Product Development Manager - Hardware

About ArcadeXR

Arcade Online is a live platform where players remotely control real arcade machines and win real prizes, alongside a growing catalogue of original digital titles designed exclusively for the platform.

Every physical game on the platform has been through a development process that connects a real arcade cabinet to our online infrastructure - adapting it for remote play, 24-hour operation, and the best possible player experience over camera. Sometimes that process is straightforward. Other times it requires significant mechanical and electrical engineering.

It takes forethought, creativity, coordination and collaboration to ensure this process never becomes a bottleneck. Moving games from our workshop into our players' hands, quickly and with great quality, is key to our platform. The primary objective of this role is to dramatically grow our catalogue of the world's best arcade games - accelerating delivery without compromising on quality, reliability, or player experience.

The Role

We're looking for a Product Development Manager - Hardware to own the end-to-end process for bringing electromechanical arcade games to the Arcade Online platform - from purchase or initial concept through to platform launch.

This is an operational leadership role with a hard technical edge. You'll manage a small cross-functional team through a process that spans electrical and mechanical engineering, fabrication, art, UX, procurement, and testing. You don't need to do all of these things yourself - but you need to understand them well enough to set realistic timelines, identify risks early, hold the team accountable, and make good decisions when things don't go to plan.

What You'll Own

• End-to-end timelines for all electromechanical game onboarding and internal game development projects
• Scheduling and coordination across electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, fabrication, art, and procurement
• Identifying and resolving blockers early - technical, logistical, or resource-related
• Setting and hitting realistic launch targets, and being accountable when they're at risk
• Quality and reliability standards - games must perform consistently under 24-hour remote operation
• Player experience - ensuring game visibility, controls, displays, lighting, and UX meet platform standards
• Prototyping new gameplay mechanisms, finding the fun, and iterating on entirely new forms of arcade gaming that don't exist anywhere else
• Continuous improvement of the onboarding process itself - reducing cycle times, improving predictability, building repeatable workflows

What We're Looking For

• Strong project management experience in a technical, hardware, or engineering environment
• Genuine technical depth in at least one of: electrical/electronics engineering, mechanical engineering, or industrial/product design - enough to engage credibly with the team and understand the work
• Able to set realistic timelines, manage dependencies, and hold a team accountable without micromanaging
• Comfortable operating in an environment where the process isn't fully defined - and motivated to define it
• Sharp eye for quality and player experience - able to spot what will and won't work in a live remote-play context
• Strong communicator across technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Organised and detail-oriented without losing sight of the bigger picture

Nice to have

• Experience in amusement, attractions, location-based entertainment, or arcade hardware
• Exposure to embedded systems, custom electronics, or electromechanical fabrication
• Familiarity with camera-based or remote-operated systems
• Experience managing procurement and external vendors

What Success Looks Like

After your first 12 months, you'll have:

• Significantly reduced average onboarding timelines, with a track record of hitting targets
• Built a repeatable, documented process that the team operates within
• Cleared any backlog of games waiting for onboarding
• Established quality and reliability standards that hold up under 24-hour operation
• Become the operational owner of EM game development - the person the team and the business rely on to deliver

Why Join Us

This is a genuinely fun and unusual role. You'll be working on real arcade machines - adapting, engineering, and producing physical games for online remote play - in a category that doesn't really exist anywhere else.

It's a role with a clear problem to solve, real ownership, and visible impact. When a game launches on the platform, that's a direct result of your work.