Talebrix
Hardware Lead, Mechanism Design
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A child tells Talebrix a story. Within minutes it becomes a real picture book, printed and bound. The binding mechanism is designed and with our manufacturer. Making it work in thousands of machines, for years, is the hardest job in the company, and it would be yours.
Why it is hard
Bookbinding is a solved industry, with heavy machines in factories. We have to do it in a shoebox-sized machine (360 x 250 x 225 mm) on a shelf in a child's bedroom. It has to work first time, every time, be quiet enough for bedtime (under 55 dBA at 1 m), survive shipping and six weeks of being ignored, and the whole machine sells for £199 with 4 books included.
Where we are
The mechanism is modelled in CAD, with our manufacturing partner, and patent applications covering the method are being filed. What we do not have is the engineer who owns it: someone who can read the design critically, answer the manufacturer's questions, change it where it is wrong, and be accountable for it binding a real book in every machine. We will show you the whole design under NDA, early. We would take a better idea over a defended one.
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What you will do
- Take it over: learn the design, test it against the manufacturer's first parts, fix what is wrong, and get it folding and binding a real book in front of investors in November.
- Ship it: through 2027, shrink the mechanism into the real machine, make it repeatable across thousands of units, make it survive a courier and a child, and hold it to the £199.
- Own it: we make our own materials in house, so the production line that makes the books is yours too. Then reliability, cost, and version two.
Not yours
Industrial design, electronics, firmware, software and the commercial side of the factory relationship. You do the mechanism.
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Who you are
You have made paper move through a machine before: printers, receipt printers, ticket machines, label applicators, packaging and folding lines, photo booths, cash machines or vending. That matters more than general hardware experience, and building a rough version this week matters more than both. Ideally you have taken a physical product from a working bench rig to boxes on a pallet, and can name the month it slipped.
Pay
£90,000 annual gross salary planning assumption, subject to funding and agreed terms. Equity, vesting, IP assignment and appointment terms agreed individually before work starts. Paid work depends on funding; no start date is promised. Materials, parts, tools and rig time are paid for by us.
How to apply
Send a CV over.
Full details: talebrix.com/careers/mechanism-design
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