Senior Application Engineer, Footwear

At Carbon, we are a team of passionate entrepreneurs, engineers, designers, programmers, and materials scientists who value creativity and the ability to get things done. Our company is built on the idea that when diverse fields of study come together, we can solve challenging problems.

Carbon's Application Engineering team owns the collaboration with visionary product companies from concept to production readiness. Once design concepts have been identified to be a strong fit, Design Engineers help prospective customers successfully implement Carbon’s technology within their business. Our team drives and educates customers on Design for DLS best practices while creating products that meet or exceed customers requirements and objectives.  In 2024, Carbon is engaged with many of the most respected footwear brands in the world, and our project list is burgeoning in this area.

As a successful Senior Application Engineer for Footwear, you will work with Carbon's Footwear Business Development team and external customers to support the identification and development of footwear products that will have a compelling benefit from implementing our technology. You thrive in employing your creative problem-solving abilities and growing your depth of expertise across various functional areas (including design software, materials, manufacturing processes, and cross-functional team leadership). You are comfortable leading engagements with external and internal company stakeholders and can handle tough situations with poise and confidence.

Responsibilities:

• Create market-leading footwear designs that utilize Carbon's technology to deliver customer benefit vs. standard footwear manufacturing methods
• Set and evaluate footwear product performance criteria
• Learn and then educate Carbon’s footwear customers on Design for DLS best practices, including how the printer works, details of Carbon's materials, design guidelines to follow, software used to create new design concepts, and post processing techniques.
• Use hypothesis-driven approaches to understand problems, define test methods, evaluate solutions, use feedback, iterate, and provide recommendations to internal and external customers
• Evaluate potential projects for production based on product-market fit, including technical readiness and cost model evaluation
• Develop and optimize footwear applications including customer benchmarks, prototype designs, and bridge/production applications
• Drive all stages of footwear development including design ideation, modeling, latticing, file preparation, material selection, manufacturing process optimization, and quality control to support customers end-to-end in their Carbon journey
• Manage timelines, milestones, deliverables and troubleshoot when customers face inevitable challenges or roadblocks
• Document design requirements and objectives, statements of work, standard operating procedures, next steps, and action items to align all internal and external team members
  

Requirements:

• Minimum 3 years of experience working as a designer in the footwear industry
• Experience in client-facing design roles
• Skilled with CAD and CAE software (SolidWorks, NX or CATIA; Magics, Rhino, Grasshopper) 
• Familiar with footwear manufacturing techniques and design for manufacturing
• Experience with office productivity software for documentation, presentation, and data analysis (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Google Suite)
• Detail-oriented with excellent verbal, graphical, and technical communication skills
• Demonstrated creative problem-solving abilities and positive attitude
• BS or MS degree
• Ability to travel (Up to 30% of your time)
• Role is based in our Redwood City, CA US office, with a hybrid work schedule 

At Carbon, we look at the person holistically and carefully consider a wide range of factors when determining salary. The compensation bracket for this position is $132,800 - $199,200 per year.  In order to maintain equitable internal pay practices, we aim to hire new employees near the midpoint of $166,000, taking into account your experience, work location, certifications, and the unique skills you bring to the role. 

If you are not based in our Redwood City office, the range above will be adjusted for the geographical differential associated with your actual work location. For more information on how we modify your pay based on your location, please refer to our geographic differentials chart.  For details on our total rewards package, visit https://www.carbon3d.com/about/life-at-carbon.

Carbon also offers to our eligible employees a comprehensive total rewards package that includes equity, benefits, and time off programs.