Project Manager, Hardware Development

Cricut® makes smart cutting machines that work with an easy-to-use app, an ever-growing collection of materials, and crafting essentials to help you design and personalize almost anything — custom cards, unique apparel, everyday items, and so much more.

Overview

We believe everyone is born creative. We’re a diverse tapestry of thinkers, dreamers, givers, DIYers, handi-workers, artisans, and forever and always architects of things.

At Cricut, we place the power of handmade into the hands of all. We give you beautiful, easy-to-master tools so you can make something unique, remarkable, perfect. We surround you with ideas, community, inspiration, and encouragement to take your creativity further than you ever imagined. And as a community, we celebrate the exhilarating act of making every single day.

So, make that handcrafted card that feels like a hug. Design a shirt for fun, for family, or for a full-blown business. Craft with a passion or for a purpose. Make something big and bold, itsy-bitsy, amazingly ambitious, or just plain silly. Whatever you make, just make your heart out. Because here’s the remarkable truth: When we all make together, we make all things possible.

Let’s make.

As a Hardware Project Manager at Cricut you will interface with all functions necessary to bring highly reliable, best in class, consumer 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 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 to select system architecture, work through issues 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.

To be successful you will be a high performer with a rare and specific skill set who will thrive in a fast-paced and demanding environment. Your ability to think critically, lead through intellect, deliver quickly, and to partner across a wide variety of functions at Cricut to drive change in a complex setting will be essential to the rollout of our offerings to the market.

tl;dr: You are responsible for organizing all the engineering resources to deliver the developed product. Period. Within the cost-targets, meeting all our requirements, etc. We are seeking someone who relishes this kind of role and really is hungry to do this.

Responsibilities

• Manage complex electro-mechanical product development projects
• Support the team and the system architect through system architecture decisions
• Work as the technical and programmatic focal point and facilitator for development activities.
• Prepares and manages real-time management of the project schedule as well.
• Collaborate with the finance team on project-based cost-accounting.
• 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.)
• Collaborate with other functional leaders on cross-platform deliverables actively ensuring different workstreams are aligned.
• 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 (at least 4x/yr)

[Dear Candidate: I have outlines the requirements for this position into Critical, Required and Preferred items. If you meet all the criteria of the first two items, please apply. If you do not meet these items, but have a valid alternate experience, please detail that in a cover-letter or comment when applying. If you do not meet these requirements, but are looking for a similar role, please feel free to apply, but please note what you are looking for in your application! - Thanks, Robert]

• 🛃 Critical Requirements: (MUST HAVE ALL THESE)
  • The ideal candidate will have a bachelor's degree in Engineering, although Mechanical Engineering strongly preferred. For initial screening, an associate's degree in a relevant field (such as electrical/mechanical technician work) or 2+ years in college toward a degree in engineering may be considered if subsequent work experience is also aligned very tightly with this role.
  • 2+ years minimum post-graduate working experience in project management related to product development.
  • Must be willing to work in our Salt Lake City (South Jordan) office Monday through Friday each week. Some Mondays or Fridays you may be able to work remotely, but this team works onsite every workday. 
  • Currently living in the United States and has the ability to work for any employer is required.

• ⭐ Required Items: (Must have provable experience with all these)
  • Candidate will have a working knowledge of software/firmware and some programming background.
  • Ability to read and understand electrical schematics and wiring diagrams.
  • Flexibility and experience working across time-zones with our international manufacturing partners (across Asia).
  • Strong communication skills, team work and interpersonal skills.
    • Ability to demonstrate situational communication skill (working with technical and non-technical end-users)
  • 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.
     
• 🌟 Preferred Items: (1+ of these is ideal)
  • A Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering is strongly preferred
  • Currently living in Salt Lake City, Utah area and able to begin work right away is strongly preferred to relocation
  • Five (5) years or more post-graduate working experience in project management related to product development
  • Experience as an engineer, tester, designer or project manager in a consumer products company or other organization where high quality standards and rigor must be developed and maintained in the production of the product
  • Any experience as an engineer, tester, designer or project manager with well-known consumer-electronic or other device manufacturer
  • Proficiency in Minitab highly desirable
  • 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

KEYWORDS #ProjectManagement #HardwareEngineering #SystemsIntegration #ProductDevelopment #CrossFunctionalLeadership #InternationalCollaboration

What to Do Next: 

To receive priority consideration for this role, please adhere to the following:

• Please attach your resume including links to your portfolio where applicable. If you want to show your super powers in other ways – include that information too!
• Please ensure your resume clearly indicates where you currently live. It is not required, but it is very helpful to us if you manually enter your city/state in the application when applying.
• If you live outside of the Salt Lake City area, clearly indicate through the screening question or in your cover letter or resume that you will immediately relocate to Salt Lake City if offered this position. 
• Including your valid LinkedIn profile URL in the application fields is also greatly appreciated!
• Candidates who currently reside outside of the United States, are not willing to immediately relocate to and work in our Salt Lake City offices 3-5 work days each week, or who are working on a visa which requires us to hire you through a 3rd party company will not be considered. 
• Candidates whose application materials clearly show the above required qualifications, location and in-office requirements as well as one or more of the preferred (good to have) skills will be given priority consideration compared to those whose application materials are difficult to read, missing information or whose answers are vague, unclear or confusing.  

You can be sure that Cricut® is an employer who values individuality, equality and diversity, so tell us what you’re all about. If you are a Maker or a DIY enthusiast, whether you think you are a good one or not, we would love to hear about it when you send us your information!

At Cricut®, we celebrate inclusion and diversity. Cricut is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions based on merit. Cricut prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual identity, gender identity, marital status, veteran status, nationality, citizenship, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, or any other unlawful consideration. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines. Cricut participates in E-Verify.

Candidates who currently reside outside of the United States, are not willing to immediately relocate to and work in our Salt Lake City (South Jordan) offices at least 3 but up to 5 work days each week (as required by each specific role), or who are working on a visa which requires us to hire you through a 3rd party company will not be considered. To prioritize those candidates who took the time to apply correctly, we reserve the right to choose not to notify or inform candidates who apply and who are outside of these criteria if they are being considered or not.