Software Engineer
About The Business: 3D People is a 3D printing company on a mission to build an automated manufacturing service. We make production-grade parts for businesses using industrial SLS and MJF 3D printers in our factory in Thamesmead, South-East London. We’re a small, energetic team of 12 using state-of-the-art additive manufacturing technology and building our own software to run the factory, including our online quoting portal and an in-house Manufacturing Execution System (MES). As a small company, you’ll work closely with the founders and your code will go into production. We love to have fun, we’re constantly learning, and we’re comfortable testing ideas, failing fast and moving forward with what works.
Overview: Customers upload their designs and get an instant quote through our online portal, and we manufacture everything from one-off prototypes to large production batches to precise standards, helping them get their products to market fast. You will build an automated design-checking engine that analyses customers’ 3D files before they are printed and flags parts that are likely to fail.
Desirable Skills: Good programming skills, shown through coursework, a dissertation or personal projects. AI coding usage encouraged. Comfortable working with data: querying databases (SQL), cleaning messy records and drawing conclusions from them.
Job Description:
Currently, our checks rely on simple rules such as minimum wall thickness, which miss trickier problems like powder getting trapped in narrow internal cavities, or parts warping as they cool.
You’ll combine 3D geometry analysis with our historical production failure data to give every uploaded file a risk score and specific Design for Additive Manufacturing (DFAM) advice.
The project is supervised by our co-founder Felix Manley, and you’ll work alongside Lachlan, our full-stack developer.
Key duties:
- Extract, clean and structure historical non-conformance records from our MES database, linking each failed part to its 3D file and failure mode (trapped powder, warping, dimensional inaccuracy).
- Write Python algorithms that analyse 3D meshes: enclosed cavities, powder escape routes, wall-thickness ratios and changes in cross-section linked to warping.
- Build a library of known-failed and successful parts and use it to test and benchmark your algorithms.
- Develop a risk-scoring model that turns these measurements into clear, specific DFAM feedback for each uploaded file.
- Build, test and document REST API endpoints that connect the analysis engine to our MES.
- Review failed SLS and MJF builds with our production technicians to check predictions against real outcomes and reduce false flags.
- Commit code for review, write unit tests and keep clear technical documentation.
- Agree priorities and report progress at weekly check-ins with your supervisor.
- Hand over a documented, working service to the team at the end of the internship.
Desirable Skills:
- Recent graduate (BSc, BEng, MEng or MSc) in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Mathematics or a related subject.
- Good programming skills, shown through coursework, a dissertation or personal projects. AI coding usage encouraged.
- Comfortable working with data: querying databases (SQL), cleaning messy records and drawing conclusions from them.
- Strong analytical and mathematical thinking; you enjoy working out how things work and why they fail.
- Ability to learn quickly and use initiative to identify and resolve problems.
- Be able to establish and maintain good working relationships and rapport as well as working effectively in a team.
- Strong time management skills with the ability to prioritise and take ownership over deadlines.
- Efficient at prioritising tasks.
- Strong interpersonal and both written and verbal communication skills.
- Eligible to work in the UK and able to work on-site in Thamesmead (SE28), Monday to Friday.
- Excellent written and spoken English.
Preferred skills:
- Experience with 3D geometry, CAD or 3D file formats (e.g. STL, 3MF, STEP), or mesh-processing libraries (e.g. trimesh, Open3D).
- Experience building web APIs (e.g. FastAPI, Flask) and using Git.
- Experience using AI coding tools to work faster and get up to speed with a new codebase.
- An interest in manufacturing, 3D printing or engineering design.
- Some exposure to machine learning or statistical modelling.
Please send your CV and cover letter to careers@3dpeople.uk by Friday 13th November.