Freelance Industrial Designer

We're hiring: Industrial Designer at TRACE
TRACE is a UK startup building a purist running watch. The brand direction is set. The product isn't. That's what I'm hiring for.
We need someone who can take a rough direction from me and turn it into a real hardware product. Sketches, materials, CAD, samples, manufacturer. End to end.
What you own
Design authorship. Propose the case, dial, motion, bezel, crown, and finish from a blank page. I give direction, you build.
Material selection. Steel grades, sapphire, seals, coatings, tolerances. You know why each choice matters and what it costs.
CAD ownership. Sketches through to production-ready files.
Manufacturer sourcing. Find the case partner, run the technical back-and-forth, get us to a physical sample.
First sample in hand.
Ongoing: Mark II, straps, packaging, retail objects.
Who you are
Final year or Masters in Industrial Design, Product Design, or Materials Engineering. You've turned an idea into a physical thing before, not just a render. You've held sample parts, argued with a factory, watched a spec become a defect and figured out why.
Fluent in Rhino, Fusion, or Solidworks. Comfortable talking to metallurgists, watchmakers, and CNC operators. You sketch faster than you CAD. You care about proportion, weight, and finish more than software.
Bonus: you have a network of software or embedded students who can build the firmware side.
You're not looking for a paid internship. You're looking for the piece of work that becomes your career.
The deal
Founding equity role. Not a paid position. You get meaningful ownership in the company, direct credit on the product, and full authorship of your work. When we raise, we revisit.
We move fast. Ship first, polish later.
To apply
Send:
Your portfolio (physical work only, with printed renders on paper) and a note on where you're going, not where you've been.
A short note on why you applied for a startup, equity-only role.
One material choice you'd defend to the death.
Email: seif@r-i-s-k.info
Subject: TRACE / Industrial Designer / your name
*If your work is right, we'll talk within a week.

Work arrangement
Yes