Kimbal is an energy engineering company developing advanced metering infrastructure, power quality, energy management, and battery storage solutions.
<p class="p1"><strong>About Kimbal</strong></p> <p class="p2">Kimbal is building the infrastructure layer for India’s energy transition. We design, manufacture, and deploy end-to-end smart metering solutions — smart meters, K-Mesh communication networks, and HES platforms — that serve utilities, discoms, and government bodies at scale. Ours is a B2B and B2G business operating at the intersection of hardware, embedded systems, and data intelligence.</p> <p class="p3">We are not a consumer electronics company. We build mission-critical infrastructure that runs for 15+ years in the field, often in extreme conditions, touching millions of energy consumers. We hold form, function, and user experience to the same standard. We have global ambitions and we are building the team to match.</p> <p class="p3"> </p> <p class="p3"><strong>Why this role exists</strong></p> <p class="p1">Our mechanical and electronics teams define the functional skeleton of every product. Your job is to take that skeleton and design something that is field-proven, manufacturable at cost, intuitive for every person who interacts with it — from the assembly line worker to the utility vigilance officer — and carries the Kimbal design language forward into every market we enter.</p> <p class="p1"><strong>The Context</strong></p> <p class="p2">A Kimbal smart meter is not a consumer device. It sits outside the home, untouched for months, yet it is handled by at least seven distinct user archetypes across its operational life. Reliability, manufacturability, and tamper-resistance are non-negotiable. But a product that is hard to install, impossible to read in the field, or costly to produce at scale is a product that fails commercially.</p> <p class="p3">We work with real constraints: relay shielding against magnet tamper attacks requires air gaps and metal shields. High-voltage variants up to 35kW impose specific PCB and terminal footprint requirements. Unit economics at high volumes mean the enclosure, finish, and assembly method must all be optimised for cost. ID at Kimbal is a discipline, not decoration.</p> <p class="p4"><strong>What You’ll Own</strong></p> <p class="p5"><strong>1.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Product Design & Conceptualisation</strong></p> <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li6">Receive mechanical skeleton layouts and PCB constraint envelopes from the engineering team and develop these into complete industrial design concepts.</li> <li class="li6">Own the product from concept sketch to production-ready design intent, including surface modelling, material selection, finish specification, and colour language.</li> <li class="li6">Design for the full lifecycle: assembly, packaging, logistics handling, field installation, periodic inspection, and end-of-life.</li> <li class="li7">Maintain rigorous awareness of unit manufacturing cost targets. Every design decision has a cost implication at volume; you are expected to own that trade-off.</li> </ul> <p class="p5"><strong>2.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>User Research & Ergonomics — All Seven Archetypes</strong></p> <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li6">Map, study, and design for every user who touches the meter across its life:</li> </ul> <ul class="ul2"> <li class="li8">Factory assemblers: ergonomics of assembly, snap-fit vs screw-mount, tool access.</li> <li class="li8">Material handling & logistics teams: drop-resistance, stackability, grip points, packaging.</li> <li class="li8">Warehouse unloading crews: visibility of serial/label, orientation cues.</li> <li class="li8">Field installers: single-handed installation, cover removal, terminal access, wire routing.</li> <li class="li8">Meter readers: display legibility in sunlight, cover seal condition, tamper seal visibility.</li> <li class="li8">Vigilance officers: tamper evidence indicators, physical inspection access points.</li> <li class="li9">End consumers: display readability, basic interaction without instruction.</li> </ul> <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li7">Document insights from field visits and user research; translate these directly into design decisions that can be defended in engineering reviews.</li> </ul> <p class="p5"><strong>3.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Competitive Intelligence & Benchmarking</strong></p> <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li6">Maintain a living competitive analysis of domestic and international smart meter designs: form factor, ergonomics, material quality, IP and IK ratings, tamper-resistance approaches.</li> <li class="li6">Identify design white spaces and differentiation opportunities relevant to specific utility categories, state mandates, AMISP requirements, and large customer specifications.</li> <li class="li7">Brief leadership on design trends in adjacent industries — industrial IoT, electrical equipment, infrastructure hardware — that are relevant to Kimbal’s product roadmap.</li> </ul> <p class="p5"><strong>4.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Technical Constraint Integration</strong></p> <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li6">Work directly with mechanical and electronics engineers to understand and design around hard constraints: relay shielding geometry, air gap requirements, EMC enclosure considerations, terminal block layouts, PCB thermal zones, and sealing requirements.</li> <li class="li6">Ensure all designs meet applicable standards for IP rating, IK rating, UV resistance, and dimensional compliance with utility specifications.</li> <li class="li7">Drive Design for Manufacturability (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) reviews in collaboration with the manufacturing team. Cost and yield are part of your scorecard.</li> </ul> <p class="p5"><strong>5.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Kimbal Design Language — Products</strong></p> <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li6">Establish and document the industrial design language for Kimbal’s hardware portfolio: form vocabulary, surface t