Director, Product Design Engineering (San Francisco)

Our mission at Oura is to empower every person to own their inner potential. Our award-winning products help our global community gain a deeper knowledge of their readiness, activity, and sleep quality by using their Oura Ring and its connected app. We've helped 2.5 million people understand and improve their health by providing daily insights and practical steps to inspire healthy lifestyles.

Empowering the world starts with living and empowering our team. As a quickly growing company focused on helping people live healthier and happier lives, we ensure that our team members have what they need to do their best work — both in and out of the office. 

We are seeking a curious and experienced Director of Product Design Engineering to lead our PD team in creating the next generation of our groundbreaking wearable devices. Reporting directly to the VP of Hardware Engineering, you will play a pivotal role in driving innovation and excellence across our product portfolio.

What You'll Do:

• Lead and Inspire: Manage and mentor a team of product design engineers, fostering a collaborative, innovative, and high-performing environment.
• Drive Product Vision: Partner closely with Product Management, Industrial Design, and Hardware Engineering leadership to define and execute the product design strategy, ensuring alignment with overall business objectives.
• Own the Design Process: Oversee the entire product design lifecycle, from concept generation and prototyping to detailed design, validation, and mass production.
• Champion User Experience: Ensure that product designs prioritize user comfort, ergonomics, and intuitive interaction, working closely with user research teams.
• Focus on Manufacturability: Drive design for manufacturability (DFM) and design for assembly (DFA) principles to optimize production efficiency, quality, and cost.
• Technical Expertise: Provide deep technical guidance and expertise in areas such as materials selection, mechanical engineering, and integration of electrical components.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work seamlessly with Industrial Design, Electrical Engineering, Firmware, Software, Operations, and Quality teams to ensure cohesive product development.
• Risk Management: Identify and mitigate potential design-related risks throughout the development process.
• Innovation & Exploration: Stay abreast of the latest trends in materials, manufacturing processes, and wearable technology, and champion the exploration of new concepts and technologies.
• Vendor Management: Collaborate with external design and manufacturing partners as needed.
• Flexible to travel 15-20% to Finland and international manufacturing locations

This is a US onsite role, candidates must be based in the San Francisco Bay Area or San Diego region for this opportunity. 

We would love to have you on our team if you have: 

• Technical Leadership: You have a proven track record of successfully leading, building, and managing product design teams
• Project Experience: 10+ years of experience as a consumer product design engineer who loves working on highly creative, fast-paced, and collaborative teams alongside Industrial Designers, Hardware Engineers, and UX Designers.  Wearables experience preferred..
• Materials and Manufacturing Expertise: Knowledgeable about a wide variety of materials, mechanical design principles, and scalable manufacturing processes.  A deep technical foundation in mechanics of materials. 
• High Volume and High Touch Design Ability: Strong understanding of design for manufacturability (DFM) and design for assembly (DFA).
• 3D Modeling Skills: Skilled in CAD software (Siemens NX or Solidworks).
• Communication and Collaboration Skills: Effective communication and collaboration skills are important. Able to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, work with other engineers and designers, and contribute to project planning and documentation.
• Strategic decision making: You are a strategic thinker with a strong bias for action and a results-oriented mindset.

Bonus Points:

• Experience with the design of wearable devices or other small, complex electronic products.
• Familiarity with sensor integration and packaging.
• Experience with FEA (Finite Element Analysis) and simulation tools.
• Experience working with global manufacturing partners.

At Oura, we care about you and your well-being. Everyone here at Oura has a ring of their own and we are continually looking to improve employee health.

What we offer:

• Competitive salary and equity packages
• Health, dental, vision insurance, and mental health resources
• An Oura Ring of your own plus employee discounts for friends & family
• 20 days of paid time off plus 13 paid holidays plus 8 days of flexible wellness time off
• Paid sick leave and parental leave

Oura takes a market-based approach to pay, which may vary depending on your location. US locations are categorized into tiers based on a cost of labor index for that geographic area. While most offers will be closer to the starting range, successful candidates' pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, internal peer equity, and market conditions. These ranges may be modified in the future.

• San Francisco Compensation Range: $206,000 - $257,000
• San Diego Compensation Range: $190,000 - $237,000

A recruiter can determine your zones/tiers based on your US location.

We are not considering candidates residing in the following states: Alaska (AK), Delaware (DE), Iowa (IA), Mississippi (MS), Missouri (MO), Nebraska (NE), Oklahoma (OK), Rhode Island (RI), South Dakota (SD), Vermont (VT), West Virginia (WV), and Wisconsin (WI)

Oura is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Individuals seeking employment at Oura are considered without regard to age, ancestry, color, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, mental or physical disability, national origin, protected family care or medical leave status, race, religion (including beliefs and practices or the absence thereof), sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. We will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics.

We will work to ensure individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment.

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