VotingWorks is the only non-profit vendor of voting equipment in the United States. Our mission is to build election technology everyone can trust. We're a small team working passionately to build a great product that is transparent, simple, and demonstrably secure. We've made a lot of progress in a short period of time, in a space that is particularly challenging.

We have a very strong software team, and it's time for us to build an equally strong hardware team.

We're hiring a head of hardware who will report into the Executive Director. The Head of Hardware will oversee all of our hardware work, internal and external. We’re looking for someone who is excited to work collaboratively with elections, software, and security experts, and to build on top of the work we've done. We want to use COTS components wherever we can, but we know that can't be a hard-and-fast rule. We publish all of our source code, and we want to publish all of our work, including engineering drawings, CAD models, etc. for the world to see.

The ideal hardware leader for VotingWorks will provide a combination of leadership plus in-the-weeds-whenever-needed. We're a small org and will need that flexibility for a long time. We’re not building a larger internal hardware team just yet.

Responsibilities

• Overseeing all hardware product development, including new product concept design, development, manufacturing, and implementation.
• Overseeing current relationships and work with external design firm and hardware partners.
• Identifying and overseeing contract manufacturers as necessary.
• Overseeing functional testing related to certification of hardware and managing the resolution of any identified issues.
• Mentoring other members of the VotingWorks hardware team when it is built out.
• Teaching the VotingWorks team how to think about hardware.
• Building a long-term hardware strategy.

Experience, Skills, Qualities

• 5+ years working experience in mechanical engineering and manufacturing.
• Have supported multiple hardware product launches, from inception to launch, and also post-launch support.
• familiarity with 2D and 3D engineering design and manufacturing tools (e.g. SolidWorks, and other tools your team uses, etc).
• able to communicate technical knowledge in a clear and understandable manner.
• Relishes resolving hardware issues as they come up.
• extremely collaborative and enjoys working as part of a small, scrappy multi-disciplinary team.
• pragmatic, and enjoys the creative challenge of creating a robust, low cost system leveraging COTS components where appropriate.
• excited to lean into the open-source mindset. (We publish all of our source code, and we want to publish all of our work, including engineering drawings, CAD models, etc. for the world to see.)

Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity

VotingWorks is deeply committed to building a diverse team and an inclusive work environment. We aim to build a voting system that earns American’s trust, and so we must build a team that represents all Americans. We believe that a team with a diversity of life experiences and points of view is a much better team than one where “culture fit” really means “everyone is the same.” And we know that all of this is a lot easier said than done. We strive in our application process to look for proven skills and real-world experience. We rely less on which diploma you received and from which school you went to. Our interview process is built on rubrics and a scoring process we define ahead of time, so as to reduce the chance that our biases will get in the way. Finally, we welcome feedback, at all times, about anything in our recruiting process that puts you at a disadvantage for reasons unrelated to the work that needs to get done.