Sr. Project Manager – Hardware Development

Headquartered in Berkeley, CA, Bellwether Coffee is a venture-backed, high-growth tech company working hard—alongside other game-changers—to positively transform the coffee industry, making it more accessible and sustainable for our planet and our communities. We’re a diverse team of coffee industry veterans, entrepreneurs, engineers, technicians, human-centered designers, and people-focused rule-breakers who have a passion for making the “impossible” a reality.

What we do

We believe in helping you make better coffee. But we also believe in helping you make coffee better. We combine software, analytics, and on-site coffee roasting for our retail partners making coffee more efficient, sustainable, and inclusive. We do this with the first-ever commercial, iOS-integrated, ventless, electric, zero-emissions roaster with the tools to customize and maximize every stage of roasting coffee.

About you

You are a crucial member of the team. You are able to turn proven technical concepts into a manufactured product. You are critical thinking, you love sharing your thoughts and ideas and progress with the team. You have a sense of urgency with everything you do without compromising quality and detail. You appreciate the uniqueness of each person on the team and thrive in an inclusive and diverse environment.

Job Summary

As a Hardware Project Manager at Bellwether, you will interface with all functions necessary to bring highly reliable, best-in-class, automated coffee roasting products to market.  The primary focus of this position is to plan, facilitate and integrate the development of products within the hardware engineering team while coordinating with other functional teams such as Software and Product Management to deliver an optimal user experience.  You will be responsible for managing and communicating progress against the established cost, schedule, and product experience goals to management and stakeholders.  This position is more than tracking schedules and maintaining issue lists. You will be an integral part of the development team, helping the team overcome obstacles, find ways to accelerate progress, and solve problems.  This will require taking a systems integration approach to product development, ensuring that all parts are thoroughly integrated, tested, and proven to meet the product requirements.

Success looks like performing at a high level in the following ways:

• Manage complex electro-mechanical product development projects
• Lead the team through system architecture decisions
• Work as the technical and programmatic focal point and facilitator for development activities.
• Prepares and manages project budgets and schedules. 
• Highlights issues well in advance and leads efforts to develop and implement alternative actions to overcome the issues and maintain the schedule.
• Prepares and maintains Issues/Action Item database. 
• Leads the team in working through complex issues
• Maintains a system’s view of the project to identify and manage risks
• Ensure that management and stakeholders are notified of any potential schedule impacts
• Facilitate regular status meetings with both domestic and international teams.
• Ensure seamless communication with other functional areas (SW, Product Mgmt, etc.)
• Ensure that all projects are completed in a timely manner
• Coordinate testing activities with engineers and the quality department
• Ensure product performance meets engineering and product specifications
• Coordinate and manage supplier and contract manufacturing activities to deliver on project objectives.  Includes regular travel to Asia as needed (As high as 4x/yr during early phases of new product)

Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering
• A strong working knowledge of electromechanical systems, software and embedded firmware. 
• Candidate must understand the product development process, test cycles (EVT, DVT, NPI)
• Must be intimate with Product Lifecycle Management including design and implementation of an effective Phase Gate management process
• 5+ years in project management related to product development
• Strong communication skills, team-work and interpersonal skills
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to utilize various technologies and tools to effectively manage projects and provide clear and concise communications to teams and stakeholders
• Adept at Microsoft Project, MS Excel. 
• The ability to understand and apply statistical process control methods is highly desirable including Cpk’s, T-Tests, X-Bar/R charts, DOE’s, etc.

Preferred experience

• Experience working in the coffee industry
• Experience working on projects built for the food and beverage industry

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, physical or mental disability, genetic information, medical condition, veteran status, or any other class protected by local, state or federal law.