Product Design & Development recruitment sees us working across both B2B and consumer markets, with clients ranging from global corporations manufacturing retail products to smaller start-ups creating specialist B2B solutions. With the history of innovation in and around our Cambridge base, there’s a constant requirement for candidates in roles such as Product Development Engineer & Product Designer with particular demand in the medical & agricultural sectors.
Those working in Product Design and Development roles can be responsible for designing concepts, parts, products for any industry, with great variation in the type of skills required. Fluency using software such as Solidworks, Keyshot, 3ds Max, Adobe Suite and many other specialist CAD programs is especially sought after.
The product roles we recruit for are varied, with many at the lower and mid-levels having specialised titles such as Product Design Assistant, 3D Visualiser, Manufacturing Engineer, Concept Designer, Head of Product Engineering, Product Development Engineer alongside more senior positions at C-Suite level such as Global Head of Product, Product Director and many more.
With opportunities in the Product, Concept & Engineering departments a staple in businesses across all sectors, our experience as recruiters in these sectors is vast. Along with this we understand the intricacies of why other recruiters fail and are able to appreciate the crux of each hiring manager’s needs.
We employ a tried and tested method for recruiting this type of role, and it’s essential we speak directly with the head of the department to ascertain what we need to succeed. Key areas of failure are often lack of software understanding, wrong level of product premium, poor portfolio preparation, as well as location (such roles often require being on-site full-time), lack of industry sector experience where product internal understanding is key, and lack of Far-East exposure.
With any role there are always areas people tend to fall down and with our experience, we can help you identify the key success factors to attract and engage the right kind of candidate.
Cambridge Talent Partnership has extensive experience as a product design and product development recruiter across Cambridge, Hertfordshire, Northants, East Anglia, Milton Keynes and the East of England, as well as select clients across the UK. We’ve been tasked with sourcing candidates for many forms of product roles, such as Concept Designers, 3D Visualisers, Product Development Engineers, Mechanical Engineers and Product Engineers. The approach we take for each role is the same, ensuring our clients receive a shortlist that reflects full market availability – rather than ‘the best we can get’ – on every occasion.
Recently filled Product Design and Development roles
Product Development Engineer
Hertfordshire – Manufacturing
£45k
Junior Concept Designer
Peterborough
Consultancy
£30k
Head of Product
Essex
Engineering
£85k
Case Study
Product Development Engineer – Toy Brand
Working with an electronic toy company that focuses on premium-end specialist products, and a large amount of their product coming from the Far East, the board recognised the importance of having someone in the manufacturing team who could both develop products but also understand their suppliers. As a result previous experience at a similar level in their industry or a close equivalent was essential, along with the ability to work closely with their Asia division.
Having initially briefed a global recruiter, the company struggled with both the quality and calibre of candidates presented to them. Many of them were living outside the UK which presented problems not only with their actual level of commitment to relocation, but also with regards to their right to work in the UK, and the issues with gaining Tier 2 status or similar. With the onset of remote working/Zoom meetings and such like in 2020, the option of employing someone offshore was mooted, yet the board decided that the person really needed to be on site as the role was heavily involved at a technical level.
We were engaged at this point to find a needle in a haystack, and our initial actions were largely retrospective – looking at the approaches that had been taken, and the successes and failures these had yielded. From this, we created profiles of both the ideal candidate, and also the type of company they may work for. With this extra dimension, the profile was effectively someone who had UK citizenship or right to work and was within 50 miles of their office or willing to relocate, toy/consumer electronics industry experience, and Far-East exposure.
With these profiles established, we then engaged in the search – simply posting an advert and sitting back to wait for applications as many recruiters might do would simply not cut the mustard in this case. By thinking outside the box (and the UK) we identified a Mandarin speaker who had just relocated from Hong Kong. They had experience at a competitor, were willing to commute initially and then relocate after probation. The client was stunned with this result, and both parties are still very happy.