Senior Industrial Product Design Engineer - Optical Solutions

Molex; Fremont (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 225,000; Full time

Job summary

Molex is seeking a Senior Industrial Design Engineer in Fremont, CA to define product layout, appearance, and tactile experience for optical networking hardware lines. You will blend industrial design with human-centered principles to create premium, ergonomic interfaces for dense, thermally constrained environments.

You will collaborate closely with mechanical, hardware, and cross-functional teams to ensure visual and tactile fidelity across product families and scale.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Industrial Design, Mechanical or related technical field.
• At least 5 years of Industrial Design experience.
• Experience designing mechanical interfaces with look, feel, and tactile quality.
• Expert proficiency in SolidWorks for 3D modeling, assemblies, and detailed drawings.
• Experience with manufacturing processes and finishes affecting appearance and durability.

Responsibilities

• Design and standardize UI elements with appearance/quality goals (surface texture, alignment, perceived quality).
• Specify interfaces, define force curves, detents, travel and feedback for premium feel.
• Translate concepts into manufacturable mechanical solutions while preserving visual cues.
• Produce rapid prototypes to validate ergonomic performance and tactile fidelity.
• Plan usability evaluations to measure perceived quality and clarity of interactions.
• Create mechanical and cosmetic specs including materials, finishes, tolerances, and color/marking standards.
• Collaborate with Optical, Electrical, Thermal, Firmware, and Product teams to align performance with usability and visuals.
• Work with manufacturers to preserve look-and-feel at scale.
• Support reliability testing with appearance retention and wear resistance metrics.

Skills

Industrial design

Tactile quality

Human-centered design

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in Industrial Design or Mechanical Engineering

Tools

SolidWorks

Job description

Molex is a global leader in the optical industry, renowned for delivering high-performance, field-proven wavelength management solutions. Our expertise spans components, modules, integrated line-cards, and chassis, with a strong focus on innovation, miniaturization, and manufacturing automation. Our advanced optical, mechanical, electrical, and software design capabilities support the evolving needs of high-density, high-bandwidth, and flexible optical networks across telecom, datacom, hyperscale datacenters, artificial intelligence, and supercomputing.

Our Optical Solutions team is headquartered in Fremont, CA, with design and manufacturing teams across the world. Our customers are world-wide leaders in technology and we are meeting their telecom and datacom developing next-generation optical systems for AI, cloud, and advanced optical networks

As a Senior Industrial Design Engineer, you will design, define and deliver product layout, appearance, color, tactile experience, and ease of use for Molex OSBU's optical networking hardware-line cards, optical modules, chassis systems, and other highperformance platforms. You will blend industrial design expertise, humancentered design, and functional systems thinking to deliver intuitive, visually coherent, ergonomic, mechanically reliable, and premiumfeeling interfaces for dense, thermally constrained environments.

You will define the visual language of product elements (surface finishes, color cues, iconography, fonts, weights), the tactile behavior (force profiles, detents, feedback), and the overall sensory impression. This person will work very closely with mechanical, hardware and other cross functional teams.

What You Will Do

• Design and standardize user interface elements such as handles, levers, latches, insertion/extraction mechanisms, service and bezel features with explicit appearance and quality standards goals such as consistent surface texture, visual alignment, and perceptible quality
• Specify product interface and mechanism details and define force curves, detents, travel, and feedback so interactions feel intentional, repeatable, and premium
• Translate industrial design concepts into manufacturable mechanical solutions while preserving visual cues (color accents, matte/gloss contrasts, safety markings) that guide user actions
• Produce rapid prototypes (3D print, quick-turn machined and sheet metal parts, prototype tooling) to validate ergonomic performance, functionality and visual/tactile fidelity
• Plan and run usability and sensory evaluations to measure perceived quality, ease of use, and visual clarity of interaction points
• Generate mechanical and cosmetic specifications including materials, finishes, textures, tolerances, and color/marking standards tied to acceptance criteria
• Collaborate with crossfunctional teams including Optical, Electrical, Thermal, Firmware, and Product Management to align system performance with usability, visual and tactile intent.
• Work with manufacturing and suppliers to ensure tooling, surface treatments, and assembly processes preserve lookandfeel at scale
• Support reliability and environmental testing with acceptance criteria that include appearance retention, tactile consistency after lifecycle testing, and resistance to wear
• Drive continuous improvement by analyzing field feedback on perceived quality, serviceability, and visual/tactile failure modes and implementing corrective design changes
• Document design rationale and visual branding to guide future product families
• Address customer technical issues in collaboration with application engineers, Quality, and technical support teams.

Who You Are (Basic Qualifications)

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Industrial Design, Mechanical or related technical engineering field
• At least 5 years of Industrial Design experience
• Experience designing mechanical interfaces with demonstrable attention to look, feel, and tactile quality
• Expert proficiency in SolidWorks for 3D modeling, assemblies, and detailed drawings.
• Experience of materials, surface finishes, textures, and color application as they affect quality and durability.
• Experience with manufacturing processes (sheet metal, die casting, machining, injection molding) and how they influence final appearance and feel.
• Experience defining and measuring tactile metrics (force, travel, detent) and translate them into CAD features, fixture requirements, and visual outcome.
• Experience in DFM/DFA
• Experience with tolerance stack ups, Finite element analysis FEA), and thermal management.

What Will Put You Ahead

• Background in industrial design collaboration, human factors engineering, or ergonomics with a portfolio of high-quality user interface designs.
• Experience with designing data center equipment
• Knowledge of DFM/DFA and supplier management to preserve visual and tactile intent.
• Experience with tolerance stackups, FEA, and thermal management.

For this role, we anticipate paying $170,000- $225,000 per year. This role is eligible for variable pay, issued as a monetary bonus or in another form.

At Koch companies, we are entrepreneurs. This means we openly challenge the status quo, find new ways to create value and get rewarded for our individual contributions. Any compensation range provided for a role is an estimate determined by available market data. The actual amount may be higher or lower than the range provided considering each candidate's knowledge, skills, abilities, and geographic location. If you have questions, please speak to your recruiter about the flexibility and detail of our compensation philosophy.

Hiring Philosophy

All Koch companies value diversity of thought, perspectives, aptitudes, experiences, and backgrounds. We are Military Ready and Second Chance employers. Learn more about our hiring philosophy here.

Who We Are

At Koch, employees are empowered to do what they do best to make life better. Learn how our business philosophy helps employees unleash their potential while creating value for themselves and the company.

Our Benefits

Our goal is for each employee, and their families, to live fulfilling and healthy lives. We provide essential resources and support to build and maintain physical, financial, and emotional strength - focusing on overall wellbeing so you can focus on what matters most. Our benefits plan includes - medical, dental, vision, flexible spending and health savings accounts, life insurance, ADD, disability, retirement, paid vacation/time off, educational assistance, and may also include infertility assistance, paid parental leave and adoption assistance. Specific eligibility criteria is set by the applicable Summary Plan Description, policy or guideline and benefits may vary by geographic region. If you have questions on what benefits apply to you, please speak to your recruiter.

Additionally, everyone has individual work and personal needs. We seek to enable the best work environment that helps you and the business work together to produce superior results.

Equal Opportunities

Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status. Except where prohibited by state law, some offers of employment are conditioned upon successfully passing a drug test. This employer uses E-Verify. Please click here for additional information. (For Illinois E-Verify information click here, aqui, or tu).