The Opportunity

Join our team as Engineering Manager.

This is a new role created due to company growth. You will lead our Product Design & Engineering team and be responsible for developing the product stack and engineering capability required to build the world-leading company in slurry transfer technology.

Autonomy: autonomy to build team, engineering capability, and product stack.
Global Scope: global growth strategy supported by Australian engineering.
Product Development: exciting new product development roadmap.
Digital Transformation: create 100% digital ‘design-to-manufacture’ tech stack.
Centre of Excellence: build the company’s product engineering ‘centre of excellence’.
Fast-Growing Company: startup 10 years ago, targeting $200-250m in 2-3 years.
Strong Financials: able to internally fund product development, technology development, manufacturing expansion, team expansion, company growth strategy.
Entrepreneurial Culture: founder-led business that is fast-moving and ambitious.

This is an opportunity to get on board and lead the development of our Product Design & Engineering capability as we expand to become a global business.

The Role

You will lead our Product Design & Engineering team with the mission to develop the product stack and engineering capability required to build the world’s leading company in slurry transfer technology. You will be responsible for developing the people, processes, and systems to make our product engineering capability a key competitive advantage. This is a high-growth environment with the resources to fund the team and invest in product development and digital systems required to build a global original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

Key responsibilities for this role include:

Lead & manage team.
Technical authority.
Product design & engineering.
Pre-production engineering (incl DFMA).
New product development (incl R&D).
Product quality engineering.
Engineering processes, systems & standards.

Having grown from a startup ten years ago, our engineers have typically played a ‘multi-tool’ role across every engineering problem in the business. Now, we are building dedicated engineering teams for the next stage of growth – initially with separate teams for ‘manufacturing engineering’ and ‘product engineering’. You must bring a ‘startup mindset’ to building the Product Design & Engineering capability to enable the company’s growth.

Key initiatives in the first 12-18 months will look something like this:

Build an A-player team (hire internal roles, upskill in piping design & pre-production engineering, pilot offshore resourcing for repetitive activities).
Develop design & engineering process excellence (create & improve processes, standards, workflows, templates, etc).
Assist the Technology team with the selection & implementation of design & engineering technology stack (including spatial, 3D modelling, parametric design, product configurator, CFD, FEA, and future integration to ERP).
Re-engineer the existing product range (review and update designs for the ‘configure-to-order’ range, update the process for ‘engineer-to-order’ items, standardise and simplify designs for better ‘design for manufacture’, and uplift all designs into 3D parametric software).
Develop and streamline SlurryIQ internal design & engineering workflow (including spatial data capture, data processing, 3D modelling of current state & future state, visualisation via digital twin, creation of 3D CAD product library with model piping specifications to allow clients to design using ‘Beaver system’, etc).
Establish product development capability to deliver the product roadmap on a programmatic basis (including dedicated internal resources, clear roadmap and budget, structured use of external specialist expertise, etc).

This role will be based at our Brisbane site, where we are building our engineering ‘centre of excellence’ for multiple disciplines. You will need to build out your team (likely 5-7 in 12 months, 10-15 in 2-3 years) with an optimised mix of internal team, dedicated offshore support, and specialist subject matter experts. We currently use Autodesk Inventor as our design software (although this is up for review as part of our technology transformation program).

The Company

Beaver Process Equipment is a privately owned, entrepreneurial company led by Josh Beaver. It specialises in the design and manufacture of slurry transfer technology for the mining industry. It currently has a team of 110 and is growing at a rate of 40 per year. It has two facilities: Perth (approx. 4200m2 office/workshop) and Brisbane (approx. 5100m2 office/workshop, relocating to 16,000m2 facility in early 2025).

The vision is to build a world-class company that is the global leader in slurry transfer technology.

Our current product range includes:

Slurryflex: https://www.beaverprocess.com.au/slurryflex-hose/
Abrasiguard: https://www.beaverprocess.com.au/abrasiguard-slurry-piping/
Defender: https://www.beaverprocess.com.au/defender
SlurryIQ: https://www.beaverprocess.com.au/slurryiq/

The product strategy is to develop high-performance slurry transfer systems that are an end-to-end integrated solution enabled with sensors and software. The long-term vision is to enable a ‘turn-key solution’ for slurry transfer systems in mineral process plants and pipelines where we would design, build, own and operate these systems, effectively providing a ‘product as a service’ where we are accountable for performance and uptime on these systems.

We are investing in technology to create a fully digital workflow from spatial data to design to manufacturing to remote monitoring. The product roadmap for our SlurryIQ technology will turn our products into ‘smart’ systems that delivers exceptional value to clients including AI-based design optimisation, wear prediction using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), embedded sensors with IIOT cloud, digital twin visualisation, and predictive maintenance.

The Ideal Candidate

We are looking for an Engineering Leader who wants the autonomy to develop the product engineering capability required to be the best in the world in our specialist area. This will require a ‘startup mindset’ with strong drive to take the initiative and get things done (‘ask forgiveness, not permission’). You will be independent, assertive, competitive, and self-confident. You will like solving challenging engineering problems and demand high standards from yourself and your team. You will be capable of calculated risk taking, with a commercial overlay on your engineering mind, and a strong desire to win. You will embrace learning new things and like using technology to do things better/faster/cheaper. You will take ownership of the team with strong accountability for delivering the required results.

You will be a strong fit with our Core Values: https://www.beaverprocess.com.au/careers/.

Prior product or industry experience is not required. We are looking for an A-player who wants to build a high-performing Product Design & Engineering team.

The ideal candidate will have the following experience:

Engineering degree in relevant discipline (mechanical or similar).
Experience leading and managing engineering teams.
Ideally – prior experience building the product design & engineering capability (including pre-production engineering) for a build-to-order manufacturer.
Ideally – prior experience helping select and implement digital product design & engineering technology stack (working with Technology team).

Why Join Us?

This is an outstanding opportunity.

This is an opportunity to build the Product Design & Engineering capability and drive the global expansion of an Australian success story.

We are looking to recruit the best and develop our leadership talent internally that that can step up as the business grows.

How to Apply

To learn more, please contact Janice Vincentia from our Recruitment Team at janice.vincentia@beaverprocess.com.au.

Apply via the link with your resume and cover letter.

We take your cover letter seriously and would like you to explain:

Your motivation: why you want this specific role?
Your suitability: why you would be successful in this role?