Project Manager

Kickmaker
Austin, TX
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

Aimed at senior hardware engineers with consultative sales experience who can lead strategic discussions and manage complex product development projects.

Best fit for

  • Senior hardware engineers with 10+ years of experience and a proven track record in NPI and product development
    — “10+ years in hardware engineering (robotics), with deep NPI experience and products you’ve helped ship from prototype to production”
  • Individuals with a background in leading technical direction and managing global teams across hardware and software domains
    — “Partner with our engineering and operations leads in the US and France to oversee scoping and risk management”

Things to consider

  • Travel is expected as the role requires on-site client engagement in the US and potentially other regions.
    — “US-based, authorized to work in the US, and ready to travel for clients”
  • The role emphasizes commercial ownership, which may require balancing technical and business responsibilities.
    — “This is an advisory role with true commercial ownership”

How to stand out

  • Highlight your experience in leading product development from prototype to production in your resume and interviews.
    — “products you’ve helped ship from prototype to production”
  • Emphasize your ability to debate technical decisions with senior engineers and translate them into business outcomes.
    — “You can debate design choices as an equal with a client’s senior engineers and earn their trust”
  • Showcase your history of shaping proposals and making strategic decisions on architecture and manufacturing trade-offs.
    — “Shape and defend proposals, with a focus on architecture, make-vs-buy decisions, design for manufacturing (DFM), and industrialization trade-offs”
  • Demonstrate your experience in managing long-cycle B2B sales and growing strategic accounts.
    — “Experience with consultative, long-cycle B2B sales”
  • Include any background in R&D, patents, or publications to strengthen your technical credibility.
    — “R&D background: patents, publications, or leading an advanced engineering lab”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • leads technical strategy discussions
  • owns Tier 0 strategic accounts
  • generates new opportunities
Typical background
10+ years in hardware engineeringdeep NPI experienceproducts shipped from prototype to production

Skills & requirements

Required

Technical StrategyNPI ExperienceHardware EngineeringConsultative SalesExecutive PresenceCross-functional Collaboration

Preferred

Engineering ConsultancyProduct Development ConsultancyHardware Startup Experience

Stack & domain

Hardware EngineeringRoboticsNPIConsultative SalesTechnical DirectionExecutive PresenceCommunicationLeadershipNetworkingStrategic Thinking

About the role

Original posting from Kickmaker via Lever

Engineering innovators’ ambitions.

Kickmaker partners with innovators to turn ambitious ideas into market-ready products.

Faster, smarter and built to scale.

We are an engineering consultancy and design office with end-to-end capabilities.

With 300+ strategists and engineers across the United States, France and China, we bring together hardware, software and industrial expertise to support high-tech projects from strategic vision to mass production.

From robotics and medical devices to aerospace & defense, mobility & energy, special machinery, consumer products and premium & luxury, we help clients solve complex engineering and production challenges.

Our multidisciplinary teams combine local execution with global manufacturing insight to optimize time, cost and materials, de-risk scale-up and accelerate time-to-market.

Passionate. Principled. Pioneering.

These values shape how we engineer, collaborate and challenge conventions : a maker culture where talented people learn, build and grow together.

Ready to engineer what’s next? Join Kickmaker and turn ambitious ideas into real-world products!

The role

Our clients are CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and founders facing high-stakes hardware decisions. You will be the trusted advisor they want at the table when those decisions are made. You will lead discovery and strategy conversations, reframe the challenge at hand, and recommend a path forward that clients can act on with confidence. Where the work is the right fit, you will show them why Kickmaker is the partner best positioned to deliver.

This is an advisory role with true commercial ownership. Clients will listen because you have built hardware yourself, and they will act on your guidance because you know how to make a compelling case at the executive level.

What you'll do

Lead technical strategy discussions with senior client stakeholders, constructively challenging assumptions to drive better outcomes

Shape and defend proposals, with a focus on architecture, make-vs-buy decisions, design for manufacturing (DFM), and industrialization trade-offs

Own Tier 0 strategic accounts and grow them across the full product lifecycle, from prototype through EVT, DVT, and PVT to mass production

Generate new opportunities by leveraging Kickmaker’s network, industry events, and your own thought leadership, and drive them through to signature

Guide Kickmaker’s engineering teams on your accounts by setting technical direction, keeping delivery on track, and ensuring client success from kickoff to handover

Partner with our engineering and operations leads in the US and France to oversee scoping and risk management

What we're looking for

10+ years in hardware engineering (robotics), with deep NPI experience and products you’ve helped ship from prototype to production. You can debate design choices as an equal with a client’s senior engineers and earn their trust. This is the heart of the role and our top priority.

Executive presence: a clear point of view, comfort disagreeing with C-level leaders, and the ability to turn a technical argument into a business decision

Experience with consultative, long-cycle B2B sales

Excellent written and verbal English

US-based, authorized to work in the US, and ready to travel for clients

A plus

A background at an engineering, deep-tech, or product development consultancy where you took hardware from concept to production, or a hardware startup of your own

A proven shift into strategic or commercial work (CTO, VP of Engineering, CCO, General Manager, Principal Consultant, Senior Solutions Leader, or Director of Sales Engineering), with accounts you’ve grown or deals you’ve closed

R&D background: patents, publications, or leading an advanced engineering lab

Experience in manufacturing transfer and working with outsourced supply chains

A strong network among US hardware, robotics, medtech, industrial or consumer-electronics leaders

Exposure to US deployment of French or European business

Please be advised that the stated salary represents the fixed component of your annual remuneration only. In addition, you will be eligible for a variable component, contingent upon the achievement of agreed objectives, which together constitute your total compensation package

Source: Kickmaker careers (Lever)

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