Technical Project Manager, Hardware - unspun

We are looking for a passionate Engineering Project Manager to join our team. In this role, your primary responsibility will be to facilitate successful development of unspun’s novel textile manufacturing method, Vega™, through project planning, requirements management, and strategic resourcing. We’re looking for someone with experience in complex integrated hardware and software development who is excited about the risks and rewards of joining an early-stage startup.

About us

unspun is a robotics and digital apparel company, with a mission to reduce global carbon emissions by 1% through automated, localized, and intentional manufacturing.

Included in Time's Best Inventions & Fast Company's World Changing Ideas, unspun aims to rapidly transition the trillion-dollar apparel world into one that is more intentional, inclusive, and efficient by focusing on the overlap between sustainability and profitability.

We’ve developed a proprietary and patent-pending technology at the crossroads of 3D printing and automated textile manufacturing. By skipping the flat 2D fabric stage, we can additively build custom apparel products from the ground up- straight from yarn to final product. If additive manufacturing, industrial automation, and synchronized systems of hundreds of sensors & actuators gets you excited, we’d love to talk!

About You

As a Technical Project Manager on unspun’s hardware team, you will leverage technical knowledge and experienced project management skills to drive forward all stages of development for Vega™. You will work with hardware & textile engineers, technicians, and our product development team to oversee the planning, execution, and delivery of innovative hardware solutions, ensuring alignment with project goals, timelines, and quality standards.

What you’ll do

You will focus on all the technical and programmatic details of developing and building our novel robotic loom. You will help define the final product, how we produce it and ensure early external partnerships are successful. As a result, you will play an instrumental role in revolutionizing clothing manufacturing.

• Develop and maintain detailed project plans for our Vega™ Development team
• Coordinate cross-functional dependencies and milestones to ensure successful realization of project timelines
• Develop and manage technical requirements and interfaces that tie to system level requirements
• Own technical and programmatic risk management process for the engineering team and define risk mitigation projects within the hardware project pipeline
• Work with the Operations team and Integration & Testing team to plan machine use, resourcing, and integration approach
• Build team process and documentation to support a growing engineering team
• Work directly with a regulatory consultant to define and manage the work required to receive certifications for our system
• Work onsite Mon - Fri from our Emeryville microfactory

Requirements

Ideal Qualities

• 2+ years of project management experience in hardware engineering development
• 5+ years of technical hardware engineering experience (e.g. industry or academic experience in systems or mechanical engineering)
• Adept at learning and using various project management and database tools
• Experience managing hardware, mechanical, or manufacturing projects and timelines
• Experience managing project schedules with interdependencies and competing resources
• Strong understanding of mechanical, software, firmware, and electronics development
• Familiarity with the stages and challenges of hardware product development lifecycle (from R&D through production)
• Excellent communication, organizational, presentation, technical writing, and leadership skills
• Self-motivated and proactive with demonstrated creative and critical thinking capabilities
• High sense of ownership, urgency, and drive
• Comfortable in a fast-paced early-stage startup environment. Flexible and calm in the face of ambiguity. Enjoys a diverse range of responsibilities and rapid development cycles

Bonus Points

• Excited about weaving, carbon reduction, or novel manufacturing processes!
• Demonstrated technical leadership experience during cross-functional engineering projects
• Knowledge of applicable regulations and standards for capital equipment and machinery, including safety, environmental, and industry-specific compliance requirements
• Familiarity with Notion
• Familiarity with manufacturing

We don't expect you to have all of the listed qualities and are looking for someone who hopes to learn those areas where they don't have as much experience. So if you don't meet all of the requirements listed above but can make up for it with a voracious passion for learning how to do so, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Our philosophy

We won’t roll our eyes if your socks don’t match. We get it. But then, if you spend those extra few minutes in the morning matching your socks and shirt, we get that too. Our workspaces are sometimes spotless and sometimes chaotic, and we celebrate messy exploration. We work through complex problems but generate simple and elegant solutions. We strive to look at things differently, and never do anything solely because “that’s the way it’s always been done.”

We’re a team of designers and engineers, industry-veterans and serial entrepreneurs, artists and developers. We’re aspiring chess masters and climbers, bakers and photographers. Originally spun out of Stanford and the University of Colorado, we now call the Bay Area home, with strong ties to Hong Kong. We are looking for teammates who share our desire to work on ambitious problems and leave the world better than we found it.

unspun is an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to being a diverse team that reflects a broad range of background, thought, and experience. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, status as an individual with a disability, status as protected veteran, or any other legally protected characteristics. Women, minorities, and people from underrepresented backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.

Benefits

The salary range for this role is $138,000 - $153,000 USD, annually, plus 0.05% - 0.06% equity.

Benefits include:

• self-regulated vacation policy
• comprehensive (gold & platinum) health/dental/vision insurance (or equivalent cash bonus if already insured)
• company sponsored 401k
• monthly gym membership or relevant online education grant of up to $150/month
• pre-tax commuter benefits
• incentive stock options