Senior Director, Technology Development

Job description

Our mission at Oura is to empower every person to own their inner potential. Our award-winning products help our global community gain a deeper knowledge of their readiness, activity, and sleep quality by using their Oura Ring and its connected app. We've helped millions of people understand and improve their health by providing daily insights and practical steps to inspire healthy lifestyles. Empowering the world starts with living our values and empowering our team. As a quickly growing company focused on helping people live healthier and happier lives, we ensure that our team members have what they need to do their best work — both in and out of the office. Oura is seeking a Senior Director, Technology Development to lead the manufacturing technology roadmap for the next generation of Oura products. This leader will connect Product Design, Industrial Design, Hardware Engineering, Materials, Quality, Sourcing, Operations, suppliers, and contract manufacturers to turn emerging technologies into scalable, repeatable production capabilities. The role will build a technology development model that engages early in product definition, strengthens design for manufacturability, and creates reusable process platforms across programs. The initial focus areas are battery technology, zirconia and other brittle materials, PVD coatings, molding and encapsulation, and manufacturing automation. This is a hands-on executive role requiring strategic leadership, deep technical judgment, supplier and factory engagement, and the ability to move technologies from concept through production. What you will do • Own a multi-year roadmap for battery manufacturing, zirconia/brittle materials, PVD, molding/encapsulation, automation, and adjacent capabilities. • Build and lead a multidisciplinary team of senior engineers, technology developers, and subject-matter experts. • Establish reusable “golden processes” and technology platforms that improve yield, reliability, cost, cycle time, capacity, and launch speed across products. • Partner early with design and engineering teams to influence architecture, materials, tolerances, specifications, and process choices. • Create a disciplined development funnel from opportunity identification and experimentation through qualification, early validation, NPI, and ramp. • Lead supplier and contract manufacturer engagement, including process development, equipment selection, qualification, capability improvement, and scale-up. • Set technical readiness standards, maintain roadmaps and risk registers, and communicate clear investment recommendations to leadership. • Identify and protect proprietary manufacturing methods, process know-how, and other intellectual property. Technology focus areas • Partner with battery, PD, electrical, quality, and supplier teams on cell architecture, energy density, safety, dimensions, tolerances, manufacturability and reliability. • Qualify new cell technologies, materials, suppliers, assembly methods, and automation, with robust controls for critical-to-quality characteristics. • Lead development of brittle material, forming, machining, sintering, finishing, inspection, and handling capabilities. • Improve yield, durability, cosmetics, and cost while establishing material specifications, process windows, failure-mode understanding, and qualification methods. • Drive DFM and design-for-process reviews with design teams, suppliers, and contract manufacturers. • Advance PVD capabilities for functional and cosmetic requirements, including cleaning, pretreatment, buffer layers, masking, color control, adhesion, wear, corrosion, and rework. • Partner with ID CMF and PD to balance appearance, durability, capability, and cost.\ • Own the roadmap for injection molding, epoxy molding, encapsulation, sealing, tooling, and dispensing. • Improve process windows, tooling, materials, equipment, and controls to deliver high yield, water-tightness, dimensional stability, and cosmetic quality. • Reduce defects including leakage, voids, incomplete fill, component damage, contamination, and cosmetic fallout. • Develop next gen molding processes and tooling to achieve the minimization, efficient encapsulation, high yield and faster turnaround. • Define the right level of automation across assembly, battery processing, molding, inspection, testing, kitting, and material handling—balancing quality, speed, flexibility, capital, and risk. • Lead automation from concept through equipment specification, supplier selection, buyoff, installation, qualification, ramp, and sustaining. • Advance robotics, machine vision, AOI, error-proofing, digital work instructions, process monitoring, and automated data capture. What success looks like • A clear, funded roadmap aligned with product and manufacturing strategy. • Earlier, stronger technology and DFM input into product architecture. • Reusable process platforms that reduce launch risk, development time, and reinvention. • Improved capability and yield across battery, zirconia/ brittle material, PVD, molding, and automated operations. • Faster transition from technology demonstration to qualified production. • Stronger supplier capability, equipment standards, data systems, documentation, and intellectual property. • A trusted expert team that is effective across Product, Engineering, Quality, Sourcing, and Operations. What you bring • 15+ years in technology development, advanced manufacturing, process engineering, supplier industrialization, or a related field in consumer electronics, wearables, medical devices, semiconductors, or similarly complex products. • Proven experience building and leading multidisciplinary teams across materials, processes, equipment, and automation. • Deep expertise in several of the following: batteries, zirconia or brittle materials, PVD/coatings, molding/encapsulation, automation, precision assembly, or high-cosmetic manufacturing. • A track record of taking technologies from concept and exp