Founding Hardware Engineer

$12,000 USD per month, plus 1.5% to 3% equity
The equity range depends on experience
About Bellhop
Bellhop is building screenless, voice-first AI hardware designed for older adults. We are an early-stage startup founded by two Stanford alumni. Our investors and advisors include current employees of Apple, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Waymo.
There are about 25 million Americans 75 and older, and this group is growing about 10X faster than the general population. Most technology isn't designed for them. Bellhop is.
The role
We're hiring our first hardware engineer. You will own hardware end-to-end, from early prototypes through manufacturing.
You like building things. You'll take products apart, solder prototypes, build test rigs and figure out why things don't work.
Some weeks you'll be designing electronics. Other weeks you may be modifying a 3D-printed enclosure, debugging audio noise or building five prototypes by hand.
You should be comfortable taking an idea from:
rough concept → bench prototype → integrated prototype → manufacturable product
What you'll work on
• Electronic architecture and component selection
• PCB design and board bring-up
• Microphones, speakers and audio electronics
• Buttons, sensors, LEDs and other physical interfaces
• Power systems
• Embedded hardware
• Prototype assembly and debugging
• Wiring and internal mechanical integration
• Rapid prototyping and 3D printing
• Test fixtures and validation
• DFM and manufacturing
• Working directly with industrial designers and suppliers
Who you'll work with
You'll work directly with our two co-founders, our industrial designer and our suppliers. You'll partner with our CTO on firmware and embedded software.
You'll work remotely, so you'll need space at home to build and test hardware. We'll cover your lab equipment and prototyping costs. Expect occasional travel to meet the team and work with suppliers.
Your first 90 days
Our first units ship to customers in Q1 2027. You'll be at the center of getting them out the door.
1. Get up to speed on our current prototype and help lock the enclosure design.
2. Finalize the parts list and order components, with overseas parts ordered well ahead of Chinese New Year.
3. Prepare the device for FCC testing and work with the test lab.
4. Build, assemble and test our first units with the team.
This first run is a small, hand-assembled build. After that, you'll help us choose a contract manufacturer and design the product for production. As we grow, you'll have the chance to build and lead our hardware team.
We're looking for someone who
• Has 4+ years of hands-on hardware/product-development experience
• Is comfortable with soldering, oscilloscopes, multimeters and lab equipment
• Has personally brought PCBs to life
• Can debug problems without waiting for another team
• Enjoys rapidly building and modifying prototypes
• Can operate across disciplines rather than staying inside a narrow specialty
• Writes and speaks clear English
• Is authorized to work in the US
• Wants significant ownership in an early-stage company
Experience with consumer electronics, embedded systems, audio products, robotics, IoT or electromechanical products is particularly relevant. So is experience with procurement and sourcing from overseas suppliers, FCC testing and small-batch production.
Experience at a large company is welcome, but we're especially interested in people who have built complete things themselves.
Bellhop Labs is an equal opportunity employer.

Work arrangement
Yes