ABOUT US

The purpose of Peak Design is to create happy, meaningful lives for the people that work here. We believe this purpose can only be achieved when self-actualizing, highly stoked people enthusiastically step into (or log onto) the Peak Design office every day. Our purpose and our mission go hand-in-hand and we encourage and celebrate authenticity and the unique perspective each of our employees brings. We’re a close-knit team that thrives on mutual respect and the belief that every voice matters—especially when it’s got something interesting to say.

We make radical, meticulously-engineered gear for detail-obsessed people. Our backpacks, travel bags, camera gear, and phone accessories are used dang-near everywhere. If you’ve visited Machu Picchu, Tokyo, or an REI store in the last 10 years, you’ve been within ogling distance of a Peak Design product.

Alongside our award-winning gear is a brand that truly reflects who we are as people—passionate about design, deeply caring about our environmental and social impact, unafraid to speak up, radically transparent, and generally down to clown. Whether we’re explaining a product, running a sale, launching a nonprofit, sponsoring a film, or razzing the biggest company on Earth, we do it with our trademark honesty, warmth, and wit. Through our products and our brand, we aim to create delight, and leave this world better than how we found it.

ABOUT THE JOB

This is a new product designer role on one of our small but mighty product teams. Day to day, you’ll own the design, development, and testing of new and existing products on our camera accessories roadmap, including clips, straps, and mounts.

Qualified candidates could be current product designers or industrial designers. A design role at Peak Design is a broad thing - we thrive on a holistic product design process, meaning that the person we hire would be responsible for everything from early ideation and concept development, to prototyping, development builds, production ramp, and sustaining quality improvement. Our product designers interface with industrial designers, mechanical engineers, engineering project managers, and overseas contract manufacturers to drive the full product lifecycle from conception to production. Most companies split these roles into several people (or even several teams), but we think full ownership makes for more passionate and invested product designers, and thus better products. It’s also just more fun than doing the same thing every day.

What You'll Do

• Conduct market research for new product definition, establish design requirements, and generate new product concepts.
• Assemble prototypes in-house using Peak's prototyping equipment, or via external prototyping services.
• Work with industrial designers to align on design directions and implement them in a parametric CAD stack.
• Work with mechanical engineers to produce a design that is safe, manufacturable, and meets the specific design requirements of the project.
• Formulate, document, and execute test procedures for products in development.
• Manage and organize prototype, EVT, DVT, PVT, and mass production builds.
• Build proficiency in Onshape (CAD) and establish a clear organizational structure for new and old models.
• Oversee and support outsourced CAD resources in China or Vietnam for latter stage design.

• Undergraduate or graduate degree in Product Design, Industrial Design, or comparable degree or experience. 
• 2 years of post-grad work experience doing some form of consumer product design.
• Someone who uses and cares a lot about gear. Experience with cameras (DSLR mirrorless) and photography equipment is a major plus.
• Experience with, but not limited to, ideation, sketching, rendering, surface modeling, material selection, basic engineering principles, and some mechanism design.
• Experience owning mechanical parts and assemblies from prototyping through mass production for high volume (50k /yr) products that have successfully shipped to customers. 
• Ability to travel to China or other parts of Asia to visit our suppliers 1-3 times per year.
• Local to the San Francisco Bay Area (or willing to relocate for this role). Willing to work from our office/workshop in the Dogpatch a minimum of 3 days per week (i.e. this is not a remote role, though we do maintain flexibility). 

• The following list represents a range of traits and experience that would help make you highly effective and impactful in this role:
• Technical aptitude and appetite. You lean into technical challenges and are curious and excited to go deep on a technical topic to build your knowledge.
• Effective at creating and maintaining complex 3D models in any major 3D CAD system (we use Onshape).
• Mechanical aptitude, both hands-on and theoretical. You’ve worked extensively with moving parts and mechanisms. 
• Inclination toward hands-on prototyping. You love to create actual functioning prototypes and products, not just design them virtually.
• Familiarity with a few (or all) of the following manufacturing processes: CNC milling, die casting, injection molding, stamping, extrusion, and assembly.
• Familiarity with various surface finishes: anodization, powder coating, painting, plating.
• Familiarity with the basic materials properties of aluminum alloys, steels, elastomers, and plastics.
• Familiarity with phase-gates manufacturing system (Proto, EVT, DVT, PVT, Mass Production).
• Familiarity with soft goods and textiles. You know your way around a sewing machine and can make simple sewn or laminated patterns and prototypes.
• Previous experience with vendor management, including travel to China. Experience bringing up a manufacturing line and problem solving in-person from EVT through MP.
• Working knowledge of supply chain structure and ability to navigate communication at various levels of the supply chain.
• You have strong opinions about the products that you use in your life and enjoy debating what makes these products great.
• You possess hustle, humility, and a growth mindset. You want to grow tremendously as an engineer by designing and shipping many products. 
• You’re a systems thinker and love optimizing workflows and efficiency. You are capable of navigating surprise roadblocks with rational thinking and problem solving.

INTERVIEW PROCESS

Here’s what you can expect:

1) Written application, including a short answer technical screen - online.

2) Technical screen - Zoom - 30 min.

3) Take home assignment (1-2 hrs), followed by a review presentation and interview - Zoom - 60 min.

4) Final round interviews - in-person at Peak Design headquarters - 3 hrs.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Having a team of wildly-talented, fully-stoked people with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skillsets is how we make this whole shindig possible.

Peak Design complies with all laws set force by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces Federal laws that protect you from discrimination in employment: https://www.eeoc.gov/poster

Peak Design also complies with all laws set forth by the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), which is responsible for enforcing state laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or employee because of protected characteristics: https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/Posters/