Lead Design Engineer - Hardware

Lead Design EngineerA BIT ABOUT US

Elections are the foundation of democracy, and democracy depends on elections that are broadly trusted. VotingWorks is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that is building the technology to power elections everyone can trust.

We use open-source software, certifiable product engineering, and advanced security to build:

• Auditing technology that increases trust in legacy voting systems
• Modern voting systems that are much more broadly trusted.

Our auditing system is used by 9 states, including Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Texas, Nevada, and Washington. Our voting system is deployed in 2 states, Mississippi and New Hampshire. Most notably, we are the first new voting system in New Hampshire in more than 30 years.

THE ROLE

We are seeking a Lead Design Engineer with a proven track record in design for manufacturability and assembly (DFM/A) that is an expert in the field. 

Reporting to the Head of Hardware, your primary responsibility will be taking designs from prototype to product, ensuring every mechanical detail is finalized for production and manufacturing. Your extensive expertise in CAD (SolidWorks), CAM, and GD&T will be critical in ensuring designs are manufacturable, cost effective, and compliant with federal certification standards. 

This is a foundational role to our organization and you will be defining the best-practices for mechanical design that the rest of the hardware team will follow. 

THE TEAM

You will collaborate daily with key members of the hardware team including the Lead Test Engineer to validate your designs; the Lead Manufacturing Engineer to ensure a seamless handoff from design to manufacturing and the Head of Hardware who you’ll be sharing design responsibility with. While you won't initially have direct reports, you'll be expected to take ownership of the design-ecosystem and ethos, guiding others on the team to follow your direction and leadership as it relates to mechanical design.

Key Responsibilities

• Final Design:
  • Usher projects from prototype to product, specifically focusing on getting from 90% design complete to 100% manufacturable. 
  • Utilize extensive DFM/A knowledge to refine designs for low-to-mid volume production processes such as CNC machining, injection molding, die-casting, and general metal forming
• Collaboration: 
  • Work closely with the Lead Test Engineer to validate designs and tradeoffs, and 
  • the Lead Manufacturing Engineer to ensure smooth design-to-production handoff, including the establishment of QA/QC metrics.
• Design Management: 
  • Oversee the structure, and maintenance of the CAD database, ensuring accuracy and consistency in all design files.
  • Maintain rigorous revision control and work with the Head of Certification to ensure that our products are always in compliance
  • Provide input to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the design process, ensuring designs are optimized for manufacturability.

Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience in mechanical design engineering, with an explicit focus on manufacturing.
• Expert in CAD, CAM, and GD&T.
• Extensive knowledge of DFM/A principles and a strong understanding of manufacturing processes such as CNC machining, injection molding, and metal forming.
• Strong leadership and collaboration skills. Willingness to engage in productive conflict.
• Proven ability to finalize complex designs and prepare them for mass production.
• Experience managing CAD databases and ensuring design integrity throughout the product lifecycle.
• Strong analytical skills and a detail-oriented mindset with a focus on design improvement and optimization.

WITHIN 3 MONTHS, YOU’LL

Get Acquainted with the Organization:

• Immerse yourself in our mission, values, and organizational culture.
• Understand our hardware products and their impact.

Assess Current Projects:

• Review and understand the state of existing products.
• Understand additional products in our 1-2 year pipeline.
• Evaluate the current state of our designs, including the drawing packets and documentation.

Build Relationships:

• Meet with key internal teams—product, certification, and customer success—to understand their workflows and requirements.
• Meet with the hardware team members regularly

Support the transition from contract firms:

• Establish initial contact with our external design contractors and provide design input 
• Begin the knowledge transfer process to own these late stage products that are already in our production pipeline
• Pinpoint quick wins and immediate areas for enhancement in efficiency and quality.
• Establish collaborative workflows with the Test and Manufacturing teams to define QA/QC metrics for upcoming production runs

WITHIN 6 MONTHS, YOU’LL

Co-lead our next production run:

• Work with our external contractors and lead manufacturing engineer to finalize designs for the production of 50-100 voting systems

Establish Best Practices:

• Work with the lead manufacturing engineer to
  • Define ownership of CAD database management, including its structure and versioning controls.
  • Identify areas of improvement in the design handoff.
• Finalize designs and support the next product release by refining critical details and preparing for future production.

Get to know your team and your product:

• Travel to an all-hands offsite and support an election in the field

WITHIN 12 MONTHS, YOU’LL

Own hardware design:

• Oversee a product from prototype to final design
• Work with the Head of Hardware to take existing prototypes to final design

Implement Best Practices:

• Lead the design process across multiple projects, ensuring all designs are manufacturable, cost-effective, and production-ready. You’ll be the final step in design and you’ll own the process of what happens before it gets to you.
• Refine the CAD database management and DFM that streamline the design and manufacturing handoff process.
• Lead design sessions with the hardware team on challenging problems

WE’RE MOSTLY DISTRIBUTED

We’re a mostly distributed organization, with team members working from home in nine different states. For many of our roles, you can live anywhere you want. For some of our roles, we need you in specific geographies. If there’s a geographical requirement, it’s never “just to be in the same room as the rest of the team,” it’s for very clear reasons like customer need or working on physical hardware together. 

There is a preference for this position to be located in one of our geographic hubs: New York City, San Francisco, Austin, or Bellingham, WA. Please indicate your willingness (or not) to relocate and it will be considered as part of your application.

We offer a flexible work schedule and we're on board with schedule flexibility: many team members have kids, pets, family members they care for, extensive hobbies, and other personal commitments that don’t always conform to a 9-5 schedule. We get that, and we think we’re a better organization if we adapt to that. We work hard, we just don’t work hard on a strict schedule. With flexibility comes responsibility: you should be comfortable with significant autonomous work.

COMPENSATION

We’re a non-profit, so we compensate in cash and benefits exclusively. We won’t pay you as much as a big for-profit, but we’ll still pay you a very fair salary and competitive benefits. 

This position is compensated at $165,000 - $190,000, based on a San Francisco cost of living. We adjust compensation depending on cost of living for an employee's location, up to 20% below the San Francisco base.

WE’RE BUILDING A DIVERSE TEAM

We never discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, race, ethnicity, background, ability/disability or really anything that isn’t about your skills.

We strive to go beyond that: we want to build a diverse organization that truly represents the people of the United States of America. We especially want to encourage women and members of under-represented groups to apply. You’ll always be judged on your skills and contributions, and we know that a more diverse team in all dimensions is a better team.