Mechanical Design Engineer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 26, 2026. First seen by Alion on Mar 10, 2026. Shellworks scores B on the Alion truth index.
About the Job
Mechanical Design Engineer
London, N4
4 days in our office, 1 day working from home
Reporting to Daniel Hale
£42-55K + equity
About Shellworks
Our vision is a world where the products around you don't damage our environment or our health. At Shellworks we're making that a reality by creating high performance plastic-free materials for everyday products.
Our technology Vivomer makes the impossible possible. It's grown by bacteria using fermentation, creating a material that is stable in use but degrades in every environment. Its breakthrough is being dishwasherable and home compostable at the same time.
We've closed our Series A and are working with some of the world's most recognised brands to replace plastic at volume. We're at an inflection point: scaling from proof-of-concept to mass-market production.
The Role
This is a high leverage, high agency, high impact role. You will set the specifications for our products, prove them through analysis and testing, and make sure they perform reliably across millions of units. You will use your expertise in mechanical engineering every day to solve hard problems and break down barriers of what people think is possible in a plastic-free product. The products you engineer will be in people’s hands within 6 months, all designed to be healthier in use and to disappear after disposal.
Where the focus is today
Making Vivomer products perform, reliably and at scale.
Engineering
Own the mechanical engineering of multiple new products at a time, from customer specification to first order
Set the specifications for every part, and define how each one is tested and validated
Use tolerance analysis and simulation to de-risk designs before we commit to tooling
Design parts that play to Vivomer’s strengths, working closely with our materials team
Testing and quality
Build test rigs, run test plans and make sense of the data
Lead root cause analysis when parts fail, in the lab or in the field
Manufacturing
Work with our injection and blow moulding teams on DFM and tooling so designs scale to millions of units
Travel to partners to solve problems on the line
Beyond
Help double our project throughput in 2027 by building how we engineer, from processes to tracking tools
Must haves
A Bachelors Masters in Mechanical or Manufacturing Engineering, with 3-5 years in physical product development
Deeply technical: 3D CAD, GD&T, tolerance analysis, FEA, DFM, DFA
You’ve designed plastic parts for injection moulding and understand mould design and polymer behaviour
A maker: you prototype, test and iterate quickly in the workshop
A first-principles thinker who always wants to know why something works or fails
Excited to build the frontier of how materials are made
Bias to action, comfortable deciding with incomplete information
High tolerance for ambiguity, low tolerance for silos
What We Offer
28 days holiday + statutory holidays
12 weeks maternity, 6 weeks paternity, both at full pay
Heka wellbeing allowance - gym, therapy, nutrition, fertility support and more
Virtual GP with same or next day appointments
Cycle to work scheme - save up to 42% via salary sacrifice
Daily catered lunch at the office