Product Developer (Hardgoods)

16 years ago we started with six wallets and a simple belief: that well-made things, thoughtfully developed, earn a place in people's lives for the long haul. That belief hasn't changed but the scope of what we make has. Now we have a growing range of categories, and hardgoods have become a significant part of how we're expanding.

To keep that momentum going, we need people who care about the craft, and that's where you come in. We're looking for a Product Developer to join our hardgoods team; someone who’s already driven by the same question we ask every day: how do we make this better, more durable, and more honest to what it's meant to do?

You'll be embedded in the Production and Product Development team who works closely with the Design team to take concepts off the page and into the real world. That means time in our lab, time in CAD, and plenty of back-and-forth with our partner suppliers to get the details right. 

Bring us your curiosity, initiative, and a genuine love of making things and we’ll give you a world class team and the tools you need to master your craft.

• 2-3 years of experience in industrial design, product development or engineering, with a focus on hardgoods such as injection moulded plastics, metal hardware, rigid cases or tech accessories (luggage or softgoods development experience would be a great bonus!)
• Hands-on experience in a lab environment: you enjoy prototyping, testing, and taking things apart to understand how they work, and you believe the best solutions come from doing rather than just theorising
• Solid 3D CAD skills and exposure to injection moulding and 3D printing; you've been involved in taking a product from concept through to sampling, even if you haven't owned the full process end-to-end yet
• Familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite and technical software and experience mocking up technical specs that communicate complex product features
• Strong project management skills – you break work into clear milestones, keep stakeholders informed without being asked, and make sure nothing falls through the cracks between iterations
• A curious and collaborative mindset. You enjoy bouncing ideas off teammates, asking questions, and staying across new manufacturing technologies and methods
• Can communicate clearly with people from all backgrounds (you’ll be interacting a lot with our overseas manufacturers so mandarin fluency would be a welcome bonus!)

• Sat in on a design review for a new hardgoods product and flagged a few early-stage manufacturability considerations based on your knowledge of injection moulding
• Spent a morning in the lab prototyping and iterating on a product feature, testing a few different constructions to see what held up best under load
• Updated CAD files and product specs after incorporating feedback from a factory on DFM requirements, making sure the design intent stayed intact
• Reviewed a set of development samples, noted issues, and prepared a clear brief for the supplier on what needed to change for the next round
• Learned how to run an FMEA assessment alongside a senior developer, identifying high-risk areas for a product in development
• Dug into some customer returns data with your team to understand where a hardgoods product was failing in the field, and contributed ideas for how to strengthen the next generation.

This is a full time role based at our Collingwood office in Melbourne.