Industrial Designer

WHIPSAW; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Whipsaw Inc. in San Francisco invites an Industrial Designer with 3–6 years of professional experience to own the design direction on a range of projects, from first sketch to production-ready CAD. You’ll explain and defend ideas to clients, shaping products people actually want to live with.

This hybrid role is based in our San Francisco studio, with at least three days in person each week. Compensation ranges from $90,000 to $120,000 depending on experience, reflecting the breadth of

Qualifications

• 3–6 years designing physical products professionally.
• Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design or related field.
• Ability to explain design decisions and create compelling concepts.
• Experience with CAD and rendering to production-ready specs.
• Authorization to work in the United States.
• Strong collaboration with engineers and manufacturing teams.

Responsibilities

• Own the industrial design on projects from concept to production handoff.
• Develop and defend design directions to clients.
• Design across consumer tech, health tech, robotics, and other categories.
• Collaborate with mechanical, electrical, and software engineers; bring manufacturing into the conversation.
• Create CAD models and renderings that clearly communicate design intent.
• Prototype early and iterate; test and learn.
• Write design documentation and specs for manufacturing partners.
• Provide constructive feedback to teammates.

Skills

Industrial design

Sketching

Prototyping

Renderings

Client presentations

Design documentation

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design

Tools

SolidWorks

Rhino

KeyShot

Adobe

Job description

We’re hiring an Industrial Designer who has opinions and the work to back them up.

Whipsaw is a product design and brand studio in San Francisco. Since 1999, we’ve taken products from first insight to first customer for clients like Google, Meta, Uber, Johnson & Johnson, and Tonal. More than 1,000 products. More than 325 design awards. One team working across strategy, industrial design, digital, brand, and launch.

Our work jumps between categories. A connected home device one month, a health tech product the next, then a robot or a piece of lab equipment. Each one has different users, different constraints, and different rules about what “good” means. We want a designer who gets energy from that range instead of retreating to a comfort zone.

This role is for someone with three to six years of professional experience who’s ready to own the design direction on a project, not just execute someone else’s. You’ll take concepts from first sketch to production-ready CAD, make the case for your ideas in front of clients, and shape products people actually want to live with.

Hybrid, based in our San Francisco studio, at least three days a week in person. Compensation: $90,000-$120,000 depending on experience.

What you’ll do

We’re hiring an Industrial Designer who has opinions and the work to back them up.

Whipsaw is a product design and brand studio in San Francisco. Since 1999, we’ve taken products from first insight to first customer for clients like Google, Meta, Uber, Johnson & Johnson, and Tonal. More than 1,000 products. More than 325 design awards. One team working across strategy, industrial design, digital, brand, and launch.

Our work jumps between categories. A connected home device one month, a health tech product the next, then a robot or a piece of lab equipment. Each one has different users, different constraints, and different rules about what “good” means. We want a designer who gets energy from that range instead of retreating to a comfort zone.

This role is for someone with three to six years of professional experience who’s ready to own the design direction on a project, not just execute someone else’s. You’ll take concepts from first sketch to production-ready CAD, make the case for your ideas in front of clients, and shape products people actually want to live with.

Hybrid, based in our San Francisco studio, at least three days a week in person. Compensation: $90,000-$120,000 depending on experience.

What you’ll do

• Own the industrial design on your projects, from research and early concepts through refinement and production handoff.
• Push past the obvious answer to the brief and bring clients a direction they didn’t know to ask for.
• Design across consumer tech, health tech, robotics, and other categories, learning each one’s users and constraints fast.
• Work side by side with mechanical, electrical, and software engineers, and bring manufacturing into the conversation before the form is locked.
• Shape how a product communicates through form, material, light, and detail, so people understand it before they ever open a manual.
• Present your work to clients and explain the reasoning behind it. Sometimes that means telling them why the safe option is the wrong one.
• Build CAD models and renderings that make your design intent impossible to misread.
• Prototype early and often. Print it, hold it, break it, and fold what you learn into the next round.
• Write design documentation and specs our manufacturing partners can actually build from.
• Give sharp feedback to the designers around you, and take it just as well.
  

What you’ll bring

• Three to six years designing physical products professionally, at a consultancy or in-house.
• A bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design or a related field.
• A point of view. You know what good looks like and you can explain why.
• Sketching that gets ideas across fast and renderings that sell them.
• Fluency in SolidWorks, Rhino, KeyShot, Adobe, or equivalents.
• Hands-on prototyping experience.
• Real curiosity about materials, manufacturing, and engineering, and the confidence to hold your own in a technical review.
• The ability to run your own workstream across more than one project without daily check-ins.
• Authorization to work in the United States.

Nice to have

• Shipped work in more than one industry.
• Experience with medical, lab, or other regulated products.
• Experience with robotics, wearables, or other dense electromechanical products.
• Strong CMF sense and a feel for how finish and material change the way a product is perceived.
• Experience designing the physical form and behavior of AI-enabled devices.