Hardware Product Engineering Director

Nex is on a mission to help families rediscover the joy of movement. Created by parents for parents, Nex combines technology and play to deliver fun, social, and interactive experiences powered by natural body motion, encouraging kids and adults to move more, play more, and have fun together. Nex Playground, the company’s award-winning active play system, is purpose-built to get families moving year-round, with safety and privacy as core considerations in its intentional design. It is certified kidSAFE+ COPPA compliant and built to support healthy, active play for all ages and abilities.

Nex Playground features a growing library of 50+ experiences, including motion and dance games, fitness and educational experiences, and Nex Originals. Content includes collaborations with partners like Hasbro, Sesame Workshop, and NBCUniversal. Nex has been recognized by Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, TIME’s Best Inventions, and Parents’ Best Entertainment System for Families, and has earned Red Dot, IDEA, and Core77 international design awards. We encourage you to explore Have Fun and Is Motion Gaming Back?, as they offer a deeper look into our culture, values, and explain how our approach to motion gaming differs from previous generations.

Important Notice: ⚠️ To protect yourself from recruitment scams, please note that Nex communicates through official company emails ending in @nex.inc. If you receive a suspicious email or message, please do not respond and report it immediately to us.

Location: Hong Kong 
Type: Full Time

The Role

As Director / Senior Director of Hardware Product Engineering, you will shape the hardware that puts a new category of active play into living rooms worldwide. You will own the end‑to‑end success of Nex Playground and its next generation — from early concept with Product Design through global‑scale manufacturing across a diversified supply chain. You will build and lead a hardware product engineering organization, guide the product's technical evolution, and drive the quality and innovation that families trust every day — at a company that's scaling very fast.

The Mindset

First‑principles, customer‑obsessed, decisive. Perseveres to the highest standards and challenges assumptions. Resilient through setbacks, coachable at every level. Grows engineers into owners and leaders. Empathetic, leads with trust, gives tough feedback, builds a culture of accountability. Executes with discipline, using data and experimentation to deliver uncompromising, high‑quality consumer products at scale.

Success Looks Like

Next‑gen hardware launched and ramping to millions of units across a diversified global supply chain — from US living rooms to EU and beyond. A team full of strong leaders who execute without heroics. ODM/JDM partnerships that deliver reliably while in‑house capability grows. The hardware families reach for every day — reliable, safe, and constantly evolving.

Key Responsibilities

Organization & Leadership

• Build a high‑performing Hardware Product Engineering organization — grow engineers into owners and develop strong leaders
• Partner across Software, Manufacturing, Sourcing, and Commercial to enable high‑volume production and global market access
• Deliver results through ODM/JDM models while building strategic in‑house capabilities

Product & Technology

• Single accountable owner of the core living‑room hardware product
• Partner with Product Design from early concept to translate customer needs into feasible, scalable hardware
• Drive hardware innovation, R&D, architecture, and key technology decisions

Delivery, Quality & Compliance

• Own the product across its full lifecycle — deliver on scope, timing, performance, reliability, and manufacturability
• Drive regulatory compliance, localization, and support supply chain diversification to fast-track international expansion
• Lead field issue investigation, root‑cause analysis, and corrective actions to continuously improve quality and safety

Must Have

• Significant experience delivering smart consumer electronics at scale
• Strong background in embedded systems and hardware‑software integration
• Experience leading engineering teams in high‑growth environments with product design, manufacturing, and sourcing partners
• Proven experience with ODM/JDM partnerships
• Strong working proficiency in spoken English and Mandarin (fluency strongly preferred)

Nice to Have

• Experience with TV‑connected, gaming, or home entertainment hardware platforms
• Experience with Android‑based consumer devices
• Experience with camera systems
• Experience building products for kids or families

We Offer

• Competitive compensation package.
• Flexible working hours and vacation policy.
• Product-driven culture that treasures talents and individual growth.
• Front-row seat and hands-on experience with cutting edge technologies in the evolving gaming field

Nex is located in San Jose, California, USA and Hong Kong. Learn more about us at https://www.nexplayground.com/about. 

We encourage applications even if you don’t meet more than 50% of the requirements — we believe that experience comes in many forms!

Nex is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. This policy applies to all individuals at every stage of the employment relationship, including all current and prospective employees, and covers all employment decisions including recruitment, hiring, job assignment, promotion, compensation, benefits, training, discipline and termination.

We are committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment and to fostering an inclusive environment for all employees.