Lead Designer
$100,000–$160,000 year
On-siteHawthorne, California, United States
Job Summary
Develop and steward Starpath's industrial design language across all products, defining form, surfacing, proportions, materiality, and detail for space solar arrays, lunar robotics, and factory equipment. Generate concept designs in CAD from early ideation through refined design intent, then partner with mechanical, structures, and manufacturing engineering to translate concepts into buildable hardware while preserving design intent. Establish evolving design standards, guidelines, and libraries to ensure visual and formal cohesion across the growing product portfolio. Lead design reviews, act as the design voice in cross-functional decisions, and produce renderings and visualizations for internal and external use. Push back on unnecessary complexity to simplify forms and reduce visual noise. This hands-on senior IC role requires strong CAD proficiency and engineering fluency to work directly with technical teams without translation loss.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, or a related discipline
- 6+ years of industrial design experience with a portfolio demonstrating hardware product design, ideally in aerospace, robotics, consumer electronics, automotive, or comparable domains
- Strong CAD proficiency (SolidWorks, Alias, Rhino, or similar) with the ability to model and iterate concepts directly
- Demonstrated ability to define and maintain design language across a family of hardware products
- Portfolio required for consideration
Desired Qualifications
- Experience at a hardware company with a strong design reputation (Apple, Tesla, Rivian, Anduril, Nike, Frog Design, IDEO, or comparable)
- Background bridging industrial design and mechanical engineering — comfort with GD&T, DFM, and engineering-driven design constraints
- Proficiency with visualization and rendering tools (KeyShot, Blender, Cinema 4D, or similar)
- Experience designing hardware for extreme environments, high-reliability applications, or complex mechanical systems
- Sketching skills for early ideation and communication
- Experience partnering with brand and marketing teams on visual identity and product photography
- Prior experience as the sole designer or first design hire at a growing hardware company
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