Lead Industrial Designer

Mission Outdoor; Minneapolis (MN); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

MISSION Outdoor in Eden Prairie, MN is seeking a Lead Industrial Designer to set the bar for our product range. You’ll report directly to our Chief Design Officer and shape roadmaps from lived experience to market-ready packages.

You’ll work with engineering and manufacturing partners across North America and Asia to get things built right the first time. This role emphasizes execution, with a path toward Design Director as the company scales; you’ll be evaluated on the quality of your craft and

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional product design experience in hard goods or adjacent categories.
• Proficiency with SolidWorks, Rhino, Keyshot, and Adobe Creative Suite.
• A portfolio showing shipped, real-world work is required.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Willingness and ability to travel to Asia 1–2 times a year.
• This is a full-time, on-site role based in Eden Prairie, MN.

Responsibilities

• Identify new product opportunities rooted in actual consumer pain points; not “me-too” iteration.
• Own product concepts from early sketches/mockups through 3D prototypes to production-ready specification.
• Build and maintain technical drawing packages (SolidWorks, Illustrator) to factory-communication standards.
• Travel to Asia 1–2 times a year to work directly with our factories, resolve issues on the ground, and drive samples to approval.
• Collaborate regularly with cross-functional team members throughout the PD cycle.
• Build and evaluate physical prototypes and samples against functional and structural requirements.
• Present concepts and product direction to leadership with a clear point of view through our stage gate process.
• Document key decisions and reasoning as products move through development.

Skills

communication skills

travel willingness

Tools

SolidWorks

Rhino

KeyShot

Adobe Creative Suite

Illustrator

Job description

MISSION Outdoor|Eden Prairie, MN|Full-time, On-site|Reports to Chief Design Officer

MISSION Corp., dba MISSION Outdoor ("MISSION"), is a design and technology innovation company reshaping how people experience life outdoors. We build the gear that goes out there with you and we build it to earn its place. We don't chase trends or copy others. We start with something people genuinely struggle with or wish existed, and we build the product that finally gets it right. Beautiful. Effortless to use. Built to last. That's the bar for everything that leaves our building.

We're looking for a Lead Industrial Designer to help set that bar and hit it, product after product.

The Role

You’ll report directly to our Chief Design Officer and work across MISSION's full product range. You’ll assist with building the roadmap from lived experience, your own time outdoors, what customers tell us, and problems nobody’s bothered to solve yet. The categories we're in today are simply where that pursuit has led us. Where it leads next is part of what you'll help shape.

You’ll take products from a rough consumer insight to a factory-ready package. On our most technically demanding work, you’ll partner closely with engineering through design and testing, and work directly with our manufacturing partners across North America and Asia to get things built right the first time.

This role will have real influence over the product vision but is fundamentally an execution role and will personally do the work to get products built. We’re hiring for what you can do, not what your title used to be, and you’ll be evaluated on the work itself. There’s a genuine path to Design Director as MISSION scales but it’s earned, not assumed on day one. We’d also be glad to have a Lead Industrial Designer who is exceptional at the craft and wants to stay focused there.

How We Work

MISSION's product development is a team sport, full stop. We hold one another to a high standard, not out of pressure, but because nobody here wants to be the one who lets the others down. We want different perspectives in the room early, pressure-testing every idea before it moves too far in one direction. We don't want a lone-wolf designer who disappears with an idea and reappears with a finished concept. Our culture is one of our greatest advantages, and we protect it carefully — which means we’re looking for someone who makes the people around them better.

What Success Looks Like

Product Vision. You see what could be, not just what's in front of you. You can zoom out to spot a new category or consumer pain point worth solving and zoom in to make the right call on a radius or a material today.

Speed. You know what needs to happen right now to keep a project moving, and you own it. You don't let ideas simmer in perpetuity; you make a decision, test it, and move.

Accuracy. You care, deeply, about getting it right. A missed design detail or specification isn't a small thing, it leads to a blown production schedule, tooling rework, or a customer who gets a product that doesn't work like we promised. You build for zero ambiguity.

Team. You make the work better by bringing in the right people early and often.

Responsibilities

• Identify new product opportunities rooted in actual consumer pain points; not “me-too” iteration
• Own product concepts from early sketches/mockups through 3D prototypes to production-ready specification
• Build and maintain technical drawing packages (SolidWorks, Illustrator) to MISSION's factory-communication standards — design intent, critical details, and material specifications
• Travel to Asia 1–2 times a year to work directly with our factories, resolve issues on the ground, and drive samples to approval
• Collaborate regularly with cross-functional team members throughout the PD cycle. Nothing gets developed in a vacuum.
• Build and evaluate physical prototypes and samples against functional and structural requirements, not just appearance
• Present concepts and product direction to leadership with a clear point of view throughout our stage gate process
• Document key decisions and reasoning as products move through development

Education & Experience

• 10+ years of professional product design experience in hard goods, soft goods, or adjacent categories (outdoor gear, furniture, footwear, consumer electronics, homegoods, etc.) all translate well; we value range of experience over a single-category résumé
• Proficiency with SolidWorks, Rhino, Keyshot, and Adobe Creative Suite
• Demonstrated ability to generate production-ready technical drawings and documentation
• Strong shop skills; comfortable with power tools, CNC, 3D printing, and sewing
• A portfolio showing shipped, real-world work is required
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Willingness and ability to travel to Asia 1–2 times a year
• This is a full-time, on-site role based in our Eden Prairie, MN office

About MISSION

MISSION Outdoor is a design and technology company known for confronting markets with new ideas — we build outdoor products, with boating and watersports at our roots, that make life outside genuinely better. Established in 2015 and privately held, MISSION has built its reputation on one thing — product experiences that look beautiful, work effortlessly, and keep delivering, season after season.