London, UK
Senior industrial designer – maternity cover
at Kingfisher
Kingfisher is seeking a senior industrial designer on a 12-month maternity cover contract to join its team in London.
We’re Kingfisher. You might know us as B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama, Brico Depot or Koçtaş. We’re made up of 78,000 passionate people, call 1,300 stores home and operate in eight countries. That’s right, we’re big, but we have ambitions to become even bigger and even better. We want to become the leading home improvement company and grow the largest community of home improvers in the world. And that’s where you come in.
We develop products driven by a deep understanding of our customer needs. Created by our in-house design team or in collaboration with our suppliers, we use our expert knowledge and scale as a means of differentiation to create the best solutions for our customers.
We’re looking for an experienced industrial designer who has a deep understanding of product development to drive the vision forward. An inspiring creative who is passionate about user centered design, sustainability and innovation. Someone who can identify opportunities and potential problems, and proposes technically and commercially viable solutions, aligned to the business priorities.
As a senior industrial designer, you will work within a multidisciplinary global design team, developing home improvement products across multiple categories. You will lead projects from conception through to mass manufacture.
To be successful in this role you will:
- analyse and interpret customer insights to identify the right focus for the solution
- use design thinking tools for ideation and concept creation, delivering viable solutions that meet user needs
- work alongside Engineers to develop the solutions ensuring the technical design is fit for purpose, feasible, sustainable and designed to cost targets
- work collaboratively with teams across geographies to ensure the design intent is carried throughout the project and the product lifecycle
- liaise with the relevant stakeholders to ensure the project is delivered on time
- understand the impact of cross category thinking and bring together relevant product, principles, and components to deliver holistic solutions
- mentor junior team members through the design process
Skills needed to deliver within the role:
- a degree in industrial design, product design, or equivalent
- high level CAD and visualisation skills (Solidworks and Keyshot), proficient in 2D design software (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc)
- excellent creative problem solving and ideation abilities
- fundamental understanding of material properties, manufacturing processes and sustainability
- strong collaborative approach and ability to communicate strategic and technical detail to all stakeholders both verbally and visually
- excellent prototyping abilities
- an inspiring creative who maintains industry awareness
- commercially minded decision maker who understands the business, its drivers and source of differentiation
What can we offer you?
Competitive salary + benefits including:
- company bonus, award-winning pension scheme, discount at B&Q, Bupa healthcare (up to family cover)
We are passionate about our people, which is why we are committed to delivering five million hours of training by 2025!
This is an exciting opportunity to join our global business. In return, we provide an inspirational working environment, a competitive benefits package and opportunities to stretch and grow your career. Interested? Great, apply now!