Product Designer

We are looking for a Product Designer to join our small multi-disciplinary team. The Sustainable Ventures Design team works with a broad range of founders and businesses across the climate tech/sustainability sector developing impact-led products, brands and experiences.

Taking a rigorous approach to sustainability, you will act as a key influence on the direction that clients take, delivering climate-conscious design and engineering from idea and business inception through to trials and mass market. 

// About Sustainable Ventures

Our impact on the planet’s climate and its natural resources is being felt more often & by more people than ever before.

Sustainable Ventures was established in 2011 to develop commercial solutions to the challenges of climate change and resource scarcity. We have launched, invested in and provided support services to over 400 sustainability and climate tech companies and created a unique ecosystem centred on our 40,000 sq ft workspace in Waterloo.

The multidisciplinary support of our design team helps climate-tech founders, teams & businesses to develop and successfully bring their ideas to market, creating lasting change.

// Product Designer Role

You will lead on the creation and development of new products and services as part of our multidisciplinary team of designers, collaboratively working with the founding teams of start-ups who are focused on making better solutions for people and the planet. 

You’ll be fully immersed into projects from initial idea to production, and everything in between, often solving new challenges, defining novel categories and prototyping the next generation of products. With a track record of building new ventures at SV, you’ll also be encouraged to come up with your own ideas for products and ventures.

/ We expect you to:

• Be relentlessly focused on understanding people’s needs and behaviours, and identifying core problems and opportunities. To always ask "why?"
• Be eager to generate and develop disruptive new ideas and concepts for climate focused products, systems and services, and see them through to trials and production
• Deploy rigorous and continual consideration of the impact of your decisions on people and the planet, to inspire clients and their customers in better solutions
• Strive for excellence in the visual quality and performance of your work, applying a blend of product design and design engineering skills 
• Be very comfortable in testing, validating and iterating your ideas through rigs, prototypes & models in the workshop and beyond

/ We value candidates that are:

• Approaching work with an entrepreneurial mindset
• Motivated to produce work which is sustainable and commercial at its core
• Proactive in identifying opportunities, and creative in proposing ideas and solutions
• Collaborative when developing those ideas & solutions
• Pragmatic and empathetic to the constraints many of our early-stage clients face

/ Talk to us if you have:

• A passion for the sustainability / climate tech sector
• 2-4 years relevant professional experience in the product design / design engineering field, with proof of client-facing work, producing high-quality outputs with excellent attention to detail, to time/budget/quality objectives
• Ideally, a 1st or upper 2nd class undergraduate or postgraduate degree in product / industrial design, design engineering or similar
• Advanced knowledge of CAD software (ideally Autodesk Fusion 360 / Inventor)
• Ability to use the Adobe Creative Suite, particularly InDesign, Photoshop & Illustrator is highly desirable
• Experience in preparing & delivering designs for one-off, batch & mass production (3D printing, sheet metal, injection moulding, machining)
• Proven organisational skills for managing multiple projects/clients simultaneously, co-ordinating deliverables and meeting deadlines

/ It would be an added bonus if you have:

• Experience of basic electronic prototyping and/or product-electronic integration

Please note

If you’re excited about this role but your past experience does not perfectly align with every element of the job description, we encourage you to still apply - you may be the right candidate for this or other roles.

// Benefits

This role offers you unparalleled exposure to multiple exciting start-ups - you can expect a lively and engaging work environment amongst a diverse range of innovators.

/ Remuneration: £30,000 - £40,000 salary (negotiable based on level of professional experience) + discretionary bonus + long-term incentive scheme

/ Location: Sustainable Workspaces’ flagship location at County Hall, Waterloo, London. We have a hybrid working model in place with a minimum requirement of 2 days’ in the office per week. 

/ Diversity: Sustainable Ventures is an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. This is a full-time role, however, we will seek to accommodate requests for flexible working schedules.

// Application Process

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. We anticipate the following commitments from a successful candidate.

Application:

A covering email/letter, with submission of CV and PDF portfolio (max 10MB) to [email removed - click apply for more details]

Please note: applications without a cover email/letter will not be considered.

Interview 1:

Successful designers will be invited to an initial 45 min interview with the design team.

Interview 2:

A 60 minute creative exercise, followed by a 60 min interview with the Head of Design and Managing Director.