The posting
The role
We are looking for a senior hardware/product development engineer with strong experience taking physical products from prototype through engineering validation and into manufacturing.
You will work directly with the founder and take ownership of the physical architecture of Dreamspire.
This is not primarily a firmware role and it is not a pure industrial-design role.
We need someone who can look at a prototype and systematically turn it into a product.
You should be comfortable moving between:
- mechanical engineering
- electronics integration
- manufacturing
- prototyping
- reliability
- assembly
- suppliers
- cost
- compliance
- user experience
A large part of the work will initially be hands-on.
Your first mission
Your first objective will be to create a clear Dreamspire Product Architecture V1.
You will examine the existing prototype, identify its weaknesses and determine how we should build the next generation of the system.
This includes answering questions such as:
- Which prototype mechanisms are suitable for a real product?
- What needs to be redesigned?
- Which components should be custom versus off-the-shelf?
- How should cameras, lighting, electronics and mechanical systems be integrated?
- How do we make assembly simple and repeatable?
- What are the major reliability risks?
- What manufacturing processes should we use?
- What should the production BOM look like?
- What needs tooling?
- What can initially be produced in low volume?
- What compliance and certification work will be required?
- How do we move from one prototype to 10, 100 and eventually thousands of units?
The objective is not to rush into manufacturing.
The objective is to progressively remove technical and manufacturing risk until the product is ready.
Responsibilities
You will:
- Audit the existing Dreamspire hardware and mechanical architecture.
- Design and build improved prototype generations.
- Own mechanical design and product engineering.
- Integrate cameras, PCBs, lighting, power, cabling, connectors and sensors into the physical product.
- Design enclosures, mounts, mechanisms and structural components.
- Define tolerances and mechanical interfaces.
- Design for manufacturing and assembly — DFM/DFA.
- Reduce part count, assembly complexity and manufacturing cost.
- Select appropriate materials and production methods.
- Decide when to use CNC, sheet metal, 3D printing, injection molding or other processes.
- Work with PCB/electronics engineers where specialist electrical work is required.
- Develop production BOMs and cost estimates.
- Source and evaluate components and suppliers.
- Communicate directly with prototype houses and manufacturers.
- Design test fixtures and production test procedures.
- Establish reliability and lifecycle testing.
- Help define EVT, DVT and PVT stages.
- Identify CE, EMC, electrical safety and other relevant compliance requirements.
- Help design the system for serviceability and repair.
- Help prepare Dreamspire for small pilot production and eventually mass production.
What we are looking for
The most important requirement is:
You have personally helped ship real physical products.
Ideally, you have taken products through several stages of:
prototype → engineering validation → manufacturing → production → customer
You should have strong practical experience with several of the following:
- Mechanical engineering
- Mechatronics
- Consumer electronics
- Product development
- DFM / DFA
- CAD
- Injection-molded plastic parts
- CNC and rapid prototyping
- Electronics packaging
- PCB integration
- Cameras / optical systems
- Sensors
- Motors or electromechanical systems
- Tolerance analysis
- Supplier management
- BOM optimization
- Production testing
- Reliability testing
- Manufacturing ramp-up
You should be comfortable physically building, modifying and debugging prototypes rather than only designing them.
Particularly relevant backgrounds
Experience from products such as these would be especially relevant:
- Consumer electronics
- Robotics
- Smart-home products
- Interactive toys
- Gaming hardware
- IoT products
- Camera systems
- Medical or laboratory devices
- Small electromechanical products
Experience working in a startup or small product-development team is a major advantage.
What we are not looking for
This is probably not the right role if your experience is primarily:
- Arduino hobby projects
- Pure firmware development
- PCB design without product/mechanical ownership
- Industrial design without engineering responsibility
- CAD work without manufacturing experience
- Large-company engineering where manufacturing and suppliers were handled entirely by other teams
We are looking for someone who understands the whole physical product.
How you work
You should enjoy environments where the product is still evolving.
You should be able to say:
“This prototype mechanism works, but it will not survive production.”
or:
“We can remove these five components if we redesign this assembly.”
or:
“Don’t spend money tooling this yet — we need to validate this part first.”
We want someone who challenges assumptions and prevents expensive mistakes rather than simply implementing specifications.
Working with the founder
You will work closely with the founder, who currently develops the software, computer-vision systems, embedded systems and game concepts.
You will therefore have considerable influence over the architecture of the product.
The expectation is that you become the technical owner of the physical Dreamspire platform, while working closely with software and game development.
If the collaboration works well, the role could evolve into something resembling:
Head of Hardware / Head of Product Engineering
as Dreamspire grows.
Location
The role is based around Copenhagen.
Much of the work can be done remotely, but during prototype development we expect regular hands-on work with the physical Dreamspire system.
Candidates elsewhere in Denmark or the Øresund region are welcome if they can work regularly in Copenhagen.
Employment
We are open to:
- Full-time employment
- 3–4 days/week
- An initial senior consulting/fractional arrangement that can develop into a permanent role
For a strong permanent candidate, expected salary is approximately:
65,000–75,000 DKK/month + pension, depending on experience.
Exceptional candidates with significant consumer-product leadership experience may be above this range.
Why this role is interesting
Dreamspire is not another incremental electronics product.
The aim is to create an entirely new category of tabletop gaming platform and then build multiple games on top of it.
The fundamental question is:
Can we create something with the physical presence and social experience of a board game, but with systems and mechanics that were previously only practical in video games?
A large part of whether that succeeds depends on making the hardware disappear into the experience.
That is the problem we want you to help solve.
How to apply
Email [email protected] with your CV and a few lines about the physical products you have helped ship. We read every application and use it only to assess it; see how we handle your data.
