Director of Mechanical Engineering

PAX Labs•San Francisco, CA

11d•$210,000 - $265,000

About The Position

At PAX, we’re on a mission to enhance people’s lives through exceptional consumer experiences—honoring the plant through pioneering innovation, science-backed quality, and award-winning design. For nearly two decades, PAX has delivered high performance products crafted for precision, purity, and consistency that are trusted by millions worldwide. Our culture is built on putting people at the center of everything we do, making an impact together, and having fun along the way. We believe exceptional products, a thriving employee experience, and strong operational rhythms go hand-in-hand. PAX has been recognized for its brand, culture and products by The New York Times’ Wirecutter, TIME, Fast Company, GQ, Gear Patrol, mg Magazine, High Times, and many more. PAX is certified Plastic Negative across all product lines by rePurpose Global, ensuring that twice as much plastic is removed from nature as is used in its products. ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES: Reporting to the VP of Engineering, PAX is looking for a Director, Mechanical Engineering to lead the group of Mechanical Engineers responsible for the design, development, and support of PAX hardware products.This role serves as a cross-functional leader and “glue” between multiple company touch-points in collaboration including mechanical, embedded, product integrity, sourcing, and product management teams. Mechanical Engineers at PAX are responsible for architecture and detailed design of all of our products, working closely with the rest of the Hardware team and our manufacturing partners to achieve the Industrial Design and Product vision for the device. Our products are hailed for their beautiful design language, high quality and reliability, and attention to details. Our goal is to be the industry leader with product and technology innovations. This role is critical to managing and building our Mechanical Engineering team, the processes and best practices for design execution, and up-leveling our skill-set and quality.

Requirements

10+ years in consumer products and/or other product development
5+ years of people management experience
Deeply technical mechanical engineering background
Extensive CAD design experience (Solidworks)
Proven experience in structural analysis, thermal analysis, and/or fluid dynamics simulations
Working knowledge of electronics and proven track record of working with EE to integrate complex electronics into small form factors
Expert working knowledge of material fabrication processes and design constraints including engineered plastics and plastic injection (single shot, double shot, insert/overmould), and metal fabrication process (stamping, machining, turning, plating, extrusion etc)
Proven track record of working with Reliability through DFMEA process and developing products to the product spec, and addressing issues during NPI to resolve
Strong track record of shipping products and managing them through their entire life cycle
Experience working with Asian manufacturing and supply chains including travel to manufacturing sites
Excellent organizational, communication, presentation, and data analytics skills
Ability to meet international travel expectations (~10%)
BS in ME, related discipline, or demonstrated equivalent experience

Nice To Haves

Have seen multiple product cycles from start to finish and shipping consumer hardware at high volume
Pride yourself on your cross-functional collaboration, you thrive when you are working with others
Are a creative problem solver and make data-driven decisions
Practice servant leadership and realize it’s your first responsibility to unblock the team so they can move forward, while also focusing on coaching and mentoring them along the way
Have a track record of making your engineers better than you
MS or higher preferred

Responsibilities

Manage, grow, and inspire our Mechanical Engineering team using your experience and track record of hiring and retaining top talent from the industry
Drive process development, improvements, and best practices consistent with building a “world class” hardware product development organization
Hold the quality bar high, drive design reviews, and increase sophistication and technological excellence of our products on aggressive schedules
Develop and maintain effective tools and train capabilities for the group including CAD design software, PDM systems, FEA modeling and thermal simulation software
Collaborate with R&D to drive far-reaching technology development initiatives
Oversee and manage mechanical resourcing across multiple parallel programs
Develop and drive key team goals and OKRs on a quarterly and annual basis
Predict, manage, and when needed react to escalations and new risks in collaboration with Product Development
Travel to support manufacturing builds and ensure factory engagement best practices are established