Lead Hardware Engineer

About the role

You will lead a small hardware team at a product company where schedules are real, boards have to work the first time, and there is no hiding behind process. This is a hands-on leadership role: you will still design circuits and debug boards alongside your engineers while owning the technical plan, the review cadence, and the delivery dates for the team. Your success is measured in shipped products, predictable schedules, and a team that gets visibly stronger every quarter under your guidance. The best leads here are multipliers who make everyone around them faster and more rigorous without slowing anything down.

What you will achieve

• Lead a team of 3 to 6 hardware engineers delivering board designs on committed schedules without compromising established quality bars
• Own the technical plan for each program including milestones, risk registers, mitigation plans, and prototype build sequencing tied to long-lead dependencies
• Ship products with zero schedule slips attributable to hardware by managing reviews, simulations, and prototype builds with tight discipline
• Grow each team member through regular design reviews, pairing on their hardest debug problems, and clear, actionable performance feedback
• Build vendor and contract manufacturer relationships that secure priority engineering support during NPI crunches and critical escalations

What you will bring

Must-haves

• 7 to 10+ years of hardware design experience with multiple products successfully shipped to volume production
• Demonstrated technical leadership through leading design reviews, mentoring engineers, and owning delivery commitments end to end
• Strong project instincts for scoping work accurately, sequencing prototype builds around long-lead items, and managing schedule risk proactively
• Deep lab debug skills and the ability to unblock engineers on their hardest problems quickly while teaching the underlying method
• Experience coordinating across firmware, mechanical, manufacturing, and supply chain teams on shared programs with competing priorities
• Clear written and verbal communication for status updates, risk escalation, and technical decision records that stakeholders trust
• BS in Electrical Engineering or equivalent demonstrated experience

Nice-to-haves

• Prior formal people-management experience including hiring, performance reviews, and individual growth planning
• Experience with Agile or other structured hardware development processes adapted to physical build cycles
• Background in cost reduction and value engineering programs executed successfully on shipping products
• Familiarity with program management tooling, schedule metrics, and executive-level reporting