Design Manager, Engineering - Home Environment

About the role

The Design Manager will lead the mechanical engineering team behind a new generation of Shark home environment products. This is a hands-on leadership role. You'll own technical direction across your programs from early concept through mass production, manage and develop a team of engineers, and work across a global product development organization spanning Boston, China, and Europe.

Responsibilities

• Own design execution from concept through production: CAD, prototyping, DFMEA, tolerance analysis, tooling design, DFM reviews, and validation testing.
• Design and develop mechanisms. Think through how something moves, where it wears, how it fails, and how to design around it.
• Build and test prototypes in the lab. Break them, learn from them, iterate.
• Bring the same expectation to your team. Translate requirements and customer feedback into engineering solutions. When a requirement lands without a clear path forward, figure out the path.
• Lead DFM and DFA reviews with manufacturing partners, primarily in China. Flag risk early. Drive decisions. Run DFMEA and tolerance stack-up analyses to identify failure modes and design margin before they become production problems.
• Manage 2-4 direct reports. Set high expectations, develop their skills, give real feedback. This includes hiring as the team and category grow.
• Manage multiple concurrent programs at different stages of development. Keep priorities clear when timelines compress. Lead engineering communication to executive leadership: progress, risk, and decisions, not just status.
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners including Product Management, Industrial Design, Operations, Sourcing, and Quality.
• Travel internationally to manufacturing and development partners in Asia and Europe (approximately 4-8 trips per year).

Requirements

• 7-10 years of mechanical or product design engineering experience, with a track record of taking products to mass production. Appliance design background strongly preferred.
• 2+ years managing engineers. You know how to hire, develop, and hold people to a high standard without losing them.
• Hands-on CAD in SolidWorks or Creo at a high level. You lead CAD reviews, not just attend them.
• Strong mechanism design instincts. You think structurally about how parts interact, where failures happen, and how to design it out.
• Comfortable in the lab: prototyping, testing, documenting results, and feeding findings back into design.
• Familiarity with injection-molded plastic part design and tooling experience. Consumer goods or household appliance experience preferred.
• Experience with DFMEA, tolerance analysis, and DFM. Not theoretical. You've used them to make decisions on live programs.
• Fluent in high-volume manufacturing processes and the constraints they impose on design.
• Familiarity with electromechanical systems (motors, sensors, PCBAs). You don't need to own electrical engineering, but you need to design around it.

Qualifications

• Mechanical Engineering, Product Design Engineering, or Industrial Design Engineering degree. Advanced degree not required; strong experience is what matters.

Skills

• Strong mechanism design instincts.
• Comfortable in the lab: prototyping, testing, documenting results, and feeding findings back into design.
• Familiarity with high-volume manufacturing processes and the constraints they impose on design.
• Fluent in electromechanical systems (motors, sensors, PCBAs).

Benefits

• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Flexible spending accounts
• Health savings accounts (HSA) with company contribution
• 401(k) retirement plan with matching
• Employee stock purchase program
• Life insurance
• AD&D
• Short-term disability insurance
• Long-term disability insurance
• Generous paid time off
• Company holidays
• Parenthood leave
• Identity theft protection
• Pet insurance
• Pre-paid legal insurance
• Back-up child and eldercare days
• Product discounts
• Referral bonus program

Pay

The annual salary range for this position is $105,000—$150,000 USD. The Company offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements: