Job DescriptionMaker-in-Residence — The Deep-Tech Foundry

NRaghu University | Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh | Full time | In office

NAbout Us

nRaghu University is a newly formed Deemed to Be University in Visakhapatnam, founded by an entrepreneur who also built a 300-person enterprise SaaS company serving clients across 12 countries.

NThe Deep-Tech Foundry is where students take ideas from screen to physical product. We're setting up a prototyping lab with 3D printers, PCB fabrication, soldering stations, CNC machines, and edge AI hardware. The goal: student projects that become startups with real, shippable hardware products.

NThe Role

nA student team has an idea for a water quality monitoring device for aquaculture farms. They can write the software. But who helps them design the enclosure, fabricate the PCB, solder the sensor array, 3D-print the housing, and CNC-mill the mounting bracket? Who turns their screen mockup into something a farmer can hold in their hands?

NThat's you.

nThe Maker-in-Residence runs the prototyping lab inside The Foundry. Your job is to help student teams go from working code to working hardware — the kind you can demo to a customer, pitch to an investor, or ship to a first user. You're not maintaining equipment for a college lab. You're building an environment where student hardware startups are born.

NWhat You'll Do

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- Mentor student teams on hardware prototyping end-to-end: concept → CAD → 3D print / CNC → electronics design → PCB fabrication → assembly → working prototype
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- Help teams design and fabricate custom PCBs — schematic, layout, fabrication, soldering, testing, iteration
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- Run 3D printing operations: help students prepare CAD files, select materials, optimise prints, troubleshoot failures
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- Guide CNC operations when needed (we have CNC specialists on campus — you coordinate with them for student projects that require milling)
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- Bridge hardware and software: help teams integrate sensors, microcontrollers, and edge AI devices into physical products. A trained AI model is useless until it lives inside something a user can touch.
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- Push teams toward startup-grade prototypes, not science fair demos: "This can't have exposed wires if you're demoing to a customer. Let's design a proper enclosure."
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- Manage the prototyping lab: inventory, consumables (filament, solder, components, PCB substrates), equipment maintenance, workspace organisation
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- Conduct safety inductions: soldering, 3D printing, ESD protection, workshop discipline
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- Participate in weekly standups and monthly Demo Days — help teams present hardware that works, not just slides about hardware
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nWhat You Won't Do

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- Sit in a storeroom waiting for requests
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- Teach lectures or gradelab exams
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- Fill out equipment utilisation reports
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- Manage CNC operations (we have dedicated specialists for that)
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- Report to any academic department
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nWho You Are

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- You've built physical products — not just one-off prototypes, but things that were designed to be used by someone. You have photos or videos to show.
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- You've designed and fabricated PCBs: schematic to layout to working board. KiCad, Eagle, or Altium.
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- You're comfortable with3D printing (FDM).

Slicing, material selection, troubleshooting.

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- You can solder confidently — through-hole and basic SMD
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- You understand embeddedsystems: Arduino, ESP32, Raspberry Pi, STM32, or similar. Firmware, datasheets,



serial communication.
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- You know what CNC can do and when to use it, even if you're not operating the machine yourself
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- You think in terms of "is this ready to show a customer?" not just "does it work on the bench?"
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- You're patient with beginners but push advanced teams toward production-grade quality
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- 2–6 years in hardware prototyping, product engineering, electronics design, or a hardware startup
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nNice to Have

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- Experience at a hardware startup where you took a product from prototype to manufacturing
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- Experience with NVIDIA Jetson or other edge AI deployment platforms
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- DFM (Design for Manufacturing) awareness — helping teams think about how their prototype becomes a product
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- CAD expertise (Fusion 360, SolidWorks, FreeCAD)
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- Enclosure design for electronics products
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- Experience running or working in a makerspace or prototyping lab
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- Sensor integration for IoT / industrial / agriculture applications
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nWhat We Offer

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- Compensation commensurate with experience
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- A prototyping lab you help set up from scratch — you'll shape the layout, workflow, and culture
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- A team around you: software mentoring, GTM strategy, and operations are handled by others. You own hardware prototyping.
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- The chance to help student teams build hardware startups — not just projects, but products
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- Visakhapatnam — India'semerging AI capital. A growing tech ecosystem and a city that's genuinely pleasant to live in.
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nHow to Apply

nSend to [email protected]:

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- Photos or videos of hardware you've built (mandatory)
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- A few lines on: what's the most complete physical product you've taken from idea to working prototype?
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- Why helping students turn projects into products sounds like your kind of work
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nNo formal resume needed. Show us what you've made.

📌 Maker In Residence (Visakhapatnam)
🏢 Raghu Engineering College
📍 Visakhapatnam