New Product Development & Quality Engineer
Location: Mansfield (with travel to manufacturers and trial stores) Salary: £42,000 – £48,000 + £6,500 car allowance + 25 days holiday Type: Permanent, Full Time | 08:30 – 17:00 Mon–Fri
The Company
A well-established business based in Derbyshire, part of a wider European group, supplying products and solutions into the retail sector. Their offering covers a broad range of physical items you'd find in and around retail stores — the kind of things most shoppers walk past every day without giving a second thought, but which take considerable engineering and project management to deliver.
The product development team is expanding, and this is a newly reinstated role sitting at the heart of it.
The Role
This is a genuine hybrid position, split between new product development and quality, and it's a great opportunity for someone who has built a solid quality foundation and now wants to do something broader with it.
You'll be taking new products from initial brief through to finished, tested item. That means working closely with designers and manufacturers, building and testing prototypes, and making sure what gets delivered to a retailer's shop floor actually does what it's supposed to. Topple testing, weight testing, push and pull, fit for function — all of that sits with you.
Alongside the development work, you'll be helping to build and embed quality processes within a young and growing team. The business hasn't had a dedicated quality function until recently, so there's real scope here to shape how things are done and leave your mark.
At any one time you'll be juggling multiple projects at different stages — some active, some in prototyping, some just coming in — so the ability to keep several plates spinning without dropping any is essential.
There will be regular travel to manufacturers, all UK-based and manageable as day trips, and occasional visits to trial stores. The role is predominantly Tibshelf-based with some flexibility to work from home, particularly on Fridays when workload allows.
What We're Looking For
A background in quality, ideally within a product, manufacturing or retail environment
Hands-on experience of product testing or inspection
Comfortable working in a fast-moving, changeable environment where priorities shift and clients evolve their briefs mid-project
Organised, pragmatic and able to manage multiple projects simultaneously
An understanding of quality processes and standards — you don't need to be deeply certified, but you need to know what good looks like
Retail, construction or any similarly fast-paced sector background will be well regarded
A full UK driving licence is required
Why This Role?
This is the kind of position that suits someone who is good at quality but wants more variety in their day. You won't be stuck in a lab or tied to one product line — you'll be involved in genuinely interesting, bespoke projects for major retailers, working in a close-knit team that has a lot of long-serving people in it, which tells a story of its own.
The team is busy, the work is varied, and there's real room to grow as the function develops around you.
INDH