Director of Hardware Operations
Fellow, United States
Job Description
Fellow is hiring a Director of Hardware Operations who is responsible for delivering beautiful products that can be sold to our hundreds of thousands of global fans. Given growth, this is a new role within the organization, and the individual will have the opportunity (and task) of quickly building out this function. Partnering with our product and engineering orgs, the Director of Hardware Operations will own program management and manufacturing in order to ensure high quality products are available in a timely fashion. Managing a team spanning the US and China, this person will be responsible for manufacturing (NPI and sustaining), cost improvement, and quality.
In year 1 you will be:
Partnering with your TPM lead and GM of Asia to build a team of 15 20 spanning the US and China
Delivering 2 - 3 product launches, and setting up processes / systems to reduce cost while increasing supply and maintaining or improving quality.
Historically much of this work was done through contracting and only recently have we moved to bringing some of these capabilities in house.
Once feasible given the pandemic, role includes travel to China at least quarterly.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ROLE WILL START REMOTE DUE TO COVID. ONCE RESTRICTIONS LIFT, THE POSITION WILL REQUIRE YOU TO BE IN THE OFFICE.
BECAUSE OF THIS WE ARE LOOKING FOR LOCAL CANDIDATES IN THE BAY AREA.
WE DO NOT PROVIDE SPONSORSHIP AT THIS TIME.
Requirements
Responsibilities (together with your team):
Oversee overarching PM function, spanning both NPI and sustaining work. Deliver products, on time at the agreed upon price and good quality through timeline management and resourcing.
Managing manufacturing for Fellow’s entire product line, with CMs based in China and Taiwan (and eventually more markets).
Cultivate a list of existing and potential CMs, to ensure we’re working with an optimal list of partners to deliver both quality and price.
Leverage DfMA thinking to optimize outcomes.
Develop tooling to bring the product concepts from Fellow to life.
Oversee testing and certification to allow us to sell electric products into 40+ countries.
Identify and implement new processes and supply chain strategies to ensure timely PO PO fulfillment, decreased lead times, and increase capacity.
Build and maintain deep relationships with suppliers to support the company’s growth.
Through negotiations, component management, and second sourcing, deliver improved cost on existing products and strong BOMs on new products.
Ensure impressive quality, delivering products that do what they say they will and thereby enhancing Fellow’s reputation. To this end, manage FMEA, documentation, IQC and PSI as necessary.
This hire will be evaluated on: Cost, Quality, Lead Times, as well as PO timeliness and accuracy
Experience
Bachelor’s degree
Engineering familiarity preferred
Proven track record of bringing a consumer goods to market.
10+ years working on diverse aspects of hardware operations, from planning to sourcingto manufacturing to quality or program management. Experience with both NPI and sustaining efforts.
5+ years managing a team, with international team management preferred
Chinese operating experience