Head of Hardware

Kale is building a computer for kids ages 6 to 12. A computer, not a companion: a device a kid owns, draws on, learns on, and grows up with. No feeds, nothing built to be addictive. The software remembers the child and follows them as they grow. The hardware has to be an object a six-year-old can use every day and a twelve-year-old isn't embarrassed by. Our first device is built on a proven tablet platform with our own case, strap, stylus, packaging, and software.

The role

You own the physical product end to end. You hold the design brief, run our industrial design and supply chain partners, and own EVT, DVT, PVT, and mass production release. You own the BOM, the landed cost model, and the ship date. You are the one person accountable for the thing a child holds.

This is a product and program role with deep technical judgment, not a bench engineering seat. On a sourced platform with partner-led manufacturing, the constraint isn't engineering horsepower. It's coordination across partners, decision speed, and knowing what good looks like at each gate, then saying so before the steel is cut.

You won't sit in CAD all day, design electronics, or manage a team for at least a year. You will be the hardware organization before you build one. You report to the CEO and work daily with the CTO and our design partner.

First 90 days

• Take the current case design from ID into production-ready engineering.
• Own sourcing for the case, strap, stylus finish, and packaging. Samples are arriving now. You hold them, and you reject the bad ones.
• Write the durability and drop standard every unit is held to.
• Get production-intent units into the hands of founding families.

What you've done

• Shipped at least one consumer electronics product from concept through mass production.
• Sat through EVT, DVT, and PVT personally, and can describe what went wrong at each.
• Worked directly with CMs or ODMs in Asia. You can read a factory.
• Owned a bill of materials and a cost model, not only a design file.
• Worked under real constraint: small team, tight calendar, no safety net.

Strongly preferred

Kids' products or another regulated consumer category. Accessory or modular ecosystems, not a single SKU. Taking a function from partner-led to in-house. Depth in silicone, injection molding, or enclosures.

What this becomes

Within eighteen months this is a team: design engineering, NPI, quality, and eventually supply chain. You will hire it, and its shape is yours to argue for. If you want to run a large organization right away, this is the wrong seat. If you want to own an object end to end and build the team around it, this is a rare one.

Details

San Francisco or New York, with regular travel to Shenzhen. $165k to $250k+ base plus meaningful equity as the first hardware hire.

How we hire

1. Intro call with Max, 30 minutes. What you've shipped and what went wrong along the way.
2. Working session with Tim and our design partner, 60 minutes. We put the current case design and samples in front of you, and you tell us what you see.
3. Two paid days in person with the team in San Francisco. We cover travel.
4. References, then an offer.

We move fast. Expect a reply within a week.