Nendo, a Cambridge climate tech startup building plastic-free subsurface irrigation, is hiring a part-time Hardware Product Manager to work side by side with its founders and turn its irrigation concept into a product manufactured at scale – from idea and lab, through prototype and pilot, to scaled manufacturing.
- Commitment: 3 days per week for 6 months
- Contract: Contract role with the potential to go permanent
- Rate: Competitive, depending on experience
- Works with: Hannah Mellor, CEO and Co-Founder
- Location: Based at Nendo’s lab in Cambridge, UK
- Start date: January 2027
About Nendo
Nendo is a materials innovation company building for a rapidly warming world. Its first product is a climate-resilient irrigation system: modular, plastic-free and installed below the surface. It is designed to increase crop yields, restore soil health and dramatically reduce water use for farmers, landscape restoration projects and urban environments.
Nendo’s work sits at the intersection of materials science, climate resilience, food security and nature restoration. The team is preparing for pilot deployments in the UK and India, working closely with farmers, researchers and corporate partners to bring this technology to life in real-world conditions.
Nendo is a small, ambitious team led by founders with backgrounds in environmental science, urban design and product development. They care deeply about impact, integrity and thoughtful execution – making decisions backed by evidence and building a company that creates both environmental and social value.
Working at Nendo means being close to the action from day one. You will work directly with the founders, contribute to real decisions, and help shape the product that goes into the ground. Find out more at nendopipe.com.
The Hardware Product Manager role
- Work side by side with the founders to turn the irrigation concept into a product manufactured at scale.
- Idea: define what the product must do, covering water delivery, strength, durability, installation and unit cost.
- Lab: design experiments, run them with the lab team, and turn the results into clear design decisions.
- Prototype: build, test, break and improve prototypes with your own hands, moving fast from one version to the next.
- Pilot scale: take the design from one-off prototypes to repeatable pilot batches, and use field results to drive the next iteration.
- Manufacturing readiness: make the design ready for production, with specifications, tolerances, quality checks, tooling and documents a manufacturing partner can follow.
- Scaled manufacturing: take the product from pilot scale to scaled manufacturing, solving for yield, quality, cost and throughput.
- Build product management processes from scratch – requirements, roadmaps, stage gates, change control and documentation – and embed them across the organisation.
- Use physics to understand and model how water moves from pipe to soil, and how the product behaves over time.
- Own the product roadmap and stage gates: what each stage must prove, what happens next, and what to stop doing.
- Coordinate materials, engineering and lab colleagues, plus suppliers and manufacturing partners, and track cost, risk and timelines.
What Nendo is looking for
- A background in physics. This is essential.
- A maker. You build things yourself, and you can show what you have made.
- Creative, out-of-the-box thinking. You love ideating with a CEO and turning bold ideas into things you can test.
- Strong on product management processes. You have created them inside an organisation, and people actually use them.
- 5+ years in hardware product management or product development, with a record of taking a physical product from idea through prototype and pilot to scaled manufacturing.
- Hands-on confidence in a lab and workshop: test design, data analysis and troubleshooting.
- Fluent in the engineering detail: you can read and write specifications, CAD reviews and manufacturing documents.
- Experience working with suppliers and manufacturers.
- Hydrology experience is a big plus. If you are new to it, you are eager and able to learn it quickly.
- Comfortable with ambiguity and tight budgets. You set priorities, make decisions on evidence and get things done without a large team around you.
Nice to have
- Experience with water, irrigation or agricultural products.
- Experience with ceramics, construction materials or other mineral-based products.
- Experience running field trials or designing for low-cost, distributed manufacturing.
Why join Nendo
- Strengthen global food security: your decisions directly shape the product that goes in the ground.
- Help make water-efficient irrigation possible wherever water is running short.
- Work on materials science innovation that helps humanity thrive in a rapidly warming world.
- Take a product from idea to scaled manufacturing, working directly with the CEO.
- Start on contract, with the potential to go permanent.
Explore more climate tech roles on the Carbon13 venture job board.
Tagged as: agriculture, agritech, climate tech, early-stage startup, hardware, manufacturing, materials science, product, product development, scaling up, soil
Part-time Hardware Product Manager in Cambridge employer: Nendo
Nendo provides a unique opportunity to work on innovative climate solutions that have a real-world impact. Employees are part of a collaborative team dedicated to sustainability and advancing agricultural practices. The company's focus on professional development ensures that team members grow alongside their projects.
