Director of Hardware Engineering

The Role

We are seeking an entrepreneurial-minded, highly creative engineering leader to join our team. In this role, you will lead the design, development, and manufacturing of products at Rocky Talkie. We are excited to bring our simple, rugged, and activity-focused design principles to a variety of new products to improve safety in adventure sports and inject new ideas into an old and outdated 2-way radio industry. We are seeking a leader who can guide our company through the full product development cycle with a hands-on approach. We are looking for someone eager to take our engineering team to the next level by leading architecture decisions, driving process improvements, recruiting talent, and forming strong partnerships with manufacturers.

You’ll work directly with leadership, engineering, product, and development partners to bring the product vision to life. This role is best suited to a passionate, experienced engineering leader with a proven track record of leading major consumer electronics projects from concept to mass production. We are looking for someone who still gets their hands dirty with technical work and who loves working with a small team. As Rocky Talkie continues to scale up, opportunities for growth are abundant, and excellence is recognized and rewarded.

Location: 4 days in person (SF) per week

Responsibilities:

• Coordinate engineering efforts between engineering disciplines (Mechanical, Electrical, Firmware, Manufacturing) for new product development. 
• Function as the Systems Architect for new products, leveraging multi-domain expertise to resolve cross-functional design challenges.
• Coordinate sustaining engineering efforts for existing products currently shipping in high volume.
• Define and manage product development phases and phase gate exit criteria for new developments.
• Ensure that the engineering team designs for high-volume assembly and production and hits total BOM cost targets.
• Work with engineering program management to speed up development time by efficiently leveraging Asia-based manufacturing and development resources.
• Form strong partnerships with domestic and international suppliers and manufacturing partners. The candidate should be comfortable working with development partners across the ODM, JDM, and CM spectrum and be deeply familiar with working with Asian supply chains.
• Define engineering design, validation, and reliability requirements for new products in development.
• Mentor members of our engineering team in best practices, work prioritization, and internal documentation.
• Recruit talent via contract and full-time engineering to help scale with our growing needs
  
  

Required:

• 10+ yrs experience in product design of outdoor/wearable consumer electronic devices, preferably in high volume (>100ku/yr).
• 5+ years of engineering management experience managing multi-disciplinary teams
• BS/MS/PhD mechanical or electrical engineering, or equivalent technical degree
• Experience with Asian manufacturing and ODM/JDM/CM relationships
• Experience with rugged waterproof devices (IP67 or greater)
• Experience with RF devices (VHF, UHF, BT desired)
• Self-motivated, organized, process-oriented, and strong work ethic

Desired:

• Start-up or small company experience
• Management experience in fast scaling environments
• Acoustic device experience
• Outdoor sport enthusiast
• HAM certified

• Healthcare Plan (Medical, Dental, and Vision)
• Retirement Plan with Matching
• Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick, and Holidays)
• Paid Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)
• Paid Short Term & Long Term Disability
• Performance-Based Bonus
• And of course, plenty of Rocky Talkie gear to fuel your next adventure!

Salary:  $200-250k / year + company equity + performance based bonus

Our Company

Rocky Talkie launched in 2019 with its signature product, a backcountry radio made for climbers and skiers. Since then, we have launched multiple best-in-class products in the adventure sports industry. We are dedicated to developing user-friendly, high-performance products for the backcountry. Rocky Talkie has a rapidly growing base of happy customers in the USA and Canada, and we are expanding into Europe. We design our products to help people in extreme conditions, and our radios have been adopted for a wide range of outdoor activities and commercial applications. We have a small, passionate, and highly motivated team with a deep understanding of our customers.

At Rocky Talkie, we’re driven by the belief that better communication in the backcountry can save lives. As part of this mission, we donate $2 per radio sold to search-and-rescue teams, supporting those who help keep outdoor communities safe.