Senior Industrial [Furniture] Designer
About Branch:
Branch is shaking up the $46B office furniture industry to create an office experience for the 21st century: easy, affordable and flexible so you can sit down (or stand) and get to work.
We're based in NYC and backed by the investors behind household brands like Carta, Caraway and Peloton. Our founders arrive with experience in partnerships, real estate acquisitions and venture building at leading real estate companies like Oxford Properties, SL Green and Redfin.
We’re an ambitious group of problem solvers innovating across software, design and logistics, and we’re looking for entrepreneurial teammates who like a challenge.
The Role
We are seeking a highly creative and motivated Industrial [Furniture] Designer to join our growing furniture design team. This role will be based in Asia, ideally in southern China near Shenzhen, and will work closely with our North America–based furniture design and development teams, as well as China- and Vietnam-based sourcing and engineering teams.
As an Industrial Designer, you will support new product development and existing product customizations across Branch’s furniture portfolio. The role is focused on core industrial design responsibilities, including concept development, design refinement, prototyping, creation of design specifications, sample reviews, and close collaboration with engineering and manufacturing partners to bring products from concept to production.
You’ll partner with the furniture design team throughout the full product lifecycle, from early concept through development, launch, and post-launch iteration. This role requires strong design fundamentals, comfort working with physical products, and the ability to collaborate across time zones with a high degree of ownership and self-direction.
In your first ninety days at Branch, you will ramp up on active projects, design standards, and development workflows, quickly contributing to in-flight product programs and supporting customization and improvement efforts across existing products.
This is an incredible opportunity to help build the furniture design function at a category-defining, well-funded, and rapidly-growing startup, while working at the center of furniture manufacturing and development in Asia. If you're passionate about exceptional design and enjoy both hands-on execution and concept development, we’d love to meet you.
Key Responsibilities
- Support the design and development of new furniture products across seating, desking, storage, accessory, and related categories
- Contribute to early concept development through sketching, ideation, and design exploration
- Develop and refine 3D CAD models, layouts, and assemblies in collaboration with the furniture design and engineering teams
- Support product customization efforts, line extensions, and iterative improvements to existing products
- Generate renderings, models, prototypes, and presentations to clearly communicate design intent and design decisions
- Develop product spec packs, drawings, and design documentation to support prototyping and development processes
- Collaborate closely with product development, sourcing, and engineering teams to ensure designs are manufacturable and aligned with cost, quality, and performance targets
- In partnership with the Asia team, visit factories to review design and development samples throughout the product development process
- Participate in qualitative and quantitative research to understand user needs, ergonomic considerations, and industry trends
- Support post-launch improvements by responding to customer feedback, production learnings, and quality insights
What We’re Looking For
- Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design (BID) or a related field
- 5–10 years of experience at a design-led product company or product development consultancy, ideally in the furniture space
- Proven experience designing and developing physical products that have shipped to market
- Strong passion for researching, sketching, 3D modeling, rendering, prototyping, and storytelling design ideas
- Experience with furniture-related products or products of similar scale that interact with humans and the built environment
- Working knowledge of furniture materials, construction methods, and manufacturing processes
- Strong design sensibility across form, proportion, color, materiality, ergonomics, and usability
- Ability to translate conceptual designs into dimensioned drawings and CAD suitable for prototyping and manufacturing by international suppliers
- Comfortable collaborating directly with engineers and factories to resolve design and manufacturability challenges
- Proven ability to manage multiple projects and priorities with minimal oversight
- Strong written and verbal communication skills in English, with a willingness to practice and improve through regular collaboration with global teams
- An entrepreneurial mindset, comfortable working in evolving environments, with a strong bias for action and learning
- Proficiency in 3D CAD (SolidWorks preferred)
- Experience supporting printed materials, packaging design, or assembly documentation is a plus, particularly in collaboration with graphic or production designers
- Strong working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, with the ability to support light graphic, layout, or visual communication needs as part of broader design workflows
Resume and digital portfolio required when applying. Digital portfolio can be a website link or PDF (Please keep to 10mb or less).