The Role
This is a high‑impact technical role with real ownership. You’ll sit at the intersection of design, manufacturing, and scale‑up, turning novel blade concepts into robust, repeatable production processes. You’ll work hands‑on in our workshop, collaborate closely with design, and engage directly with customers and partners to support real‑world deployment of our technology.
As DFM Blades grows, you will have the opportunity to help define future capability needs and play a key role in shaping and mentoring a growing technical team.
What You'll Do
Blade DfM Development
- Develop and mature design-for-manufacture concepts for wind turbine blades.
- Lead concept evaluation and down-selection using data, experimentation, and engineering judgement.
- Drive rapid prototyping in our workshop using a “fail fast, learn fast” approach working closely with technicians.
- Define manufacturing architectures that may require entirely new tooling, workflows, or process logic, not incremental adaptation of existing methods.
- Identify potential failure modes and define Critical to Quality (CTQ) requirements.
- Define and document optimised process parameters for consistent, high quality output.
Process Definition & Risk Management
- Translate selected concepts into clearly defined, repeatable manufacturing processes.
- Lead PFMEAs and other risk assessment activities to identify, mitigate, and document process risks.
- Define and document key process parameters, tolerances, and control methods to ensure consistent quality and manufacturability.
Scale-Up, Industrialisation & Customer Implementation
- Lead the transition of DFM Blades’ manufacturing concepts from R&D into robust, industrial ready processes.
- Support the implementation of our technology within customer manufacturing environments, working closely with their engineering and production teams.
- Develop clear work instructions, SOPs, process flows, and training material to support technology transfer and adoption.
- Collaborate on the design and specification of tooling, fixtures, and equipment required for both internal development and customer implementation.
- Support pilot builds, demonstrations, and early production runs, using feedback to refine processes and reduce risk.
Quality, Safety & Compliance
- Develop inspection methods, quality controls and acceptance criteria.
- Ensure processes meet (internal) standards and applicable external requirements.
- Embed health, safety, and environmental considerations into all manufacturing activities.
Collaboration
- Work closely with design and production to ensure manufacturability from day one.
- Engage with external experts including customers, suppliers, consultants, and research institutes.
- Communicate clearly through structured documentation, hand sketches, storyboards, and visual aids.
What Success Looks Like
- Blade concepts move from idea to prototype quickly and predictably.
- Manufacturing processes become simpler, more repeatable, and less reliant on craftsmanship.
- Risks are identified early and designed out.
- The foundations are laid for industrial scale blade production.
Who You Are
Essential
- Strong hands‑on experience in composite manufacturing, including vacuum assisted resin infusions, adhesive bonding, materials, curing cycles, and tooling.
- Proven experience taking ownership of manufacturing concept development and seeing ideas through to implementation.
- Comfortable working with ambiguity and incomplete information, shaping both the problem and the solution.
- Experience defining manufacturing processes, identifying risks (e.g. PFMEA), and driving process maturation.
- Experience with process risk management (e.g. PFMEA) and production troubleshooting.
- Experiment minded, able to design trials, analyse data, and translate results into practical manufacturing improvements.
- Self-motivated, practical, and comfortable in an early stage startup environment.
- Clear communicator with strong documentation skills (sketches, storyboards, written procedures).
- Eligible to work in the UK.
Desirable
- Experience in wind energy, aerospace, or marine composites.
- Experience establishing new manufacturing processes from a low TRL starting point.
- Familiarity with quality systems in industrial or regulated environments.
Practicalities
- BEng (or higher) in a relevant engineering discipline.
- Typically 5+ years’ relevant industry experience.
- Willing and able to travel occasionally to suppliers, partners, and customers.
- Right to work in the UK.