Principal Engineer and Product Lead (hardware-focused)

Job Description

Job Description

About Workshop Venture Partners

Workshop Venture Partners is a venture studio that partners with founders to build startups in climate and education. Led by Chad and Eleanor Laurans, co-founders of SimpliSafe, our team of entrepreneurs, engineers, and strategists leverage deep industry and customer insights to identify urgent, unsolved problems and support founders in developing breakthrough innovations.

The Opportunity

We're seeking an exceptional Principal Engineer and Product Leader to join our core team and play a pivotal role in our venture builds.

This is a unique opportunity to shape both the technical and product direction of multiple startups from inception, working alongside experienced entrepreneurs and investors.

About You

You are a true polymath who loves to do it all. You are driven to deeply understand customers and their needs, translate that into the why of a product or service, build multiple throw-away prototypes, and turn the best into a compelling MVP.

Having built products from the ground up, you enjoy the fast pace of the earliest stages of company building and collaborating with small, but nimble teams.

You spike in Hardware / Firmware development and have built successful hardware products in your day job, while nights and weekends you build web and mobile apps and try out the latest AI because it’s fun.

Key Responsibilities

Serve as the primary technical and product leader for new venture builds, providing hands-on leadership for the crucial first 1-2 years

Be deeply hands-on : writing code, designing user experiences, and building core systems yourself in the early stages of each venture;

hiring, managing, and collaborating with growing product and engineering teams in the later stages

Work closely with founders and designers to rapidly prototype, iterate, and scale new products based on customer insights

As the product matures, architect and implement scalable, production-ready systems across the full stack while also driving product strategy and user experience design

Recruit, mentor, and guide early engineering and product teams as they grow, helping to establish best practices and a customer-centric culture

Contribute to technical and product due diligence and opportunity evaluation for potential new ventures

Collaborate with Workshop partners to shape overall technical and product strategy and innovation

Qualifications

8+ years of combined software engineering and product management experience, with a track record of leadership in fast-paced, zero-to-one environments

Exceptional Hardware / Firmware development skills and product design capabilities, with deep expertise in at least one area (e.

g., EE, FW, AI / ML, UX design)

Demonstrated ability to quickly learn and adapt to new technologies, domains, and customer needs

Strong product vision and experience translating customer needs into compelling product experiences

Comfortable with ambiguity and able to make pragmatic technical and product decisions in the face of uncertainty

Entrepreneurial mindset with a passion for creating innovative solutions to complex problems and strong bias toward optimism

Excellent communication skills, able to explain complex technical and product concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences

Alignment with Workshop's values :

Co-founder mentality : Bring the perspective of having done this before, and be a "doer" that rolls up your sleeves to partner alongside founders

Tailored support : Provide full attention and resources to each founding team

Founder-first approach : Support and accelerate the founder's long-term leadership and journey

Ideal Candidates May Have

Experience as a technical co-founder or early engineer / product leader at successful startups

Background in rapid prototyping, product discovery methodologies, and user research

Expertise in relevant domains such as EdTech, Climate Tech, or AI / ML

Track record of open source contributions or side projects demonstrating technical and product breadth

Our Tech Stack

While you'll have the opportunity to shape the technology choices for each new venture, here's an overview of the stack we typically use :

Hardware : depends on use case (ie, bare metal, RTOS, embedded Linux); starting with existing purchased hardware for prototyping wherever possible

Frontend : React with TypeScript

Mobile : React Native with TypeScript

Backend : Node.js with TypeScript; Python for ML features

Databases : MongoDB, Postgres

Cloud : AWS (ECS or EKS for Docker containers, Amplify for static web app deployment)

CI / CD : GitHub Actions

Testing : Jest & Playwright for Unit, Integration & E2E Tests

Development : NX for monorepo management

Design : Figma, Miro, Canva

We're always open to leveraging new technologies that best fit the needs of each venture.

Compensation

Compensation is weighted towards sharing in the upside of the Workshop portfolio with significant carry in the fund. Base cash compensation commensurate with candidate experience.

We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and experiences.