Experienced Smart Furniture Product Design & Technical Development Engineer
Luxury Upholstered, Solid Wood & Mechanized Furniture
DanKen Industries is seeking an experienced smart furniture product design and technical development engineer to help develop custom high-end luxury furniture from concept through production-ready documentation.
We need someone with verified experience designing premium upholstered furniture, solid wood furniture, and preferably smart/mechanized furniture. This is not for a basic visual designer only. We need someone who understands furniture construction, manufacturability, production documentation, and how a furniture concept becomes a real product that can be sampled, manufactured, assembled, and repeated in production.
Our focus includes sofas, sectionals, recliners, smart sofas, electric recliners, upholstered beds, smart beds, bedroom furniture, home theater seating, solid wood pieces, and other high-end custom furniture.
Some products may include electric recline systems, motion mechanisms, adjustable headrests, actuators, motors, LED lighting, USB/Type-C charging, wireless charging, Bluetooth speakers, control panels, wiring systems, service access areas, and other integrated components.
We are looking for a furniture product developer with a strong technical and manufacturing mindset — someone who can take reference photos, videos, sketches, inspiration images, or general design direction and turn them into complete furniture designs and production-ready packages.
The ideal candidate should be able to work from visuals and limited direction without needing every small detail explained. We need someone who can understand the design intent, develop the concept, improve the structure, identify construction requirements, and create technical documentation for sampling and manufacturing.
Key Experience Required
The ideal candidate should have strong experience with:
- Luxury upholstered furniture design
- High-end sofa and sectional design
- Recliner and motion furniture design
- Upholstered bed and smart bed design
- Solid wood furniture design
- Furniture frame construction
- Upholstery methods and sewing details
- Foam, cushioning, springs, webbing, and comfort planning
- Load-bearing furniture areas
- Internal frame structure
- Furniture product development
- Design for manufacturing
- Production drawings
- BOMs and material specifications
- Cut lists and CNC files
- Assembly process planning
- Manufacturing-ready documentation
- Sample development support
- Furniture factory communication
- Mechanism integration into furniture frames
- Working with engineers on moving parts, smart components, actuators, or electrical systems
Experience with smart/mechanized furniture is strongly preferred, especially products involving electric recliners, actuator systems, motion mechanisms, LED lighting, wiring, speakers, charging modules, or other smart furniture components.
Technical Furniture Knowledge Needed
This role requires someone who understands how furniture is actually built, not just how it looks.
The candidate should understand furniture construction, frame structure, upholstery methods, foam density, cushioning, springs, webbing, comfort, load-bearing areas, production drawings, BOMs, material specs, hardware schedules, fastener requirements, cut lists, CNC files, assembly process, and DFM — design for manufacturing.
The candidate should also understand how mechanisms fit into furniture frames and how to coordinate with engineers on moving parts and smart components.
The candidate does not need to be a licensed mechanical engineer. However, they should have a technical furniture engineering mindset and understand how to design furniture that can actually be manufactured, upholstered, assembled, costed, and repeated in production.
Smart / Mechanized Furniture Requirements
Some products will involve mechanisms, electrical components, and smart features. We understand complex mechanism design, actuator engineering, linkage systems, and electrical engineering may require a dedicated mechanical or electrical engineer.
However, the furniture designer must still understand how these systems fit into the furniture design.
We need someone who can help design around recliner mechanisms, motion systems, actuators, motors, moving sections, brackets, mounting points, reinforcement areas, wiring paths, LED lighting placement, control panels, charging modules, speakers, service access areas, clearances for moving parts, and assembly/installation requirements.
The goal is to ensure the furniture design, internal frame, upholstery, mechanism, wiring, and smart components work together as one complete manufacturable product.
3D Renderings / Visuals
Ability to create high-quality 3D renderings is a strong plus.
We prefer someone who can provide realistic, high-end visuals showing upholstery texture, leather, microfiber leather, velvet, fabric, wood finishes, stitching details, trim details, luxury aesthetics, color/material variations, lifelike 3D / 4K / AI-assisted renderings, realistic lighting/shadows, and room or lifestyle settings if needed.
Photorealistic rendering ability is preferred but not required if your technical furniture development and production documentation skills are very strong.
Full Deliverables Needed
The selected designer should be capable of providing a complete furniture design and production-development package depending on the product and scope.
1. Design Concept, Development & Visual Package
- Product design concept and development brief
- Reference analysis and design direction
- Final exterior furniture design
- 3D CAD model
- Realistic renderings and view package
- Front, side, rear, top, perspective, and detail views
- Color, material, and finish direction
2. Upholstery, Comfort & Material Development Package
- Upholstery design package
- Sewing details and seam layout
- Pattern and fabric cutting guidance
- Foam, cushion, webbing, spring, and seat-support recommendations
- Comfort and ergonomic development notes
- Material specification sheet
- Fabric, leather, trim, and finish recommendations
3. Frame, Structure & Manufacturing Documentation Package
- Internal frame design
- Frame construction drawings
- Component drawings
- Exploded views
- Assembly drawings
- Cut lists
- DXF / CNC cutting files if required
- Nested templates and cutting documentation if required
- Hardware schedule
- Fastener schedule
- Full BOM / bill of materials
4. Smart Furniture, Mechanism & Component Integration Package
- Mechanism integration notes
- Smart component placement notes
- LED lighting placement notes
- Wiring route / cable routing considerations
- Control panel / charging module placement notes
- Service access planning
- Clearances for moving parts
- Assembly and installation considerations for smart components
5. Factory, Sample & Production-Ready Documentation Package
- Assembly SOPs
- Factory work instructions
- Sample-build guidance
- Testing and validation recommendations
- Packaging recommendations
- Final production-ready file package
- Revision support for sample development where agreed
Not every item will apply to every product, but we are looking for someone capable of supporting complete design-to-production development.
Type of Designer We Are Looking For
We are looking for someone experienced, detail-oriented, technically strong, creative, practical, manufacturing-minded, comfortable working from visuals and limited direction, able to understand luxury design language, develop original furniture concepts, create production-ready documentation, communicate clearly, work with engineers/sourcing specialists/manufacturers, and support ongoing product development.
We are not looking for someone who only creates basic furniture models without construction knowledge. We need someone who understands how furniture is built and how to prepare designs for real manufacturing.
Work Volume and Long-Term Opportunity
DanKen Industries has a large amount of furniture design and development work planned. This is not a one-time project.
For the right designer, there will be continuous work across sofas, sectionals, recliners, beds, smart beds, bedroom sets, home theater seating, and other luxury furniture products.
Because we are a new startup, we need someone lean and flexible with compensation in the beginning. We prefer a fair flat-rate structure that allows us to develop multiple products while controlling early-stage costs.
As the company grows, samples are approved, production is established, and product development volume increases, there may be room to revisit compensation and create a longer-term working relationship.
First Trial Project
We would like to begin with one trial project to evaluate workflow, communication, design quality, technical ability, documentation quality, and overall fit.
The first trial may involve a smart sofa or recliner-style furniture set with premium upholstery, motion/mechanism considerations, smart component integration, and production-readiness requirements.
If the first project goes well, we would like to continue with steady ongoing work.
To Apply
Please provide:
- Examples of luxury furniture designs
- Examples of upholstered furniture work
- Examples of solid wood furniture work
- Examples of smart/mechanized furniture work if available
- Examples of production drawings or manufacturing documentation
- Examples of BOMs, cut lists, CNC files, or assembly documents if available
- Examples of realistic renderings if available
- Explanation of your furniture construction and manufacturing knowledge
- Your preferred design software
- Your general flat-rate expectations
- Your availability for ongoing work
We are looking for someone experienced, reliable, technically capable, and interested in growing with a startup from the early stage into long-term production.
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