Quality Engineer

About the Job
🎯 Quality Engineer
🌍 London, N4, expect regular travel to our manufacturing partners in Europe and Asia
🏛️ 4 days in our office, 1 day working from home
🤝 Reporting to our Quality Manager
💰 £40-50K + 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 hands on quality role. You'll make sure every part we ship meets spec, working across our materials, design and manufacturing teams and on factory floors with our partners.
Vivomer is a new material going into products that have to perform like plastic: on shelf, in transit, in the dishwasher and in the hands of consumers. Our customers are some of the world's biggest brands, and they need to trust that every part we ship meets spec.
We're looking for someone who has done quality engineering at a high volume manufacturer and wants to help build it at Shellworks from the ground up. You have an eye for detail and a pragmatic view of which checks really matter.
Where the focus is today
Making sure every Vivomer part meets spec, at volume.
Quality engineering
Translate product requirements into test plans and quality plans

Design in line testing and aesthetic standards with our partners so every part is validated before it ships

Run measurement system analysis, capability studies and SPC on new and running products

Review our existing checks regularly: cut the ones that don't add value and add the ones that are missing

Supplier quality
Support audits and qualification of new manufacturing partners

Run process qualification for new tools and products at our partners

Track partner performance and drive corrective actions to closure

Day to day quality
Run incoming inspection and traceability

Inspect parts and raise NCRs when they're not up to standard, and decide on rework or rejection

Train and support the inspectors and technicians at our partners who run the checks we define

Lead root cause analysis on line issues and customer complaints, and fix them for good

Beyond
Work with our Quality Manager to select and roll out our quality management system as we scale into production

Help build our quality procedures, documentation and change control, without the bureaucracy

Who you are
3 to 5 years in quality engineering, ideally at a high volume consumer hardware or packaging manufacturer

A degree in materials, polymers, mechanical engineering or similar

You've run quality processes on production lines and taken a product from design through to mature production

Hands on with metrology, GD&T, SPC, MSA and capability studies

You've worked with suppliers on the factory floor and know what good looks like

A structured problem solver: 8D, 5 whys, fishbone

You understand how a material's behaviour shows up in a finished part

Excited to build the frontier of how materials are made

High tolerance for ambiguity, low tolerance for bureaucracy

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