  
• Background in value engineering
• Experience in working across a spectrum of manufacturing processes including plastic forming, metal forming, fabrication and joining
• Strong stakeholder management and negotiation skills, from the shop floor to senior managers
• Knowledge of the  latest manufacturing processes and how best to apply them to ensure the highest manufacturing quality and cost optimisation.
• Experience in successfully transferring products from development to production manufacture
• Comfortable working in a fast paced development environment with a product development cycle typically less than 2 years 
• A passion for continuous process improvement
• Good investigative and problem-solving skills with excellent attention to detail.
• An engineering qualification or suitable experience

Bonus points if you also have...

• Experience in manufacturing quality control and issue resolution  to drive yield improvements
• A strong network of suppliers and expertise within the manufacturing world
• The ability to identify new and novel manufacturing processes that could improve our products and the capability to introduce them at Ocado 

What we can offer you...

Our employee benefits are designed for you, we care about people and we’ve ensured we have a wealth of benefits that focus on our your well-being. Within our flexible environment we can offer technically stretching work, a competitive salary and share schemes. Benefits include pension scheme, train season ticket loan (interest-free), free shuttle bus from Hatfield train station and of course, healthy Ocado retail staff discounts. 

We also have regular divisional socials, sports clubs such as badminton, running and table tennis, not to mention the Ocado Technology Academy for a packed schedule of courses, conferences and events such as discussion sessions, conference briefs and external guest speakers. If you think you have what it takes to make a difference, please submit your application below.

Be bold, be unique, be brilliant, be you. We are looking for individuality and we value diversity above gender, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, disability or union participation. We are an equal opportunities employer and we are committed to treating all applicants and employees fairly and equally. 

Due to the energising nature of Ocado's business, vacancy close dates, when stated, are indicative and may be subject to change so please apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. 

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