Product Designer - Planter Boxes

ABOUT THE COMPANY Our client is an Australian laser cutting and sheet metal fabrication business supplying a wide range of businesses nationally. One division of the company designs and manufactures architectural planter boxes, also supplied nationally to construction companies. The division has grown steadily over recent years and is now expanding, and currently includes an estimator and a designer. ABOUT THE ROLE This role owns the whole path of a planter box job, from reading the architect's, landscape or structural drawings and completing the take-off, to drafting and structurally assessing the planter box against the project's specific dimensions and quoting the job, and (on won jobs) producing the drawings the customer approves and the cut-ready files the factory works from. This is a structural drafting and stress-analysis-led role, with estimating as the lighter component. The planter box's overall design has already been established by the company, so the core skill isn't ground-up product design, it's working out the stiffener count and placement for each job's specific dimensions, and carrying out the structural/stress analysis (particularly where planter boxes are used as balustrades on high-rise developments) to confirm the structure won't tip or fail under load. Quoting runs on the company's own standard estimating formulas, so take-off accuracy and this structural judgement matter far more than estimating technique. The role is dedicated to this company and works as part of its existing team (which already includes an estimator and a designer), rather than being shared across multiple clients. During quieter periods (for example the construction industry's December–January shutdown), the candidate may be asked to support other departments, such as general estimation or laser-machine programming, to keep them productively engaged. PRIMARY PURPOSE To independently take a planter box job from an architect's or construction drawing through take-off, structural drafting and quoting, and (once a job is won) through to customer approval drawings and factory-ready cut files, applying sound structural judgement and commercial scope awareness throughout.