{"id":2185225,"url":"https://alion.io/job/prolific-machines-head-ofdirector-hardware-engineering","title":"Head Of/Director, Hardware Engineering","company":{"id":685503,"name":"Prolific Machines","domain":"prolific-machines.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/prolific-machines","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":null},"role":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Emeryville, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":220000,"max":270000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":270000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Bioreactors","optional":false},{"name":"Design Controls","optional":false},{"name":"GMP","optional":false},{"name":"Verification & Validation","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-09T15:58:47Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-09","last_verified_at":"2026-10-24T06:42:04Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":14,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":14},"description":"We're looking for a senior hardware leader to own the hardware engineering function at Prolific: the team that designs and builds our illumination systems, the hardware that delivers light to cells from the bench to bioreactor scale. Reporting to our Co-Founder and CTO, you will lead the transition from validated prototypes to robust, customer-grade products. You'll be the voice of hardware in company planning and be a key partner to the CTO in shaping Prolific's technical direction.\nThis is not a blank-slate role. You will inherit an exceptional, multidisciplinary team spanning mechatronics, optical, electrical, and firmware engineering that has already designed, built, and shipped illuminators into our own biology and bioprocess labs. They are highly skilled for their level of seniority, and the team has a culture we are genuinely proud of: collaborative, candid, and committed to doing excellent work.\nOne discipline the team doesn't yet have is systems engineering, and we'd love you to bring it. That means architecting how our systems fit together: modular subsystems, clean interfaces, testable units, and components that are reused where it makes sense, all without over-engineering from the start. A systems engineering background is not strictly required, but a strong systems-level approach to hardware is central to this role.\nAt Prolific, hardware is an enabler rather than the product itself, working with partners over long trajectories. That makes it essential to be careful where rigor matters, and knowing the difference.\nAs of today, Prolific is R&D-first: most of our hardware runs in our own labs and in early partner programs, not yet in large deployed fleets. But the timeline to customer-facing hardware is ambitious. The right person is energized by an R&D environment now and has done the R&D-to-product transition before, so they can lead the team through it rather than learn it along the way.\nYou don't need to be a biologist. Our scientists and bioprocess engineers work side by side with the hardware team, and you'll have deep biology expertise around you from day one. What we need from you is hardware leadership, strong communication and great curiosity.\nIn your first 6 to 12 months, you will:\nGet to know the team and take over day-to-day leadership in a way that preserves what already works well, while setting a clear operating rhythm for planning, design reviews, and delivery\nOwn the roadmap for our next-generation illuminator platform, including oversight of external development partners\nDefine the path to GMP readiness for systems used in partner manufacturing environments\nSet strong standards for documentation, communication and other good engineering practices\nShape the team's growth: identify the gaps, write the hiring plan, and make the first hires\nHardware operations and project management have dedicated owners on the team. You'll work closely with them, but you won't be running the shop by yourself.\nThis role is based on-site in Emeryville, CA, with the flexibility to work remotely on occasion.\nResponsibilities:\nStrategy and functional leadership\nTranslate company strategy into a multi-year hardware strategy and roadmap, and turn it into concrete functional plans, milestones, and success measures\nPartner with the CTO to define Prolific's technical roadmap, engineering standards, and decision-making frameworks\nContribute to company business planning as the hardware function's representative, including budgets, headcount, capital equipment, and partner program commitments\nMake most operational and technical decisions for the hardware function independently, escalating where strategic alignment is needed\nBuild strong partnerships with peer leaders in bioprocess engineering, biology, software, data, and business development so hardware plans integrate with company-wide priorities\nRepresent Prolific externally with partners, suppliers, and the broader engineering community, and bring outside expertise and industry connections into the company\nModel commitment to company decisions, aligning the hardware team behind agreed outcomes even when they differ from your own recommendation\nLeadership and team development\nConserve and strengthen the hardware team's culture of collaboration, candor, and craftsmanship as the team grows\nLead, mentor, and develop a strong multidisciplinary team, elevating already capable engineers to the next level and growing senior individual contributors into technical and people leads\nCoach the team in balancing speed and rigor: when to prototype quickly, when to slow down and do it properly, and how to make that call with confidence\nOwn the structure and operations of the hardware function: team design, roles, resourcing, and a predictable operating rhythm (planning, design reviews, retrospectives) that adds clarity without adding bureaucracy\nOwn hardware team growth: identify capability gaps (e.g. systems, testing, quality), write the hiring plan, and hire people who strengthen the culture\nManage up and down effectively, communicating clearly about tradeoffs in scope, quality, time, and people\nHardware development\nBring a systems engineering approach to the platform: define subsystem boundaries and interfaces, requirements flow-down, and modular designs that enable rapid scaling, independent testing, and component reuse, without over-engineering early\nTake on the hardest, least precedented technical problems in scaling light delivery to industrial bioprocessing, and develop solutions that hold up long term\nOversee the full development lifecycle, from technical scoping and concept through prototyping, verification and validation, and transfer to production\nLead the transition from R&D prototypes to reliable, serviceable, manufacturable products (design for manufacturing, design for service, design controls)\nDrive make-vs-buy and insource-vs-outsource decisions, and manage external development partners and contract manufacturers against clear scopes and milestones\nSupport business development with technical scoping and realistic estimates for partner programs\nQuality, compliance, and productization\nDefine and execute the path to GMP readiness for hardware used in partner manufacturing environments\nLead electrical safety and regulatory certification efforts with test labs and consultants\nEstablish the right-sized quality practices for each stage: documentation, change control, verification records, and supplier qualification\nWork with hardware operations to make sure what the team designs can be built, deployed, and supported at scale\nRequirements:\nBS, MS, or PhD in Mechanical, Electrical, Optical, Systems, or Biomedical Engineering, or a related field; equivalent experience considered\n10+ years of relevant industry experience, including 3+ years leading a multidisciplinary hardware engineering team or department as a people manager (e.g. senior manager or director)\nDemonstrated experience taking at least one hardware product from R&D prototype through to production and field deployment, with concrete examples of what you'd do differently next time\nA track record of setting multi-year technical or functional strategy and translating it into execution plans, budgets, and resourcing\nHands-on experience bringing hardware into a regulated environment: GMP, FDA design controls, or equivalent, and leading products through electrical safety certification (UL, CE, or similar)\nDeep technical expertise in at least one core discipline (mechanical, electrical, or optical) and enough breadth to make sound architecture calls across the others\nA strong track record of mentoring engineers and growing individual contributors into leads\nExperience managing external development partners, contract manufacturers, or suppliers against defined scopes and milestones\nExcellent written and verbal communication, including explaining complex technical tradeoffs in scope, quality, time, and (human) resources to executives, partners, and non-engineers\nNice-to-Haves:\nStrong systems engineering judgment: enough depth in the discipline to decide whether we need a dedicated systems engineer and to lead that work until we do, whether or not it's your formal background. A track record of architecting modular, scalable hardware platforms is a strong signal here\nFamiliarity with life science hardware: bioprocessing equipment, lab instrumentation, or medical devices (biology expertise is available within the organization)\nExperience with optical systems, LED or laser illumination, or thermal management of high-power electronics\nExperience with equipment used in pharmaceutical manufacturing, including qualification (IQ/OQ/PQ) and GAMP-style validation\nExperience scaling a fleet of deployed systems from a handful of units to dozens or more\nExperience at an early-stage company, ideally through a period of rapid team growth\nWorking knowledge of firmware, embedded systems, and connected devices, enough to partner effectively with firmware and software leads\nAbout You:\nYou lead with concrete examples: you can walk through how you built a team, shipped a product, or recovered a slipping program, step by step\nYou're a coach first. You get energy from making a strong team even stronger, and you protect the culture that made it strong\nYou think in systems: how the pieces fit together, where the interfaces are, and what will need to scale\nYou're flexible and rigorous at the same time, comfortable trading off speed against rigor, and you can teach others to make those calls and feel good about them\nYou think strategically about how hardware serves the business, not just how to build it well\nYou're comfortable in an R&D environment today and excited to lead the shift to product, not impatient for a finished production line\nYou're curious about the biology and comfortable leaning on scientists and bioprocess engineers for what you don't know\nYou know when to be flexible and when to be assertive, and once a decision is made, you commit to it and bring your team along\nYou're a thoughtful coworker who cares about the company's mission and culture, and you actively seek feedback","description_format":"text","description_chars":10152,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"phd","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Synthetic Biology","Drug Discovery"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-09T16:05:40Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 1","filings_12m":1,"filings_prev_12m":1,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":112500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":79,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.84,"p_room":0.945,"age_days":14,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:3","win:mid"],"computed_at":"2026-10-24T06:02:35Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":270000,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/prolific-machines-head-ofdirector-hardware-engineering","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/prolific-machines-head-ofdirector-hardware-engineering.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-24T07:10:10Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":10605,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-25T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":685503},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=685503"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fprolific-machines-head-ofdirector-hardware-engineering"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fprolific-machines-head-ofdirector-hardware-engineering"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fprolific-machines-head-ofdirector-hardware-engineering"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/prolific-machines-head-ofdirector-hardware-engineering\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fprolific-machines-head-ofdirector-hardware-engineering"}]}