Director – Product Design Engineering

Director – Product Design Engineering

Requirements

• Technical Leadership: You have a proven track record of successfully leading, building, and managing product design teams
• Project Experience: 10+ years of experience as a consumer product design engineer who loves working on highly creative, fast-paced, and collaborative teams alongside Industrial Designers, Hardware Engineers, and UX Designers. Wearables experience preferred.
• Materials and Manufacturing Expertise: Knowledgeable about a wide variety of materials, mechanical design principles, and scalable manufacturing processes. A deep technical foundation in mechanics of materials.
• High Volume and High Touch Design Ability: Strong understanding of design for manufacturability (DFM) and design for assembly (DFA).
• 3D Modeling Skills: Skilled in CAD software (Siemens NX or Solidworks).
• Communication and Collaboration Skills: Effective communication and collaboration skills are important. Able to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, work with other engineers and designers, and contribute to project planning and documentation.
• Strategic decision making: You are a strategic thinker with a strong bias for action and a results-oriented mindset.

Responsibilities

• Lead and Inspire: Manage and mentor a team of product design engineers, fostering a collaborative, innovative, and high-performing environment.
• Drive Product Vision: Partner closely with Product Management, Industrial Design, and Hardware Engineering leadership to define and execute the product design strategy, ensuring alignment with overall business objectives.
• Own the Design Process: Oversee the entire product design lifecycle, from concept generation and prototyping to detailed design, validation, and mass production.
• Champion User Experience: Ensure that product designs prioritize user comfort, ergonomics, and intuitive interaction, working closely with user research teams.
• Focus on Manufacturability: Drive design for manufacturability (DFM) and design for assembly (DFA) principles to optimize production efficiency, quality, and cost.
• Technical Expertise: Provide deep technical guidance and expertise in areas such as materials selection, mechanical engineering, and integration of electrical components.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work seamlessly with Industrial Design, Electrical Engineering, Firmware, Software, Operations, and Quality teams to ensure cohesive product development.
• Risk Management: Identify and mitigate potential design-related risks throughout the development process.
• Innovation & Exploration: Stay abreast of the latest trends in materials, manufacturing processes, and wearable technology, and champion the exploration of new concepts and technologies.
• Vendor Management: Collaborate with external design and manufacturing partners as needed.
• Flexible to travel 15-20% to Finland and international manufacturing locations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with the design of wearable devices or other small, complex electronic products.
• Familiarity with sensor integration and packaging.
• Experience with FEA (Finite Element Analysis) and simulation tools.
• Experience working with global manufacturing partners.