Head of Innovation Engineering

Description

Whisker is the maker of Litter-Robot, Feeder-Robot, and Litterbox.com. At Whisker, we believe pet parenthood can always get better.

As leading innovators in pet tech and refined pet accessories, we work tirelessly to solve problems and deliver smarter insights for pet parents while enriching the lives of pets. Whether it’s a self-cleaning litter box that automates scooping, an automatic feeder that helps pets develop healthier eating habits, or a modern cat tree that delights both humans and felines, we strive to deliver better solutions for consumers while transforming pet care along the way. To us, having a pet is the best thing ever. At Whisker, life together just keeps getting better.

Whisker is based in Auburn Hills, Michigan and Juneau, Wisconsin with 500+ passionate team members.

What You’ll Do:

We are seeking a highly experienced and forward-thinking Head of Innovation Engineering to lead our dynamic team in delivering next generation technology solutions for our pet care solutions. The Head of Innovation will lead the development and management of our key component technologies around connected devices, the growth and management of our evolving team, building a long term component roadmap, and product ideation and management to ensure we’re delivering great products for our customers around the globe! The ideal Head of Innovation Engineering will have a strong background in hardware engineering, a passion for innovation, strong visionary views and proven leadership skills to manage a diverse team, composed of internal engineers and outsourced services. This role will report directly to the Senior Vice President of Engineering and Product. 

Summary:

The Head of Innovation Engineering leads the development of connected pet care technologies, manages a growing team, and drives product ideation and long-term roadmaps. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

This list of duties and responsibilities is not all-inclusive and may be expanded to include other duties and responsibilities as deemed necessary.

• Engineering Vision: The Head of Innovation Engineering is a technological visionary that builds and owns the vision for Whisker’s technology roadmap. You balance short-term projects already in development with long-term technical needs, technology funnels into products, and concepts we need to explore as part of a holistic experience for our pet parents. 
• Spirit of Innovation:  Working together with our founder and Chief Inventor Brad Baxter, the Head of Innovation Engineering is a trusted partner and looks for the next set of concepts and systems to secure our IP and technical future.
• Cross-Discipline: The Head of Innovation Engineering fully understands how electrical, mechanical, software and embedded teams work together to mesh our robot and digital deliverables for an exceptional customer experience for the future. 
• Software: The Head of Innovation Engineering helps to advance our software capabilities into sensor fusion, machine learning, pet recognition, IoT connectivity and in-app experience.  This role works closely with our software and embedded architecture ensuring we are building a holistic experience for our future products.
• Sensor Technologies:  The Head of Innovation Engineering drives team level investigations, research and development of needed technologies for our future products and experiences.  This requires developing the hardware, embedded and software experience for understanding how to intersect product roadmap exercises.
• Team Development: The Head of Innovation Engineering helps to recruit, grow, and inspire our advanced technology team. Currently the team is small, with larger ambitions for the future. The leader is responsible for developing team skills and mentoring our junior engineers to deliver amazing technologies.
• Concepting: The Head of Innovation Engineering is able to drive new ideas in products and rapid prototyping for first level viability against ideas.  This is done at a standalone system, integrated system or full device level.  It is key to look multiple years into the future of pet care.
• Execution excellence:  The Head of Innovation Engineering has a track record of delivering multiple products at the same time without significant structure. Getting from Zero to 1 in key areas will be paramount for our long term success.  All of this ensures timely delivery of high quality technology solutions within budget constraints.
• Metric Driven:  The Head of Innovation Engineering enables, tracks and