Moving for the job

Designing out of the box

"I’m a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer at Innolux Technology Europe, a world leader in automotive display technology. I design state-of-the-art, high quality plastic parts for clients such as Audi and BMW. Balancing quality and cost is a high priority.

Part of my role is to predict customer demands for plastic parts, and to develop new ways of working to satisfy these demands, using cutting-edge technology. For me, the best part of the job is finding unusual design solutions that are a bit out of the box, while still being as robust and cheap as possible, which means they’re sustainable for the company.

My experience as a toolmaker means I’m able to balance both the design and manufacturing sides. Understanding how critical a part plays during the initial phase of development has helped me to predict and avoid critical problems."

My background

"My Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering is from Universidade Paulista, Brazil, and I specialized in Automotive Engineering at Universidade Maua. I graduated in 2010 but I´ve been working in the automotive field since 2001 (including 5 years as a plastic mold toolmaker) to pay for my school fees. I switched to engineering after I graduated so that I could get more experience." 

Being far from home

"I really miss the food and music of Brazil! My wife’s been here with me since the beginning, though, which has really helped with being away from home. She’s very supportive and is a part of me.

I like the Dutch people a lot. Every Dutch person I know or have ever met is very polite and kind, and has a good sense of humour!"

A perfect match

"I first heard about Brunel through LinkedIn. I’d received a few offers to work in the Netherlands, and chose to go with Brunel since they were the most well known. Their expert HR people helped me make the final decision.

My recruiter Eva Kubrichtova helped prepare me for the interviews – she identified my strengths and matched me with the needs of the client, which gave me lots of confidence in my job interview."

My typical day

"My colleagues and I get together to discuss features in plastic parts that might become critical for a project, as well talk about solutions or improvements for projects we’re working on. I also talk over the feasibility of some parts with the supplier, and we discuss design methods to predict and avoid possible problems.

My attitude about working in a team has changed since I started this job – Dutch people are real team players. I´m a very curious and communicative engineer, and I think this has helped me adapt quickly to the environment.

It’s great that Brunel sponsors Dutch courses, which has helped me adapt to the local culture and even be able to talk a bit in Dutch with the people I work with! I hope it will get easier so that I’ll have more Dutch friends in the future."

The world at my doorstep

"Outside of work I love to travel and to get to know other cities. Since I’ve been here we’ve already visited some parts of Germany, Belgium and Portugal, as well lots of places in Netherlands. I still want to travel even more around the region, which is really easy from where we live in Maastricht. I also like to try the local food and beer, and to go to street festivals."