Physical Product Design Lead

3 positions | Full time | Delhi | On site
Job description
We make physical things.
Things you hold, open, close, twist, squeeze, apply, dispense and occasionally wonder why nobody designed better in the first place.
Neural Hinge is looking for three Physical Product Designers to join us in Delhi.
We work on applicators, dispensing systems, packaging, mechanisms and physical product experiences, mostly across beauty, skincare, personal care, healthcare and adjacent categories.
And quite often, on things that don't have a convenient category yet.
What you will actually do
You will take problems, observations and half formed ideas and give them physical form.
Sometimes there will be a proper brief.
Sometimes there will be a reference product and a conversation.
Sometimes someone will put three unrelated objects on the table and ask:
“What if these had a child?”
You will sketch.
You will think in three dimensions.
You will explore form, proportion, interaction, material, movement and detail.
You will draw.
You will render.
You will prototype.
You will work alongside people figuring out mechanisms, materials, manufacturing and IP.
And you will watch some very good looking ideas die because they don't work.
Then make better ones.
That last bit is critical.
At Neural Hinge, a design eventually has to leave the screen.
Someone has to hold it.
Use it.
Manufacture it.
Buy it.
And preferably want to pick it up again.
What we are looking for
Experience is genuinely no bar.
You could have spent 12 years designing products.
You could have spent two.
You could still be in college and be unusually good.
Your education matters. Your portfolio matters. Your software skills matter.
But we are interested in something underneath all of those.
Can you see?
Can you notice something other people walk past?
Can you look at an ordinary object and wonder why it is shaped that way?
Can you tell when a proportion is slightly wrong before you can quite explain why?
Can you take an unclear problem and find several possible physical answers rather than waiting for somebody to tell you what to draw?
Can you move between imagination and reality without becoming too precious about either?
That is much closer to what we are looking for.
Three things matter a lot here
Intelligence. Determination. Integrity.
Intelligence, for us, includes curiosity, observation, judgement and the ability to make connections between things that don't obviously belong together.
Determination means you can stay with an idea after version three wasn't nearly as brilliant as it looked in your head.
Integrity means we can trust your work, your word and your contribution.
We can teach categories.
We can teach processes.
We can teach you a surprising amount about applicators, dispensing systems, plastics, elastomers, manufacturing and why a 0.3 mm change can occasionally ruin everybody's afternoon.
Curiosity is considerably harder to install.
A little about Neural Hinge
We are an independent innovation company based in Delhi and working globally with brands and manufacturers.
Our world sits somewhere between design, invention, physical product development, manufacturing and intellectual property.
We spend a slightly unreasonable amount of time thinking about how products interact with people.
How something feels in the hand.
How it opens.
How it dispenses.
How it applies.
How much control it gives you.
What happens when material, mechanism and form start affecting each other.
And whether changing one tiny thing can make the whole experience better.
You do not need to arrive knowing the beauty industry.
In fact, we are interested in people coming from industrial design, consumer products, automotive, appliances, furniture, toys, medical devices, footwear, consumer electronics and places we haven't thought of.
Good ideas are promiscuous. They travel between industries surprisingly well.
Before you apply
Please send us your CV and portfolio.
But don't make the portfolio beautiful for our benefit.
We would rather understand how you think.
Show us the sketches before the render.
Show us alternatives you killed.
Show us something that failed.
Show us the ugly prototype.
Show us the idea you still love even though nobody else did.
And if there is one physical thing you have designed, made, modified or figured out that you are unusually proud of, make sure we can find it.
Tell us what the problem was.
Tell us what you actually did.
Tell us what changed between the first idea and the final one.
We are considerably more interested in the journey between those two points than another perfectly lit render on a white background.
Location: Delhi
Role: Full time, on site
Positions: 3
If reading this made you think, this sounds like fun, we should probably talk.

Work arrangement
No