Founding Hardware Engineer

Wendz is looking for its first hardware person. Not a hire. A founding team member.

We build automated retail — machines that sell without a shopkeeper standing behind them. Vending, but the version that actually works in India: dust, humidity, power cuts, patchy 4G, and customers who will absolutely shake the unit if their pack gets stuck.

The software is coming along. SmartNode, our sensor and telemetry layer, is in build. What we don't have is one person who owns the metal, the boards, and everything in between — a machine that runs for two years in a corridor without anyone having to think about it.

What you'd own

• The machine. Mechanical design, dispensing mechanism, enclosure, thermals, serviceability.
• The electronics. Boards, firmware, sensors, connectivity, OTA. The SmartNode stack, end to end.
• The supply chain. Vendors, tooling, BOM cost, quality gates. In India, at real volumes, at a price that survives a P&L.
• Field reality. Failure rates, service intervals, the ugly stuff nobody puts in a deck.

You won't have a team on day one. You'll have a bench, a budget, a co-founder who understands the numbers cold, and full authority over your domain.

Who this is for

• You've shipped physical product. Not a prototype that demoed well — units in the world, with a serial number and a warranty.
• Embedded and mechatronics. Comfortable across firmware, PCB and a CAD file, even if one is stronger than the others.
• You've argued with a vendor in Peenya and won.
• You think in cost per unit, not just spec sheets.
• 4–10 years of doing this. Degree optional. Portfolio not optional.

Who this isn't for

Anyone who needs a defined roadmap, a manager, or certainty. This is early. Some of what you build will be thrown away. If that sentence bothers you, we'll both be miserable.

Terms

• Bengaluru. On-site. The machines are here and you'll have your hands on them.
• Cash plus meaningful equity. Founding-level, vested, discussed honestly and early. If you're optimising purely for salary, this isn't the seat.

How to apply

Skip the cover letter. Send one thing you built, what broke, and what you did about it — to [email protected].

— Umesh Pareek, Co-founder, Wendz