Author: Candy McGrevy

We are looking for a dynamic and thorough Test Technician to join our team and help bring new technologies ready to the field.

Overview of the role

The R&D Test Technician will be responsible for development testing and type approval of our new machines as they come through the development cycle.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Testing of new technologies under development, including Type approval of whole new products.  This will include hardware and software testing, cloud services, and standard operating procedures
• Verification of whole machine performance
• Development of new test tooling and methods where needed
• Specification and development of new test equipment
• Risk assessments
• Ensure all R&D test equipment is serviced and calibrated
• Detail design work for tooling & fixtures (mechanical, electronics, possibly software tooling)
• Flex the day-job to help the operations engineer deploy new hardware or processes to the field or fix existing hardware

Desirable Characteristics 

• Methodical, systematic approach to testing 
• Can-do, hands-on attitude
• Able to self-manage test throughput
• Experience in testing complex systems, including hardware, networking, software
• Familiarity with testing methods from relevant industries
• Good data skills: Excel, understanding of basic statistics would be helpful
• We welcome candidates from a range of backgrounds, education (HNC/D or degree), and experience levels
• Full driving license is a must-have: Ability to drive a van to deploy robots would be strongly beneficial

If you would like to apply for this role, please send your C.V. and cover letter to recruitment@dogtoothtech.com 

We receive a great deal of interest from recruitment agencies, we do appreciate the desire to work with us. We advertise current job vacancies on our website to enable potential candidates interested in joining our team to connect directly with us. 

When direct sourcing is not possible, we may opt to engage a recruitment agency from our preferred supplier list.

If you feel you have a candidate who fits the requirements outlined in a job advertised on our website, we kindly request that you send their CV for review exclusively to recruitment@dogtoothtech.com.

If we would like to discuss further with you, we will be in touch.

Thank you in advance.

We are looking for two outstanding Mechanical Design Engineers – a junior (permanent) and a senior (one-year contract) to join our hardware team and help bring exciting new technologies to market. 

Overview of the roles

These roles promise a diverse and dynamic workload typical of a start-up environment, encompassing everything from the initial development of concepts and hardware prototyping to the design-for-manufacture of comprehensive whole-machine subsystems. A unique aspect of these positions is the opportunity to witness your innovative ideas being brought to life on a grand scale.

Although we’ve detailed a few desirable characteristics and qualifications as a guide below, we encourage you not to let this deter you from applying. Our primary interest lies in your attitude and your method of approaching problem-solving. We are a supportive team and will work hard to provide both exciting challenges and development/training opportunities where they’re needed. We welcome candidates from a range of backgrounds, education (apprenticeship and degree), and experience levels.

Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Design, build and test prototypes with lead engineers
• Generate manufacturing drawings, BOMs, and other documentation for machines in production quantities
• Work with suppliers and manufacturing team to define SOPs, build documentation and appropriate quality control processes

Desirable characteristics:

• 1-15 yrs experience of machinery design, ideally for medium volume production (50-2000 units)
• Completer-finisher approach to design
• Proficiency in CAD software (will be using Autodesk Inventor)
• Ability to get stuck in with the team but also solve problems independently
• Strong communication skills – ability to review ideas and decisions with the team
• Ability to flex across various types of work – assembling and evaluating prototypes, designing mechanical assemblies, developing assembly SOPs, defining cable routings & drawings.
• Ability to prove out ideas pragmatically and practically in appropriate stages of the design process
• GD&T, tolerance analysis & structural FEA would be beneficial
• HND or degree qualified
• Experience of sheet-metal design

Senior role specifically:

• Ability to liaise with suppliers independently and incorporate design rules for novel processes
• Ability to consider BOM, assembly and tooling costs within the design process
• Scale-up and cost reduction: design of actuators, mechanisms, robotics in medium to high volume (>500) major benefit.

Reference ID: DTMechDesignEngineer

If you would like to apply for this role, please send your C.V. and cover letter to recruitment@dogtoothtech.com

We are looking for a dynamic and thorough Standards and Compliance Engineer to join our team and help bring our exciting new technologies to market.

Overview of the role

You will work with the Hardware CTO to manage the process of taking our new high-tech products through the CE-marking process, ensuring their compliance with  product standards.

Duties and Responsibilities

(Primary):

• Plan and manage the CE / UKCA marking process and the wider team’s contribution towards it.  This involves addressing Machinery Safety Directive, Electromagnetic Compatibility, Electrical Safety, Radio, Food safety etc.
• Collate requirements from standards, summarise technical arguments towards how those requirements are met, and own all summary documents including Machine Safety Risk Assessment and Technical File.
• Drive others in the team and external test houses to get the engagement needed with the process.
• Engage with external consultants to review the standards applicable and our technical arguments.
• Liaise with Manufacturing and other business units to ensure CE controls are appropriate.
• Be responsible for safety risk assessments for machines and their use in R&D.

(Secondary):

• Contribute to safety calculations and analysis of safety circuits.
• Contribute to solving engineering problems where technical skills are appropriate.
• Manage other development projects.

Desirable Characteristics 

• Technical skills: Good technical writing skills & highly numerate.
• Planning: Methodical. Well organised, and ability to coordinate disparate teams. Excel / Gantt.
• Pragmatic approach to solving problems & requirements within tight constraints – both managerial and technical.
• Experience of CE marking process of a machine under relevant directives.

If you would like to apply for this role, please send your C.V. and cover letter to recruitment@dogtoothtech.com 

Would you like to be part of the next Agricultural Revolution? We are looking for a talented Applications Engineer (AE) to help ensure that our successive generations of products have impact as they are released into the field.

Overview of the role

The AE will become an expert in the use of our emerging products, their operating environment and the customers’ needs. They will be a key link between the in-house development teams and the farm, deploying new technologies and feeding back the understanding of their effectiveness to the engineering teams to guide the development.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Champion real-world testing of developing technologies (finished prototypes, subsystems and test rigs), measuring the performance against agreed benchmarks
• Deploy early-stage products to the field, train users in their use, overcome any arising challenges and understand any issues
• Feed back experimental data and applications understanding to hardware and software engineers to guide the technical developments
• Develop field user documentation for new robot systems
• Be engineering liaison to our operations team running our Farm-as-a-Factory programme, assisting with engineering roll-out of process optimisations and understanding emerging issues from the deployed fleet

Desirable Characteristics

• Excellent communicator, able to work with development teams as well as non-technical users that may be non-fluent in English
• Background in horticulture agriculture a strong benefit, or a strong understanding of practical engineering applications in agriculture
• Follows the scientific method and is data driven in testing and problem solving
• Disciplined, and has a sense of urgency
• Systematic, sets and works towards sensible milestones
• Attention to detail, and able to identify which further requisite detail
• Adaptable to evolving priorities
• Driving license is a must-have 
• Ability to drive a van to deploy robots would be beneficial

If you would like to apply for this role, please send your C.V. and covering letter to recruitment@dogtoothtech.com

Would you like to be part of building a brand new industry? We are looking for a talented Manufacturing Engineer (ME) to help drive the R&D efforts of our rapidly growing technology business.

Overview of the role

The ME will ensure that our internal manufacturing processes and those of our suppliers produce high quality robots and ancillary equipment.

The ME will also ensure that manufacturing is conducted repeatably using lean Standardised Work principles, with an emphasis on safe, quality and productive work.

The ME will develop and operate processes for the assembly and testing of subsystems and fully working robots and other ancillary equipment.

The ME will work with R&D to influence the simplicity of manufacture of our robots and translate designs into well designed work that achieves its design intent.

Where required, the ME will work with field operations, R&D, suppliers and outsource partners to resolve quality problems and improve their processes to meet quality and delivery requirements.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Support and participate in our manufacturing activities to understand the robot and its testing.
• Create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the manufacture of existing and new released designs.
• Ensure SOPs get adopted as the current best way of performing our work via our skills matrix.
• Drive New Product Introduction and manage change through our Engineering Change (ECN) process.
• Design and develop tools and equipment in support of our lean manufacturing methods.

Desirable Characteristics

• Attention to detail, and able to identify which further requisite detail.
• Disciplined, thrives in cadenced environments, has a sense of urgency.
• Sets and works towards sensible milestones.
• Likes simple solutions.
• Follows the scientific method and is data driven in problem solving.
• Able to draw the correct balance between following process and knowing when to intervene/escalate problems.
• Personable, emotionally intelligent, confident talking to suppliers, multidisciplinary design authorities (hardware, electronics, software).
• Adaptable to evolving priorities.

If you would like to apply for this role, please send your C.V. and covering letter to recruitment@dogtoothtech.com