Mechanical Design Engineer

MECHANICAL DESIGN ENGINEER Company: Sun King Department: Clean Cooking Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time Location: Nairobi, Kenya Reporting To: Head of Clean Cooking ABOUT THIS ROLE Join Sun King as a Mechanical Design Engineer and play a critical role in scaling clean cooking technology across Africa. You will drive design excellence and production efficiency by managing a diverse range of mechanical design and validation projects. Your work will directly impact how cleanly and efficiently thousands of households cook, making this a position with genuine global significance. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Production Excellence & Support You will serve as the mechanical troubleshooter for incoming quality inspections and in-line production systems, keeping our manufacturing operations running smoothly. Your responsibilities include evaluating manufacturer quality frameworks and production timing to identify efficiency improvements and guide equipment development priorities. You'll design and build fixtures and rigs that streamline quality inspections, test hardware prototypes while analyzing performance data, and validate end-of-line functional testing systems. Additionally, you'll handle maintenance, repairs, and modifications to existing hardware, and maintain custom air test systems and production tooling. Design Validation & Partnership Working closely with our manufacturing partners and quality teams, you'll oversee mechanical validation activities and assist with testing hardware improvements. You'll establish relationships with skilled local vendors for prototype fabrication and production equipment components. Your CAD design expertise will support the production equipment and fixture development needs of our Hardware Engineering team, and you'll help coordinate comprehensive design validation testing with manufacturers to ensure all product requirements are met. Field Support & Continuous Learning You'll be the primary technical advisor for mechanical field failures, gathering stakeholder feedback and communicating insights back to our product design teams. You'll investigate the root causes of systematic product failures and implement solutions through design, process, or component modifications. You'll monitor hardware and firmware performance data to identify trends and inform critical product improvements and business decisions. Cross-Functional Collaboration You'll work seamlessly with internal teams across Production, Quality, and Hardware Engineering, coordinating design improvements and ensuring quality standards throughout development and production. You'll also partner with external manufacturers, vendors, and field teams to align our design vision with manufacturing capabilities and real-world requirements, ensuring every product succeeds in the market. IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE You hold a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Design, Mechatronics, or a related discipline. You bring minimum two years of hands-on experience with CAD design and prototyping using industry-standard tools, including proven skills in building, testing, and maintaining mechanical prototypes. You can confidently produce and interpret engineering documentation including schematics, assembly drawings, and bills of materials. Your strengths include strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, excellent cross-cultural communication skills, meticulous attention to detail, and a collaborative team mindset. You're eager to learn continuously and prepared to travel when project needs require it. WHY JOIN SUN KING You'll grow professionally within a dynamic, rapidly expanding sector creating meaningful impact on sustainable living. Sun King cultivates an open, collaborative environment where passionate team members continuously innovate and drive a smart, sustainable business that transforms lives globally. You'll experience genuine multiculturalism, working alongside talented professionals from diverse geographies, nationalities, and backgrounds while accessing structured learning and development programs through the Greenlight Academy that strengthen your capabilities as a leader and professional. Sun King is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We recruit, employ, train, compensate, and promote based on experience and demonstrated job performance, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, HIV/AIDS status, disability, or any other legally protected characteristic. We actively work to ensure all team members feel they belong and that diverse perspectives inform our critical decisions.