Hardware Product Development Leader

About SGW Designworks

SGW Designworks is a product design and engineering firm that helps businesses create hardware products that endure. Our team has delivered more than one hundred commercialized products across consumer, industrial, and enterprise markets. Clients rely on us when they need a full team that can turn ideas into manufacturable products with speed and clarity.

We often begin at concept development and carry projects through iterative design, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing startup. Our work lives where technical depth meets creativity.

About the Role

We are seeking a Product Development Architect to lead multidisciplinary product development efforts with a focus on system architecture, technical vision, and hybrid-agile execution. This person will define product architecture, plan development work, execute engineering tasks in their core discipline, and guide cross-functional progress from initial concept to production readiness.

This role combines technical expertise with project management duties, bridging the gap between design and execution. You will define direction, manage tradeoffs, and contribute directly to prototyping, testing, and the creation of production-ready outputs. You will collaborate closely with SGW engineers, designers, and outside contractors to keep projects aligned with client goals, technical realities, and business constraints.

Responsibilities

Architecture and Planning

• Lead system architecture across mechanical, electrical, firmware, and industrial design.
• Translate business requirements and use cases into structured development plans.
• Identify technical risks early through architecture reviews and prototype planning.
• Scope, estimate, and plan development work using stage-gate and agile-inspired methods.
• Define and hold the product vision for the team

Execution

• Perform engineering work in your core discipline while maintaining awareness of adjacent domains.
• Support cross-functional integration including hardware, firmware, and mechanical interfaces.
• Drive prototyping and testing to validate design intent and ensure functional readiness.
• Create and deliver design documentation, prototypes, and other project outputs.

Project Leadership

• Guide day-to-day execution, ensuring progress aligns with user needs, performance targets, and cost goals.
• Work with designers and engineers to track progress, manage priorities, and adjust plans as needed.
• Lead communication with clients, ensuring clarity on scope, timeline, risks, and tradeoffs. Must demonstrate strong emotional intelligence, and excitement for client relationship building.
• Mentor team members and reinforce SGW’s development methodology, technical rigor, and collaborative practices.

Manufacturing and Launch

• Collaborate with suppliers and manufacturers to ensure designs are manufacturable.
• Support regulatory preparation and early production ramp-up.

Qualifications

• Degree in a technical field and 7+ years in product development roles.
• Ability to define cohesive system architectures across mechanical, electrical, firmware, and industrial design, with sound judgment around user needs, cost, reliability, and complexity tradeoffs.
• Deep experience with at least one of:
• Embedded Systems Development: Embedded and connected systems including BLE, Wi Fi, OTA update flows, provisioning, mixed-signal interfaces, sensor buses, RTOS, USB, and Ethernet (including rugged variants). Knowledge of battery systems, power architectures, protection strategies, and energy flow considerations.
• Mechanical Product Design: Proficiency with plastics, machined parts, sheet metal, welded assemblies, enclosure design, sealing methods, and strong DFM instincts including direct interaction with manufacturers.
• Other technical field that specifically related to hardware product development or equipment development.
• Strong test and validation capability including structured test planning, functional and environmental testing, fixture development, and data-driven decision making.
• Working knowledge of FCC, CE, UKCA, UL, and similar compliance paths, and the ability to consider regulatory constraints early.
• Experience in consulting or agency environments where communication, adaptability, and clarity are essential.
• Familiarity with AI tools that improve engineering, analysis, architecture, or workflow efficiency.
• Experience leading architecture definition, design reviews, and risk assessments.
• Project management capability or certification, with comfort shifting between strategy and hands-on technical work.
• Proven success bringing manufactured products through development and in to production.

Why SGW Designworks

You will join a tight-knit team solving complex product challenges across consumer, industrial, and defense sectors. Every project is different, and your work will have immediate impact on how products are conceived, engineered, and brought to market.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $81,907.31 - $137,225.00 per year

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Retirement plan
• Vision insurance

Work Location: In person