Design and Applications Engineer; Mechanical

Design and Applications Engineer (Mechanical) | Kenmore | East Rand, Gauteng

Kenmore supplies the mining industry across Africa. We design and build complete crushing, milling and screening plants as turnkey projects, supply capital equipment, spares and wear parts to mines across the continent.

We are looking for a mechanical engineer to join our Technical team under the Technical Director. The heart of the role is plant and equipment layout: taking a client's ore, tonnage and site and turning it into a crushing, milling and screening solution, selecting the equipment, laying out the plant, and handing a clear design to our costing team to price.

You will present and defend those choices to clients, and when a plant on site has a problem you will be one of the people sent to work out why. There is drawing work too, but the job is more about judgement than detailing. We are a small company and we work across lines: you will help Projects when they need it, and they will help you.

You have a BEng or BTech in mechanical engineering and three to eight years in heavy industry, ideally in minerals processing or materials handling. You can explain a technical choice in plain language, you are comfortable in front of a client, and you would rather be on site solving a problem than guessing from the office. 3D CAD experience is needed (we work in Autodesk Inventor).

Title:

Design and Applications Engineer (Mechanical)

Reports to:

Technical Director

Location:

East Rand, Gauteng, with site visits when a plant or piece of equipment needs attention

Kenmore supplies the mining industry across Africa. We design and build complete crushing, milling and screening plants as turnkey projects, supply capital equipment, spares and wear parts to mines across the continent.

The Design and Applications Engineer sits in our Technical team, which owns the engineering behind everything Kenmore sells and builds. The core of the job is the front end of a project: understanding what the client needs, selecting the right equipment, laying out the plant, and producing a design that our costing team can price and our clients can understand. Once a job is won, the design is detailed in the drawing office and built on site, and the Design and Applications Engineer stays close to it, answering queries, resolving problems and learning from what the field sends back.

It is a role for a steady, practical engineer who can hold a technical position with a client and change it when the facts say so.

One thing to know about Kenmore: we are small and nimble, and there are no walls between departments. Most of the time you will be on technical and proposal work, but when a project needs an engineer on site for a few days you will step in, and Projects will do the same when the drawing office is under pressure. We want people who like working that way.

• Develop plant and equipment layouts for proposals and projects: flow sheets, equipment selection and sizing, general arrangements, and the reasoning behind each choice.
• Hand clear, complete designs to the costing team so that bids are priced on what will actually be built, and support the bid through to award.
• Present and explain designs to clients, on site and in meetings: why this crusher, this screen, this layout, and what the trade-offs are.
• Troubleshoot equipment and plant problems on site when they arise: diagnose, propose a fix, and see it through with the client and our team.
• Carry out engineering calculations and selections: throughput and capacity, drives, structures, wear and materials.
• Produce and check drawings where needed, from concept GAs to fabrication detail, in Autodesk Inventor, and work with the drawing office on the rest.
• Feed what you learn on site back into our designs and our own equipment range: standardisation, improvements, new designs.

• BEng, BSc(Eng) or BTech in mechanical engineering. Progress toward ECSA registration is an advantage.
• Three to eight years in heavy industry, ideally minerals processing, materials handling or mining equipment, with real exposure to plant layout or equipment selection.
• A clear explainer: you can tell a client, or a colleague, why a design is the way it is, without hiding behind jargon, and you stay calm when challenged.
• A problem solver who is comfortable on site: you have stood in front of a machine that is not working and worked out why.
• Competent in 3D CAD;
  Autodesk Inventor experience is an advantage.
• You…