Head of Hardware

About Drover

Drover is building a virtual fencing ear tag for cattle, and the platform around it to run the modern ranch.

Fencing is one of the oldest unsolved problems in agriculture. Ranchers spend billions of dollars a year building and maintaining physical fences, and every fence line locks land into a grazing pattern it wasn't made for. Virtual fencing is changing that, a generational shift in how ranches are run, bringing precision and productivity gains to an industry that has to feed a growing population with fewer resources.

But every system on the market today requires a collar: bulky, infrastructure-dependent, and built around electric shock. We're taking a path the industry thought impossible. We've shrunk virtual fencing into the ear tag, the form factor every cattle producer on earth already uses. Our tag combines low-power GPS, cellular and satellite connectivity, embedded sensing, solar power, and patent-pending muscle stimulation that guides cattle directionally rather than shocking them. Ranchers tag their cattle once and immediately start running their operation from their phone.

We were founded by Callum Taylor (Harvard, EE & fifth-generation ranching family) and Samuel Aubin (USYD, CS), who both grew up in Australian ranching towns. We built a working ear tag and a patent-pending stimulation method in twelve months (five times faster than competitors), and are now scaling manufacturing to put the technology on every head of cattle in the USA, Australia, and New Zealand.

We closed an oversubscribed seed round, signed a top-tier contract manufacturer, and are on track to launch commercially in Texas in Q1 2027.

We're headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About the role

As Head of Hardware, you will lead all hardware development at Drover: taking our first-generation ear tag from design validation through production, standing up our supply chain and quality systems with our contract manufacturer, and shaping the roadmap for what comes next.

We're an early-stage startup. You'll have high ownership in what you build and the direction of future generations of our product. You'll own the device end-to-end, electronics, power, RF, mechanical integration, and the path to volume manufacturing, and work directly with the founders on scaling the hardware to cattle globally. As Drover scales, you'll build and lead the hardware engineering team.

What You'll Do

• Own Drover hardware across the company. Set the technical direction for current and future generations of the product, and hire the team to build them

• Drive manufacturing through EVT, DVT, and PVT, ensuring design maturity, test coverage, and release readiness at each gate

• Lead electrical design and review across the full system: cellular and satellite connectivity, GNSS, power management and solar harvesting, embedded sensing, and our patent-pending low-voltage muscle stimulation circuit

• Travel overseas to work hands-on with our contract manufacturer on DFM, test fixtures, yield, and production ramp for commercial launch

• Work with our liaisons to build and manage the supply chain

• Establish quality assurance and reliability testing for a device that has to survive years on a cow's ear in the sun, rain, and mud

• Drive regulatory and certification work (FCC, CE, RCM, carrier certification, battery transport and safety)

• Opportunity to work from our field offices located within an hour of Austin to prototype and review product iterations on working ranches

Requirements

• 5+ years as an electrical engineer, with at least one product taken from prototype to volume production

• 2+ years of leadership experience, and willing to hire and manage a team of engineers

• Strong PCB design skills, including schematic capture, layout review, and lab debugging

• Experience working with contract manufacturers and managing a hardware supply chain

• Solid understanding of low-power embedded systems: battery-powered devices, power budgeting, energy harvesting

• Comfortable guiding product development and product iteration cycles in a fast-paced environment

• Willing to work in-person in Austin, TX

Nice to have

• IoT, wearable, or asset-tracking products, especially rugged or outdoor devices

• RF design and test experience: cellular modems, GNSS, antenna design

• Mechanical and enclosure experience: mechanical design, injection moulding, ingress protection, environmental testing

• Firmware fluency (Zephyr, nRF Connect, or similar) and comfort reading and debugging embedded code

• Agricultural or livestock background, or a willingness to get to know our customers

Note: Even if you don't have all of the above and still think you're an excellent candidate, please reach out. We're always open to great people with core skillsets who are willing to push and learn.

Benefits

• Meaningful equity package with a high trajectory start-up

• Health, dental, vision insurance

• Paid family and medical leave

• Unlimited PTO

• Collaborative environment with emphasis on strong team culture

• Ownership and responsibility