Product Designer (Camera Accessories)

ABOUT THE JOB

This is a new product designer role on one of our small but mighty product teams. Day to day, you’ll own the design, development, and testing of new and existing products on our camera accessories roadmap, including clips, straps, and mounts.

Qualified candidates could be current product designers or industrial designers. A design role at Peak Design is a broad thing - we thrive on a holistic product design process, meaning that the person we hire would be responsible for everything from early ideation and concept development, to prototyping, development builds, production ramp, and sustaining quality improvement. Our product designers interface with industrial designers, mechanical engineers, engineering project managers, and overseas contract manufacturers to drive the full product lifecycle from conception to production. Most companies split these roles into several people (or even several teams), but we think full ownership makes for more passionate and invested product designers, and thus better products. It’s also just more fun than doing the same thing every day.

What You'll Do

• Conduct market research for new product definition, establish design requirements, and generate new product concepts.
• Assemble prototypes in-house using Peak's prototyping equipment, or via external prototyping services.
• Work with industrial designers to align on design directions and implement them in a parametric CAD stack.
• Work with mechanical engineers to produce a design that is safe, manufacturable, and meets the specific design requirements of the project.
• Formulate, document, and execute test procedures for products in development.
• Manage and organize prototype, EVT, DVT, PVT, and mass production builds.
• Build proficiency in Onshape (CAD) and establish a clear organizational structure for new and old models.
• Oversee and support outsourced CAD resources in China or Vietnam for latter stage design.

Requirements

• Undergraduate or graduate degree in Product Design, Industrial Design, or comparable degree or experience. 
• 2+ years of post-grad work experience doing some form of consumer product design.
• Someone who uses and cares a lot about gear. Experience with cameras (DSLR + mirrorless) and photography equipment is a major plus.
• Experience with, but not limited to, ideation, sketching, rendering, surface modeling, material selection, basic engineering principles, and some mechanism design.
• Experience owning mechanical parts and assemblies from prototyping through mass production for high volume (50k+/yr) products that have successfully shipped to customers. 
• Ability to travel to China or other parts of Asia to visit our suppliers 1-3 times per year.
• Local to the San Francisco Bay Area (or willing to relocate for this role). Willing to work from our office/workshop in the Dogpatch a minimum of 3 days per week (i.e. this is not a remote role, though we do maintain flexibility). 

About You

• The following list represents a range of traits and experience that would help make you highly effective and impactful in this role:
• Technical aptitude and appetite. You lean into technical challenges and are curious and excited to go deep on a technical topic to build your knowledge.
• Effective at creating and maintaining complex 3D models in any major 3D CAD system (we use Onshape).
• Mechanical aptitude, both hands-on and theoretical. You’ve worked extensively with moving parts and mechanisms. 
• Inclination toward hands-on prototyping. You love to create actual functioning prototypes and products, not just design them virtually.
• Familiarity with a few (or all) of the following manufacturing processes: CNC milling, die casting, injection molding, stamping, extrusion, and assembly.
• Familiarity with various surface finishes: anodization, powder coating, painting, plating.
• Familiarity with the basic materials properties of aluminum alloys, steels, elastomers, and plastics.
• Familiarity with phase-gates manufacturing system (Proto, EVT, DVT, PVT, Mass Production).
• Familiarity with soft goods and textiles. You know your way around a sewing machine and can make simple sewn or laminated patterns and prototypes.
• Previous experience with vendor management, including travel to China. Experience bringing up a manufacturing line and problem solving in-person from EVT through MP.
• Working knowledge of supply chain structure and ability to navigate communication at various levels of the supply chain.
• You have strong opinions about the products that you use in your life and enjoy debating what makes these products great.
• You possess hustle, humility, and a growth mindset. You want to grow tremendously as an engineer by designing and shipping many products. 
• You’re a systems thinker and love optimizing workflows and efficiency. You are capable of navigating surprise roadblocks with rational thinking and problem solving.

INTERVIEW PROCESS

Here’s what you can expect:

1) Written application, including a short answer technical screen - online.

2) Technical screen - Zoom - 30 min.

3) Take home assignment (1-2 hrs), followed by a review presentation and interview - Zoom - 60 min.

4) Final round interviews - in-person at Peak Design headquarters - 3 hrs.