How to Build a Remote Engineering Team?

A remote engineering design team provides an opportunistic window for companies to connect with as many design engineers as possible globally.

Consequently, when global experts work together as a team, a specific project becomes leaner and smarter.

Engineering design involves the design, development, and manufacturing of products, systems, or infrastructure, which are typically the building blocks of any project. 

Hence, it is undeniable that this team needs the best minds from around the world to collaborate.

Organizations are thus constantly attracted to this flexibility and global collaboration and are putting efforts into building a remote engineering team. 

One of the most important things to consider when working with a remote design engineering team is the availability and access to talent, without any location barriers.

This is accompanied by yet another attraction, which is significant cost savings through reduced operational expenses. 

A key principle of business expansion is that when a company plans to launch a non-IT product internationally, there is no better way to assess the product’s credibility than to test it in the target market.

This is where the remote engineering product development team leverages their territorial and cultural advantages as natives and assesses the product’s usability and market-readiness.

Thus, our aim for this blog is to inform our readers about the factors mentioned above and help them get the right direction for expanding a remote engineering design team.            

Benefits of Building a Remote Engineering Design Team   

Assembling a remote engineering design team offers numerous benefits for organizations to look forward to. Starting from a diverse talent pool to substantial cost savings, the list is endless.

Let us take a closer look at the most significant ones. 

Availability of Global Talent

Skills should have no barriers, especially for creative minds. Hiring remote design engineering teams allows companies to find creative talent from anywhere in the world who are best suited to the company’s needs and culture.

It also adds a unique, innovative touch to the remote design engineering team and the overall project when employees from different locations come together to explore and create something. 

Substantial Cost Savings

Running a team remotely saves up a significant chunk of operational costs such as office space leases, office supplies, and utilities, etc.

Another major factor that saves on the company budget while hiring a remote team is flexible salaries for employees residing in countries with lower living costs, yet maintaining quality.   

Read More: Cost of Hiring Remote Employees in India: A Complete Guide

Cultural and Territorial Advantage

A remote team hired from a different country will definitely have a better cultural understanding and knowledge of local market dynamics than a company situated remotely.

This helps companies better understand customer psychology and resonate with the local audience.

It also helps with customizing local marketing messages, including product features and the languages preferred by local demographics, and with building an inclusive product design that well caters to the local audience.   

Read more about the benefits of remote teams 

How Does a Design Engineering Team Work Remotely?

The workflow of a remote design engineering team involves a large set of tasks, starting from conducting research to the creation and implementation of products.

To understand how a remote design engineering team proves itself highly efficient, it is important to have a clear idea of its day-to-day processes, tools, and software. 

In the first phase, research and conceptualization, the design engineers collect data on the existing problems and solutions, detect the customer needs, and experiment with different design ideas.

They use major interfaces like Google Scholar, patent databases, morphological analysis, sketching and mind maps, etc. for this phase.

This is followed by the feasibility assessment phase, where the team indulges in analyzing the prudency and viability of the chosen ideas.

The team’s techniques include cost-benefit analysis, SWOT analysis, and technical feasibility studies.  

Then comes the design requirements phase, where the design engineers are expected to prepare a detailed list of user demands and criteria the product design should meet.

They utilize methods like quality function deployment (QFD), use case diagrams, and a requirements traceability matrix.

In the next phase, the preliminary and detailed design, the team develops initial design solutions and extensive design documentation based on the requirements.

CAD software such as AutoCAD, simulation software such as ANSYS and SolidWorks, Bill of Materials (BOM), and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) are all implemented in this phase.    

In the next process, production planning and tool design, the team plans and selects the necessary tools for design and manufacturing.

They use tools such as Gantt charts, CATIA, and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM).

In the final stage, the engineering design team focuses on manufacturing the product in accordance with the desired design. Major tools in this phase include CNC machines, 3D printers, and CMM machines.

Now, retrospectively reviewing the tools and software used by a remote engineering design team, we can easily state that a laptop, proper technical infrastructure, and a quiet place to focus will suffice for the job.

This leads organizations to hire and manage employees remotely for their engineering product design and development teams, without the need for the teams to be physically present in the office.

Concerns About Building a Remote Engineering Design Team

While remote teams offer abundant advantages, hiring and managing a team remotely does not always sail smoothly.

Remote teams introduce some ambiguity into day-to-day operations, so let us understand how.

• • Technical Conundrums: Maintaining the constant, efficient functioning of all the important tools and software required by a remote engineering design team is a challenging task in itself. Remote engineering product development teams require constant collaboration among the employees to track real-time progress, and any technical glitch can compromise the entire ongoing project.
  • Security Threat: Maintaining a strict and efficient security channel remotely to protect the company’s sensitive data and intellectual properties is difficult, and it is even more difficult to keep up the momentum constantly without a breach.
  • Effective Employee Management: Handling employee-related tasks remotely, be it HR or administrative, can be quite daunting. There is so much more to running a remote team successfully than just hiring and onboarding employees into the team. It is safe to say that remote HR teams can’t always fathom what is happening with their engineering product development teams, which leads to the gradual decline of remote development teams.

Get more insights about the challenges of cross-border remote working   

How to Successfully Build a Remote Engineering Design Team through EOR?

To address the above-mentioned concerns and expand an engineering design team remotely, many companies are now approaching the lesser-known concept of employer of record.

Though relatively new, this method of employment and remote team management has become one of the most efficient and budget-friendly strategies over the past decade. 

From hiring and onboarding absolute expert professionals into remote teams, handling their payroll, managing employee benefits, and providing competent IT support, to conducting exit interviews for remote employees, an EOR does it all.

An EOR also assists an expanding business in building the infrastructure needed to set up an international remote team.

This includes the availability of the above-mentioned tools and software required by the design engineering team, a high-speed internet connection, prompt helpdesk support, and other infrastructure support.

Now the real question is how to decide on the EOR that is best suited to a company when there are so many lucrative offers in the market from various EOR companies.

The specific set of checkpoints a company should keep in mind before selecting an EOR partner is listed below. 

• • The EOR can hire a remote engineering design team that aligns with the project goals, the company’s demands, and the company’s purpose.
  • The EOR has experience working with the engineering design and development sector and can provide multiple customer testimonials for reference.
    
  • The EOR has stringent security measures for company data and provides proper IT support to each remote employee to ensure smooth, efficient operations.
  • Last but not least, the EOR provides a transparent pricing structure with no hidden costs, and it fits the desired company budget.  

Know More: How to Choose the best Employer of Record (EOR)?

Conclusion

To understand how an EOR supports remote team expansion, let’s look at a real example.
Remunance partnered with an American architectural firm called Excelize, founded by two software professionals.

Excelize chose Remunance with a clear goal. They wanted a reliable partner to guide them through building a remote engineering and product design team in India.

The Remunance team carefully understood Excelize’s requirements. They helped create a strong talent network in India. From hiring to ongoing support, Remunance managed every aspect of the process.

With full 360-degree support for architects and draftsmen, Remunance became a valuable extension of the Excelize team.