On-site only in San Jose, CA (no remote or hybrid). Contract to hire.
About Hatch Duo
Hatch Duo is an award-winning industrial design and engineering consultancy in San Jose. We design and engineer hardware for companies shaping, and sometimes creating, their categories across consumer electronics, robotics, medtech, wearables, beauty tech, sports tech, gaming, and beyond.
We are a tight-knit, high-caliber team by design: deliberately small, nimble, and close to the work. We ship real products and make an outsized impact for the startups, ambitious founders, and Fortune 500 teams we work with.
We aren't interested in becoming a smaller version of a giant design firm. Our advantage is that we're faster, closer to our clients, and willing to challenge conventional ways of designing and developing products. We bring clients into the process as collaborators, combine design ambition with engineering reality, and move quickly from ideas to things that can actually be built.
Because we're deliberately small, designers here get unusually close to the entire product-development process. You'll work directly with our partners, engineers, clients, founders, and manufacturing teams. You'll also have opportunities to take on responsibility that can take years to reach inside a larger organization.
"In a world that won't slow down, speed is more than an advantage. It's a necessity. We don't just adapt to the future; we're building it." Jon Thai, Co-Founder & Principal Designer
Who we are looking for
Our project pipeline is growing, and we're looking for an experienced Industrial Designer who can step directly into active client work and make an immediate impact. We're starting this as a contract role, with the potential to grow into a permanent position as the studio continues to expand.
We're looking for a mid-level designer with real range. You've worked on hardware that shipped, you think holistically about a product, and you do your strongest work when the brief is ambitious and the timeline is real.
Hatch Duo moves fast. Projects often run in parallel, deadlines matter, and our clients rely on us to maintain momentum. We need a designer who knows how to explore broadly, make good decisions quickly, and produce excellent work without treating every design decision as an open-ended exercise. If you enjoy the energy and creative challenge of consultancy work, you'll feel at home here.
You already know how hardware gets made. You move confidently from sketch to CAD surface to prototype, and you know how to carry design intent into production without losing the idea along the way.
You are someone who:
- Has a strong point of view and sharp aesthetic craft
- Works fast without dropping quality, turning around strong concepts on a tight clock
- Communicates design decisions with clarity and confidence
- Takes direction and feedback well and gets sharper with every round
- Thrives on ownership and high-impact, fast-moving work
- Enjoys technically demanding product categories and cross-disciplinary problems
- Protects the integrity of a design through engineering and manufacturing tradeoffs
- Raises the bar around them through their own work, critique, collaboration, and example
You'll work directly with Hatch Duo's Partners on design direction and client work. Local candidates only. You must be able to work on-site in San Jose. No exceptions.
What you'll do
- Own industrial design execution from concept through refined, production-ready deliverables at the pace the studio runs
- Develop strong form language, CMF direction, and compelling visual storytelling
- Produce sketch explorations, storyboards, CAD models, renderings, and prototypes
- Move multiple projects forward at once without losing quality or momentum
- Collaborate closely with mechanical engineering, electrical engineering/firmware, UX/human factors, and the founding team
- Help carry design intent through DFMA, EVT, DVT, and PVT into production
- Present design work directly to clients with clarity and confidence
- Contribute critique, ideas, and expertise that elevate the work of the team around you
- Work on-site with the team in our San Jose studio
Required qualifications
- 3–5 years of industrial design experience
- B.S. or BFA in Industrial Design, or equivalent professional experience
- Experience designing hardware products that made it to production
- Demonstrated ability to produce high-quality design work at speed, with multiple projects running in parallel
- Strong CAD surfacing and modeling skills (Rhino, SolidWorks, Alias, or similar)
- Excellent sketching, visualization, and presentation skills
- Strong understanding of materials, manufacturing, prototyping, and production
- Familiarity with DFMA and hardware development cycles (EVT, DVT, PVT)
- Fluency with AI-assisted design and visualization workflows (Vizcom, Midjourney, or comparable tools)
- Strong communication and client-facing presentation skills
- Comfortable working closely with engineering and other cross-disciplinary teams
- Must live within commuting distance of our San Jose studio and work on-site (no remote or hybrid)
Preferred qualifications
- Design consultancy or agency experience, where fast turnarounds and parallel projects are the norm
- Startup or early-stage hardware experience
- Range across multiple product categories, including consumer electronics, robotics, medtech, wearables, and more
- Active involvement in the Bay Area design community
Why join Hatch Duo
- A seat at the center of the work. Work directly with the partners on design direction, strategy, and client-facing work.
- Real creative ownership. Own design execution on meaningful projects rather than working indefinitely on fragments of someone else's vision.
- Category variety, not a silo. In a single stretch, you might move from robotics to a wearable to a medtech device. Few in-house roles, and even many larger consultancies, can offer that range.
- Ship real products. Our work goes to market. You'll follow ideas through engineering and production and see your designs become things people actually use.
- Your work is visible. On a small team, what you make matters. Your contribution is seen, attributed, and directly shapes the quality and reputation of the studio.
- Grow with the studio. Talented designers here don't have to wait years for more responsibility. As you prove what you can do, there's room to expand your influence across projects, clients, the team, and the studio itself.
- Room to go further. For the right designer, this contract can grow into an expanded or full-time role as Hatch Duo continues to grow.
If you want impact, ownership, genuinely interesting hardware to design, and the opportunity to grow alongside an ambitious studio, and you do your best work when the pace is real, we want to hear from you.
How to apply
Email the following to info@hatchduo.com:
- Portfolio, including shipped products and your specific role on each
- Resume
- Cover letter explaining why you specifically want to join Hatch Duo
Subject line: HATCH_DESIGNER – [Your Name]
Applications missing any of these materials will not be reviewed.
