Google looking to hire a Vice President of Hardware Engineering for Wearables

With the Pixel Buds in 2017 and the rumored Pixel Watch, Google is clearly interested in the wearables space. Google is now looking to hire a Vice President of Hardware Engineering for Wearables with extensive industry credentials.

Posted two days ago (via Android Police), the Google Careers listing notes that the job entails being “responsible for the design, development, and shipment of all Google’s Wearable products.”

You will lead and enable the effectiveness of a large engineering organization primarily based in Mountain View to develop multiple next-generation wearable products simultaneously.

The Wearables team is housed within the broader Hardware group and involves working “collaboratively with the Senior Leadership team for Google Hardware,” like Rick Osterloh. Given the high position, Google is looking for somebody with at least 15 years of experience in “developing consumer electronic products.” Manufacturing experience of 12 years — both with contract and in-house — is also a minimum requirement.

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 15 years of experience in developing consumer electronic products.
• 12 years of experience designing and producing electronic devices using both contract manufacturers and owned manufacturing.
• Experience in hardware engineering.

Preferred qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Mechanical or Electrical engineering.
• Experience delivering products that ship in the hundreds of millions of units.
• Understanding of doing business in all major countries around the globe.
• Ability to initiate and drive multiple successful improvement initiatives inside the organization as well as the broader enterprise – particularly with engineering and product groups.

The position is based in Mountain View, and comes amid rumors that Google is developing a first-party Wear OS device. Meanwhile, the Wear OS division just acquired a team from Fossil and an unspecified technology, while Google of course has talent from HTC’s hardware division.

Google also has a handful of other related listings, including a “Wearables Design Manager” and “Test Engineer” that’s more closely aligned with audio products.