Industrial Designer

Varjo is a Finnish mixed and virtual reality technology company. We are known for mixed reality that looks and feels just as real as the real world. Founded in 2016, Varjo is doing business in more than 40 countries worldwide, with headquarters in Helsinki and Washington D.C. And the immersive computing revolution has only just begun.

Our team designs and develops hardware, software, and services that are now a symbol of the highest quality across the industry. Varjo’s VR and XR solutions are already being used to train astronauts, design vehicles, and many more professional use cases across the world’s leading companies.

Our multicultural team consists of talents from all around the world, and our daily working language is English. We believe in the power of diversity – where different experiences, backgrounds, and ideas drive innovation and results.

Job description

As our Industrial Designer, you will work with Varjo mixed reality headsets and accessory products. Our products are wearable devices, and your task is to create and explore solutions that meet the high standards for ergonomics, wearing comfort, and optical fidelity while seeking design solutions that fit together with the technical complexity embedded in the product. You will have an essential role in defining how the highest end of wearable computing looks and feels to use for our global customer base.

You’ll join our Design and Research team, where you will work together with our industrial designers, UX and UI designers, and design researchers. You will also work closely with other Varjo teams in hardware engineering, product management, sourcing, and marketing to frequently review and iterate your designs and ensure alignment on product plans and targets between teams.

You are comfortable in visualizing and building your concepts in different fidelity prototypes including physical hand-built mockups and 3D printed prototypes. You are familiar with the essential materials and manufacturing processes for mass-producible hardware, including injection-molded plastics, metals, and soft goods. As part of your role, you work with our engineering teams in incorporating the product requirements into an esthetic and usable product design. Your work covers the whole product creation process from concept to mass production, where your deliverables include industrial design specifications in manufacturing-ready CAD format, CMF specifications, and various other visual materials ranging from product renderings to animations.

What you’ll be doing

• Explore user benefits, usage contexts, ergonomics, form factors and CMF, and create appealing and brand-elevating designs for Varjo products from idea to production.
• Prototype your designs early and often, and present your ideas through visualizations, mock-ups, and functional prototypes, gather feedback, and iterate the design further.
• Work together with our team of researchers and designers to test and evaluate the product design for ergonomics and usability.
• Work together with our mechanical and hardware engineers to make sure the product can be implemented with mass production methods.
• Deliver manufacturing-ready 3D CAD and CMF specifications and collaborate with manufacturing partners and suppliers in realizing the designs according to the specifications and to the last detail.
• Create product renders and technical drawings for user documentation, marketing, and other external communication materials.
• Work and deliver timely on set targets and product program schedules.
• Champion design thinking at your daily work and drive excellence in physical user experience of our product portfolio.

Our expectations

• Around 3 years of relevant work experience, ideally including at least one full product design cycle from concept to mass production.
• Experience of designing for electronics hardware and understanding of the characteristics of design work when working with complex, miniature-scale products.
• Skills and interest in hands-on crafting, prototyping, and experimentations to test and finetune your designs using variety of tools, including hand-built mockups and 3D printing.
• Skills in software and tools that are used at our team, or willingness to learn on the job: 3D modeling: Rhinoceros, Siemens NX; Visualization tools: Keyshot; 2D design: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop; AI sketching: Vizcom
• User-centric mindset for testing and iterating your designs through customer research and validations with end users.
• Curiousness for problem-solving with analytical approach.
• Good verbal and visual communication skills, and fluent language skills in English.
• Bachelor or Master’s degree in industrial design or equivalent.

This is a hands-on role in our Helsinki-based Design and Research team. Because you’ll be working with physical devices and prototypes, the work will be performed mostly on-site at our headquarters in Kaisaniemi. Our team works in a hybrid mode, and some parts of the work may be possible to be done remotely. Full remote work is not possible in this role.

By joining us, you’ll get

• Opportunity to take part in creating the new state-of-the-art in virtual and mixed reality experiences.
• A low-hierarchy culture with minimal bureaucracy and maximum opportunity for you to take charge of your work.
• An international working environment with tons of opportunities to learn and grow with the company.

Ready to jump into the exciting world of VR/XR? Apply now. Please include your CV, portfolio, and a cover letter to let us know why you are interested in this position.

Interview timeline: We will all be on holidays in July. Once we are back, we expect to start interviews from the beginning of August.