Process Engineer - Consumables

We are seeking a Process Engineer to join our Product Engineering team, supporting Consumables manufacturing. You will own the development, optimisation and control of manufacturing processes for coated consumable products, ensuring they are robust, capable and cost-effective in routine production within our clean room manufacturing environment.

The Product Engineering team is the technical bridge during product transfer: R&D and Manufacturing owns the handover end-to-end, and product engineering supports it, understanding the processes, yield and problem solving throughout. In this role you will support NPI industrialisation and design transfer for new coated consumable products, partnering with R&D as they are developed and transferred into production.

The successful candidate will bring expertise in chemical processing, surface engineering and coating technologies, with experience of manufacturing precision consumables used within the pharmaceutical, diagnostics, biotechnology or semiconductor industries.

This position is primarily based at our Botley (Oxford) site, with a minimum on-site requirement of four days per week. You will also be expected to travel occasionally to our Littlemore site as business needs require.

Responsibilities

NPI & Transfer support

• Work closely with R&D to develop and establish manufacturing-ready processes for new consumable products.
• Lead the technology transfer from R&D into Manufacturing
• Provide manufacturing input to R&D during process development, including Design for Manufacture feedback.
• Identify Critical Process Parameters (CPPs) and Critical Quality Attributes (CQAs).
• Support creation of work instructions and process specifications for transferred products.
• Support the creation of equipment maintenance documentation and preventative maintenance schedules.

Process Development & Improvement

• Develop and optimise robust manufacturing processes for coated consumables, including coating, surface preparation and chemical treatment, using structured methods such as Design of Experiments (DoE) to build process capability,
• Establish and Monitor KPI’s to Drive yield improvement activities, increase throughput, reduce cost and improve product consistency across the coated consumables portfolio, prioritising the activities that make the biggest impact.

Manufacturing Support

• Resolve escalated production issues across the consumable portfolio
• Investigate yield loss and process variation, performing root cause analysis using structured problem-solving techniques.

Validation & Process Control

• Develop process validation protocols and support execution of IQ/OQ/PQ activities
• Define process control strategies and establish Statistical Process Control (SPC)
• Support FMEA (DFMEA & PFMEA), Control Plans and associated Risk Assessments.

Cross Functional Collaboration

Work closely with:

• Research & Development
• Manufacturing
• Quality
• Supply Chain
• Operations Leadership
• External suppliers (CMO’s, Equipment) and technology partners
• Degree in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Surface Science, Chemistry, Physics or a related engineering discipline.
• Significant experience in process engineering within a regulated manufacturing environment; clean room experience strongly preferred.
• Hands on experience with coating technologies and surface treatments.
• Proficiency in statistical analysis tools (eg. Minitab, JMP) and structured problem-solving methods (eg. DoE, 8D, FMEA)
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to manage multiple projects.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively with R&D, Quality Assurance and Supply Chain.

Highly Desirable Experience

Experience in one or more of the following industries:

Pharmaceutical diagnostics, Life Sciences, Medical Devices, Biotechnology, Semiconductor Manufacturing, Microfabrication, or Analytical Instrumentation

Technical experience in:

• Functional coatings
• Chemical formulations
• Plasma processing
• Wet chemistry
• Cleanroom manufacturing
• Optical inspection

Any experience in reagent or assay production and scale up can also be discussed and would be considered favourably.

Personal Attributes

• Highly analytical with excellent…