Mechanical Engineering Placement Student - 12 month FTC

At Eakin Healthcare we put our patient at the heart of everything we do.

Fifty years ago, it all started with one man’s mission: pharmacist, Tom George Eakin. He saw his patients struggling with leaking urostomy pouches and decided enough was enough. He got to work and formulated what would become the game-changing, eakin Cohesive® seal.

Fast forward to today, and we’re still keeping it in the family. We’ve grown a lot since then, both organically and through acquisitions. We now have a team of over 700 colleagues across three manufacturing sites and 12 sales and distribution centres. We’re making a difference in three therapeutic areas:

• Ostomy
• Respiratory
• Surgical

We’re proud to export our innovative products to over 60 countries through a network of 40 distributors plus our own offices in Japan, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg.

We’re good at what we do – come and join us!

ABOUT THE ROLE

Eakin R&D is now recruiting for a student placement in the Mechanical Engineering team.  This role is an exciting opportunity to be part of the wider development team that drive the research and product development activities for the introduction of new medical devices in the therapeutic areas of ostomy, respiratory, wound and surgical healthcare.  The duration of the placement is for one year.

KEY ACTIVITIES

In Eakin R&D’s labs at the Comber site a suite of test rigs that simulate real world environments for Eakin ostomy medical devices have been installed.  These tests subject ostomy products to a design verification process that is more robust when compared with traditional test methods.  This process should reduce the risk associated with validation activities which provides an opportunity of improving the speed to market and reducing the related costs in a product’s development cycle.

The focus of this student placement is to contribute to the continued development of the design verification process used at Eakin R&D.  The key deliverables are:

• Understand Eakin R&D’s current design verification process.
• Identify any areas of inefficiency in the process.
• Propose improvements to the process.
• Contribute to the development of an exemplar demonstrating an improvement in the process.

Other

• To adhere to the company’s Equal Opportunities policy and Dignity at work policy in all activities and to actively promote equality of opportunity wherever possible.
• To be responsible for your own health and safety and that of your colleagues, in accordance with the company’s’ Health and Safety policy.
• To adhere to the company’s Quality policy and Environmental policy.
• To undertake other duties as may be reasonably required.

KEY SKILLS

Essential

• Currently undertaking a degree in Mechanical, Biomechanical Engineering or equivalent.
• It is essential that the successful candidate can demonstrate a desire to implement the engineering theory taught in their degree to solve real world problems.
• The successful candidate will also:
  • have a ‘can do’ attitude and be able to work on their own initiative.
  • be able to work in a multi-functional team and to build relationships with peers.

Desirable

• Interest or experience in the Medical Devices sector.
• Awareness of polymer processing and polymer joining methods, concentrating on the processing and heat sealing techniques for polymer films (e.g. thermal, RF and ultrasonic welding).
• Understanding of the design verification process in product development.
• Able to demonstrate expertise in the application of engineering analysis to real world problems (e.g. calculations, mathematical modelling, computational simulation etc.)
• An ability to collect, analyse and interpret data.

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

Internal

• As a member of the mechanical engineering team, the successful candidate will be required to develop working relationship with the wider Eakin R&D team which includes teams from design, formulation, industrialisation and programs.
• In developing the design verification process there is an opportunity to work with Eakins insights, operations and quality teams.

External

• The external working relationships that may need to be developed include those with suppliers, external consultants and centres of technical excellence (e.g. Universities, test houses etc.)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Maybe required to travel from time to time to support activities at other sites and to meet with suppliers.
• Interviews to take place mid Nov – mid Dec 2024 to join the business in June 2025.

COMPETENCIES

Customer Focus

Building strong customer relationships and delivering customer-centric solutions.

Manages Complexity

Making sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems.

Action Oriented

Taking on new opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of urgency, high energy, and enthusiasm.

Collaborates

Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.

Interpersonal Savvy

Relating openly and comfortably with diverse groups of people.

Communicates Effectively

Developing and delivering multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences.

Nimble Learning

Actively learning through experimentation when tackling new problems, using both successes and failures as learning fodder.

Being Resilient

Rebounding from setbacks and adversity when facing difficult situations.