Head of Product Development (Consumer Hardware)

Location: Based in Shenzhen, Dongguan, or Hong Kong, with in-person visits to factories, design agencies, and studios every week.

Salary: US$135,000–175,000 per year base, plus up to 20% of base in milestone bonuses. Contractor role.

Company

hirify.global is a profitable, premium direct-to-consumer pet brand generating more than $50M in annual revenue through Shopify, Amazon, and Chewy, with products including cat water fountains, filters, and accessories.

What you will do

• Own the product roadmap for two brands, prioritizing launches, consumables, accessories, and upgrades by revenue potential and margin.
• Turn customer reviews, support tickets, return reasons, competitor products, and pet behavior into product ideas and approved product briefs.
• Lead industrial design, engineering, prototyping, firmware, companion apps for connected products, testing, stage gates, certification, and mass production.
• Hire and manage contract designers, engineers, and studios in Shenzhen, and build the product function, processes, reporting, and future hiring plan.
• Find, vet, and manage Pearl River Delta factories, negotiating unit cost, MOQ, tooling, lead time, quality, and production readiness.
• Protect designs through patents, NNNs, IP assignments, and written ownership of molds and tooling before factory contact.

Requirements

• 6–8+ years of end-to-end physical product development experience, including several products taken from idea through mass production and launch; consumer hardware with electronics is preferred.
• Based in Shenzhen, Dongguan, or Hong Kong and available for weekly in-person factory, agency, and studio visits.
• Fluent English and Mandarin for communication with the CEO, team, factories, and engineers.
• Experience building and running a product team covering design, engineering, patents, factories, contractors, and studios.
• Experience finding, vetting, and managing Chinese factories and negotiating price, MOQ, tooling, and quality in Mandarin.
• Experience filing patents in China and/or the US and protecting designs with NNNs, IP assignments, and mold ownership.
• Ability to design to a target landed cost and margin and maintain them through tooling and production.
• Mechanical, electrical, and firmware judgment sufficient to lead engineers and identify problems early.
• Ability to convert reviews, returns, and pet behavior into desirable products.
• No issue working overtime or weekends when needed; strong alignment with the stated company values and hands-on working style.

Nice to have

• Experience with pet products, small appliances, or app-connected devices shipped end to end.

Culture & Benefits

• 100% remote, lean, senior team with direct collaboration with the founder, while this role requires weekly in-person work in the Shenzhen area or Hong Kong.
• Fast-paced, hands-on environment focused on improving products, moving from brief to prototype quickly, working efficiently with contractors, studios, and AI, and overdelivering on cost or quality.
• Success is measured by on-time launches, target cost and margin, customer ratings, return and defect rates, revenue growth, and design protection.
• 90-day targets are agreed before the start date, with milestone bonuses tied to stage gates, landed cost, defect and return rates, and patent filing.
• Contractor arrangement: invoice the company, for example through a Hong Kong company.
• Work includes approximately one main product launch per quarter plus consumables, accessories, and upgrades.

Hiring process

• Application and screening interview.
• In-depth interview with the CEO, reference calls, and final interview with the CEO.