Industrial Designer - Lead

ALL REALTRUCK Career • Ann Arbor, MI

1d • Onsite

About The Position

The Lead Industrial Designer will be responsible for leading entry to senior-level Industrial Design team members in support of RealTruck’s extensive product roadmap, lifestyle, and branding needs. This role will be highly collaborative with Engineering, Product Management, and Marketing covering the development of products in Truck, Jeep, and Off-Road accessories. This position will help define industrial design of all new products within a designated category and strengthen the brands presence within the category with innovative, feature rich design.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design required.
• 7+ years of experience as an Industrial Designer of consumer products required.
• Knowledge of CAD Modeling – Solidworks.
• Knowledge of Rendering Software – Keyshot.
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator.
• Skilled in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook); ability to prepare professional PowerPoint presentations.
• Strong interpersonal skills that bring a positive and collaborative working relationship at all levels.
• Excellent communication (verbal/written) and presentation skills.
• Ability to write, speak and comprehend English.
• Proven leadership skills that inspire and motivate team members and colleagues.
• Strong understanding of branding and the development of a design strategy that aligns with the brand.
• Naturally curious, passionate and relentlessly driven to find better solutions to solve for users’ needs.
• Ability to dive in, learn, analyze, and create strategy out of ambiguity.

Responsibilities

• Lead other designers within a category, working in close collaboration with Engineering, R&D, Category Management teams to deliver insight driven, cohesive approach to the design of our products.
• Lead creative workshops and other design activities that result in innovative design solutions.
• Deliver compelling design, meeting the criteria outlined, that supports the desired brand identity and design language.
• Coach, mentor, and guide, lower-level designers, sharing knowledge and developing their level of contribution to design projects.
• Educate others on the value and contribution of industrial design.
• Seek out opportunities to relay the design vision and strategy.
• Manage several projects concurrently while ensuring communication flow to design lead and stakeholders is maintained.
• Drive the communication of ideas within the team by using a combination of sketching, CAD visualization, 3D models and working prototypes to evaluate potential solutions.
• Lead other Designers in the contribution of the development of a design language that solidifies the RealTruck brand for the category.
• Research design related areas of influence such as trend, color, materials, processes, software, and AI aided design practices.
• Develop designs through sketching, CAD/surfacing, high-quality renderings, mock-ups, and 3D printed models.
• Communicate the design intent through visual storytelling to gain acceptance by project teams.
• Explore concept generation through ideation, competitive assessments, and identification of unmet user needs.
• Participate in brainstorming and concept-generation events to establish opportunities to explore and develop.
• Create the materials required to convey the design direction to management or cross-functional partners through renderings, and models.
• Develop design expertise within the category, seeking to gain in-depth knowledge of the user, the competition, and our production capabilities to drive the development of industry leading design for the category.
• Contribute to the identification of new ideas, products and/or features that improve customer satisfaction, seek opportunities to reduce costs and keep our product line at the forefront of our industry.
• Hold a creative mindset that can aid in making design decisions in support of the user and the brand/design vision.
• Utilize consumer insights and functional needs to provide conceptualization/visualization that enhances new product concepts enabling consumer-centric and winning products for the category.
• Maintain awareness and solid understanding of existing products and competitive products within the industry.
• Contribute to and support the Company Growth Plan and its goal to ‘Lead the industry through innovation and superior product offering’ by accomplishing the following:
• Lead as a key contributor that supports targeted incremental revenue growth via new product introduction.
• Aid in building an inspired product pipeline for the category.
• Introduce category specific consumer-driven innovations year over year.
• Help to define product platforms that allow for differentiation and step-up strategies.

Benefits

• Enjoy great benefits like medical, dental, and vision coverage, company-paid life insurance and disability, and a 401(k) with company match (eligible the first of the month after you start).
• Need balance? We’ve got wellbeing days and parental leave.
• Want to grow? Take advantage of educational reimbursement.
• Plus, earn referral bonuses and score exclusive employee discounts on RealTruck products.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level