Cad Designer

CAD Designer

Haverhill, Suffolk
£35,000 – £42,000

There is a big difference between designing something that looks good on screen and designing something that can actually be made.

This role is about the latter.

Crem Recruitment is working with an established manufacturer of bespoke furniture and interior products in Haverhill, supporting them with the appointment of a Furniture CAD Designer to join their design team.

The business takes projects from initial concept and technical development right through to manufacture and installation, producing bespoke furniture predominantly for commercial spaces and automotive showroom environments.

As a result, this isn't a role where your drawings disappear into somebody else's supply chain.

You'll be designing products that are manufactured by the same business, working directly with the people responsible for producing, assembling and ultimately installing them.

The role

Sitting within the design team, you'll take approved concepts, specifications and site information and turn them into accurate, manufacture-ready designs.

Working primarily in SolidWorks, you'll create 3D models, assemblies and detailed manufacturing drawings for bespoke furniture and interior products.

But producing drawings is only part of the job.

You'll need to think about how something will actually be made.

What material should be used? How will the components fit together? What tolerances are required? Can it be produced efficiently using the available machinery? How will it be assembled? And, crucially, will it work when the installation team gets to site?

You'll work closely with designers, project managers, production teams, CNC operators and installers, giving you visibility across the full journey from design through to finished product.

Day to day, you'll be:

• Creating detailed 3D models, assemblies and manufacturing drawings in SolidWorks

• Developing bespoke furniture from client briefs, specifications, approved concepts and site surveys

• Producing technical information for manufacture, assembly and installation

• Designing around real-world materials, machinery and manufacturing processes

• Applying appropriate dimensions, tolerances, fixings and construction details

• Checking designs for accuracy, functionality and buildability before they reach production

• Working directly with production and installation teams to solve technical challenges

• Revising designs following project changes, internal reviews or client feedback

• Supporting prototypes, product development and improvements to existing designs

• Attending design reviews and, where required, site surveys or installation visits

Who are we looking for?

We're not necessarily looking for someone from an identical business.

What matters is that you understand the relationship between CAD and manufacture.

You could currently be working within bespoke furniture, joinery, cabinetry, commercial interiors, retail fixtures, interior fit-out or another product-led manufacturing environment.

You'll need strong 3D CAD capability, ideally using SolidWorks, although experience with a comparable 3D CAD package will also be considered.

More importantly, you should be comfortable producing drawings that somebody else has to physically manufacture.

That means understanding dimensions, tolerances, materials, fixings and construction methods and being able to spot potential problems before they reach the factory floor.

Experience with CNC or automated manufacturing would be particularly useful, as would knowledge of materials such as sheet products, timber, laminates, solid surfaces, metalwork, glass and associated hardware.

If you've previously produced bills of materials, component schedules or worked from architectural drawings and site surveys, even better.

What kind of person will suit the business?

Someone practical.

Someone who enjoys getting into the detail and figuring out how things work rather than simply drawing what they've been given.

You'll need to be organised enough to manage multiple projects, confident enough to ask questions when something doesn't make sense and collaborative enough to work closely with colleagues across design, manufacturing and installation.

There will inevitably be revisions, technical challenges and occasions where a design needs to change because the best solution on paper isn't necessarily the best solution in production.

The right person will enjoy solving those problems.

Why consider it?

For a technically minded designer, one of the most valuable things you can have is proximity to manufacturing.

Here, you'll be able to see how your designs translate from a SolidWorks model into physical components, assemblies and completed installations.

You'll work alongside the people actually making the products, learn from production and installation feedback and continually develop your understanding of design for manufacture.

It's a role for someone who wants to become a better technical designer by understanding not just what they're designing, but how it gets built.

Salary: £35,000 – £42,000 depending on experience
Location: Haverhill, Suffolk
Employment: Permanent, full-time

Crem Recruitment is recruiting exclusively on behalf of its client for this appointment.

If you're a CAD Designer, Furniture Designer, Design Technician or Product Designer with strong 3D CAD skills and experience designing for manufacture, we'd be keen to hear from you.