Head of Industrial Design - Cheltenham, United Kingdom - Kohler

Kohler

Verified Company

Cheltenham, United Kingdom

3 weeks ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

beBee Recruiter

Description

Designing award-winning products for our market-leading brands - Mira Showers, Rada and Kohler UK - is our lifeblood. We focus on investment, investing in the best technology and resources available and investing in each and every individual. Put simply, it's who we are.

Whether you arrive at our factories in Cheltenham or Hull, have a visit from a Service Engineer or pick up the phone to our Customer Service team, you'll instantly see that, no matter our department or location, we all share the same values at Kohler Mira.

From day one you're part of the Kohler Mira community - a collaborative, forward focused team with a shared pride in our work and commitment to delight our customers, develop innovative products and services and inspire our people (who knew a bathroom manufacturing company did all this?)

But, to get to where we want to be, we are looking for a
Head of Industrial Design. Find out more below

BASIC RESPONSIBILITIES

You will lead and develop a dynamic team of designers in creating industry-leading solutions for the Kohler Mira product portfolio, including the Mira and Rada brands.

Your expertise will guide the design process from conceptualization to production, ensuring our offerings meet the highest standards of functionality, style, and market appeal.

While working collaboratively with the new product development teams, challenge convention when it comes to processes, ideas, and materials with motivation toward advancing the position of Kohler Mira as it competes in the industry.

Share in the development of business strategies, product strategies, consumer research, and human factors opportunities.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

Collaboration:

Work closely with cross-functional teams to set the design vision and strategy of Kohler Mira and align with the New Product Development and Marketing teams ensuring seamless integration of design strategy that delivers business results.

Strategic design and innovation:

Clearly define and challenge the Mira and Rada brand design languages to ensure a consistent and considered approach to the total product portfolio.

Generate innovative concepts that address user needs, manufacturing constraints, and design trends. Maintain an awareness of new technologies, processes, and materials that could elevate new opportunities for the category.

Design operations:

Oversee the industrial design development lifecycle, from prototyping to final production, ensuring designs meet quality, cost, and timeline targets.

Plan and coordinate new product development strategies with global counterparts.

Design management:

Lead design projects from concept generation through to implementation; analyze consumers' requirements, including functional aspects of design aesthetic need and business and cost objectives Assign and manage design resources; recruit, manage, and develop internal design resources.

Coordinate external design activities with consultants; develop relationships and contracts with vendors and design consultants.

Leadership and coaching:
Manage and coach a team of talented designers, providing guidance, feedback, and support in their professional development.

Support staff in design reviews of new products.
Coach/ mentor to ensure informed decisions are made concerning the intent of projects for industrial design and engineering technical feasibility.

Application of human factors and ergonomics to develop products that are safe and reliable for use; graphic design, visual presentation, Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office software to create visual material to present ideas, concepts, and research results; manufacturing design processing, including 3D printed models, CAD generation, file export, and 3D printing for injection molded plastics, ceramic and metal casting; 3D CAD modeling (such as Rhino, Solidworks, Alias or Creo); and, computer rendering to generate photo-realistic concepts using software (such as Keyshot).

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS
Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design from an accredited university or other appropriate field i.e. Graphics, Ceramics, Furniture. Relevant Continuing Education; Masters in ID, Project Management, or Business ideal. Must have previous experience proactively teaching/coaching less experienced designers in quality techniques and tools of design.

We can offer you a lot in return

At Kohler, you're not a number, you're a valued member of our team (or as we like to say, an "associate").

What this means for you, is focused development that is personalised - all of the challenge you desire with all the support you need, as well as global opportunities should you desire.

We also offer competitive benefits, including a focus on wellbeing and a genuine commitment to 'giving something back' through our Stewardship (CSR) efforts.

We believe that our depth of knowledge and breadth of opportunities set us apart and if you believe you'd a