Design Engineering Consultant · Edinburgh, UK

Consumer hardware,
engineered to reach the shelf.

I take product ideas from first sketch to the shelf — seeing the mechanical design, firmware and manufacture as one system. I help founders and startups de-risk the hard engineering early and keep momentum, so good ideas survive the journey to a real, shipped product.

Shipped & recognised — Ooni Volt 2 · Red Dot Design Award 2026 Ooni Karu 2 · iF Design Award 2024 2 patent-pending technologies Featured in Oprah's Favourite Things Sold in John Lewis & worldwide
01 — Selected Work

Products I've helped ship

Four years at Ooni, working across mechanical design, firmware and manufacturing on premium consumer products that reached the shelf and won international recognition. Three that show the range:

CASE 01

Ooni Volt 2 — Electric Pizza Oven

Performance architecture · Firmware · Validation

I owned the performance and control system of a compact indoor oven that reaches 450 °C. I stepped into firmware to build the patent-pending Pizza Intelligence™ adaptive cooking system, developed a thermal-estimation algorithm that holds accurate stone temperature from a single sensor, and designed the performance-critical cavity hardware and heating elements behind it.

Control systems Thermal modelling UI firmware Heating elements Safety compliance
Outcomes
Launched October 2025
Featured in Oprah's Favourite Things
Patent-pending Pizza Intelligence™
500+ pizzas cooked in testing
Delivered on time & on budget
CASE 02

Ooni Karu 2 — Multi-Fuel Pizza Oven

Performance optimisation · Door sub-assembly

I rethought the glass-door architecture to create ClearView™ — a patent-pending anti-soot geometry that improved visibility while cutting cost and complexity at the same time. I solved high-temperature magnetic latching through flux-path analysis, and tuned multi-fuel airflow and chimney thermal safety to stay compliant across every fuel type.

Sheet-metal DFM Combustion tuning Thermal simulation Magnetics User testing
Outcomes
iF Design Award 2024 · German Design Awards 2024
Double-digit % BOM cost reduction
24h+ assembly time saved per batch
ClearView™ scaled to flagship Karu 2 Pro
Stocked in John Lewis & major retailers
CASE 03

Ooni Dough Proofing Boxes

Design engineering · Concept to production

A deceptively simple stackable, nestable proofing system hiding a tightly constrained architecture — regional fridge envelopes, nesting draft, large-format injection moulding and tolerance stack-up across every stacked state. I formalised the competing constraints into a trade-off model, turning stakeholder debate into structured decisions made before committing to steel.

Injection moulding Tolerance analysis Constraint modelling DFM
Outcomes
Sold by Ooni for 3+ years
Tolerance strategy targeting <1% stack failure
Large-format injection moulding, single-shot tooling
Consistently strong customer ratings
02 — Services

How I help you ship

Start with a single fixed-scope service, or bring me in for the full journey from idea to shelf. The earlier the hard engineering is de-risked, the cheaper every later decision becomes.

01from £650

Feasibility Study

Know if your idea can be built — the risks, the rough cost and the timeline — before you spend real money.

Concept explorationTechnology reviewRisk analysis
02Founder favourite

Concept & MVP Development

Turn an idea into an evaluated, buildable concept and a working MVP you can put in front of users, investors or a crowd.

Concept & evaluationPrototypingA working MVP
03Service

Engineering Validation

Prove a design works and is safe — analysis, simulation and structured testing — before committing to tooling.

Engineering analysisSimulationTesting
04Service

Manufacturing Preparation

Get a finished design ready for efficient, medium-to-high-volume manufacture, coordinating suppliers in the UK and China.

DFM / DFA reviewManufacturing drawingsSupplier liaison
Start here — from £50
A Power Hour or a fixed-price Design Review: low-commitment expert eyes, live or online.
Product Development
The full managed journey, concept to production, delivered in scoped phases.
Contract Engineering
Specialist or extra engineering capacity for teams that already know the scope.
03 — About

A design engineer who's shipped the hard stuff

I spent over four years developing high-end consumer products at Ooni, taking projects from first concept through to volume manufacture. Because I've held mechanical, firmware and thermal roles at once, I see how a decision in one ripples through all the others — the whole-picture view that turns the usual time-versus-cost-versus-performance trade-off into the occasional moment where all three improve together.

Today I work as an independent technical partner to founders and startups. Many have a strong product vision but limited access to experienced engineering. What I've found matters most is structure and rhythm — walking first-timers through the real development process, then running a steady plan with fast, honest prototyping that keeps momentum without losing the essence of the idea to endless late changes. And whoever I'm working with, the thing I lean on hardest is being able to explain the engineering clearly — the decisions, the trade-offs, the occasional physically impossible spec — in plain terms.

Alongside commercial work, I dedicate part of my time to pro-bono engineering for initiatives with social or environmental impact. I believe good engineering should contribute beyond commercial success — so by working with me, you help support that too.

01 Integrity
Decisions made transparent and backed by evidence, so teams can move with confidence.
02 Thoughtful Innovation
Creative solutions grounded in practical engineering — never complexity for its own sake.
03 Long-Term Solutions
Designed for lifecycle, sustainability and real-world use from the very start.
04 Positive Impact
Engineering that contributes beyond the balance sheet, in client work and pro-bono alike.
Let's talk

Have a product that needs to become real?

Book a free introductory call and tell me where you're stuck. Whether it's a first concept or a design that needs to survive manufacturing, I'll tell you honestly how I can help.