Vitruvium | Mechanical Design Project Lead | On-site, Warwick QLD
Vitruvium designs components and products for manufacture. Sheet metal, weldments, product development, and occasional in-house manufacturing. The work bridges design intent and shop floor reality. This role is the person who owns that bridge, from first conversation with the client through to a complete drawing package out the other side.
The Role
The Mechanical Design Project Lead owns the full project lifecycle: taking a brief from a client, translating it into a design direction, producing or directing the modelling, and managing drafting staff through to a complete, manufacturable output.
The role requires someone who can sit across the table from a client — ranging from a fabricator with a sketch to an engineer with a full specification — understand what they actually need, and take that from concept to completion without losing the thread. Coordination of our drafting team, including offshore staff, is central to the role. The project lead is responsible for the clarity of direction that keeps that team productive.
This is not a drawing role. The project lead will model where modelling serves the project, but their primary output is decisions made, direction given, and projects delivered.
Responsibilities
Running client briefs and translating them into design direction and modelling outcomes. Identifying where a brief is technically or commercially unsound and raising it before it becomes a problem downstream. Producing or directing concept models in Onshape sufficient for client sign-off and drafting handover. Managing offshore and junior drafting staff through direction, structured handover documentation, and review. Owning project delivery: scope, sequence, and communication with all parties.
Requirements
Mechanical design experience with enough shop floor exposure to have a reliable intuition for how things are made. Direct client-facing experience — this role requires comfort owning the design conversation, not supporting someone else who owns it.
Working knowledge of at least one parametric CAD platform. Onshape preferred; SolidWorks acceptable. The ability to model at a concept and coordination level is required; production-level drafting output is not the expectation of this role.
Demonstrated understanding of fabrication processes — sheet metal, weldments, machined components — sufficient to make informed design decisions and recognise manufacturing risk early.
Proven ability to direct drafting staff, including offshore, through written direction and structured review. Experience managing to outcome rather than managing to process.
Who This Role Is Not For
This role is not suited to designers who prefer to stay inside the model and hand off to someone else for the client conversation. It is equally unsuitable for candidates who equate project leadership with people management and prefer formal team structures over direct, lightweight coordination. The expectation is someone who takes responsibility for the project, not the org chart.
Conditions
On-site at Warwick, QLD. The systems, standards, and tacit knowledge that make this role work cannot be transferred remotely. Hybrid or remote arrangements are open for discussion after 18 months, subject to performance and operational needs.
Pay: $85,000.00 – $110,000.00 per year
Application Question(s):
- Describe your experience liaising directly with clients, fabricators, and suppliers during a project. What kinds of decisions or coordination did you handle?
- Will you now or in the future require sponsorship for employment visa status
- Have you directed offshore or remote drafting staff?
Experience:
- Onshape: 2 years (Preferred)
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Warwick QLD 4370
