Mechanical Engineer, full-time

 

Location: Ede, the Netherlands

Start date: January 2025
 

Are you a Mechanical Engineer with experience in the fast-moving consumer goods- or agri-sector? Are you looking for a job in which you can work on a truly innovative system with real impact on future food production? We need your help and expertise to integrate our greenhouse automation systems and plant logistics. Together we build the fully synchronized food factory of the future. 

 

Your responsibilities

As a Mechanical Engineer, you will be responsible for:

• Creating designs from concepts within the frameworks of simplicity, technical feasibility, cost efficiency, and accuracy.

• Creating components and assemblies in a 3D and 2D environment, and detailed production drawings in accordance with the appropriate production standards.

• Creating P&IDs for our systems.

• Performing simple strength calculations and/or simulations.

• Assembling component specifications and parts lists.

• Conducting revisions and updates of production drawings, parts lists, and assemblies.

• Assist with assembling and testing small-scale prototypes.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams by making sure that our mechatronics solutions are seamlessly integrated.

• Provide technical support and troubleshooting for existing systems so that your colleagues are able to use our systems for their daily harvesting work.

 

Your skills and experience

What will you bring to our team?

We are looking for a flexible team player and strong communicator who enjoys working in a multi-disciplinary team in a truly innovative environment where plants, hardware and software come together. You have a passion for technology and want to use your strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail to make robust technological solutions for a greenhouse environment. A green thumb and experience in working with plants, in greenhouses or hygiene-design in food-related fields are a plus, as plants and produce are central to our systems.

 

Your profile:

• You hold a HBO,  Bachelor's degree or Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or Mechanical Design.

• You have at least 5 years working experience in industrial constructing engineering experience for machine building.

• You are proficient in 3D CAD (SolidWorks).

• You are proficient with AutoCad or equivalent 2D package.

• You are able to look beyond a single subsystem, you recognise future bottlenecks and seek knowledge and expertise outside SAIA where necessary.

• Knowledge of greenhouse technology and the greenhouse environment is a big plus.

• A driver’s license is required.

• Proficiency in Dutch is required.
   

What do we offer you?

What can you expect as a Mechanical Engineer at SAIA?

• Excellent employment conditions, including 25 days paid vacation

• A competitive full-time salary (between € 4500,- and € 6000,- depending on your level of experience)

• Career opportunities within our growing company

• Be part of our international interdisciplinary team working on our innovative automated greenhouse (including experts in greenhouse cultivation, AI, robot design and more).

• Work with external machine builders and other parties to deploy our systems to customer locations 

• An environment that facilitates and respects critical thinking, as well as open communication with all colleagues in the company.

• Work in our high-tech greenhouse, very centrally located right next to Ede-Wageningen train station. 

• Highly skilled, motivated and ambitious colleagues who love robots, technology, plants and food!

 

About SAIA

At SAIA we do things differently. We aim to make high-tech growing accessible to anyone, anywhere. We built a disruptive automated greenhouse, the food factory of the future. Our robot does not need to hunt for harvestable produce in the greenhouse jungle. Instead, we are the first to mobilise our plants so that we can bring them to our robot for easy, reliable deleafing and harvesting. We are now bringing our automated greenhouse to our first customers and are looking for new team members to help us do so.

 

You will work closely with an interdisciplinary team of experts in the field of AI, greenhouse cultivation, but also with external machine builders and engineering firms to create an integrated system. At SAIA, responsibility and ownership of your work are central. We are a relatively small team (20 people) working together on one big product, so working well together with people outside your specialisation is essential. We are looking for someone who looks beyond a single subsystem, someone who recognizes future bottlenecks and seeks knowledge and expertise outside Saia where necessary. Critical thinking is highly valued and respected, as is open communication with all colleagues in the company.

 

You work together with both juniors and experienced engineers in different formations. Our dynamic and close-knit team consists of highly skilled, motivated and ambitious people who love robots, technology, plants and food. We work efficiently with plenty of room for laughter, through the good times and the bad. Together we strive for a better world and healthy food for everyone.

 

Our state of the art Automated Greenhouse is located in Ede on the World Food Centre ground,  where we work on our robots and machines.