Hardware Returns Manager

**About the Role**

At Halter, we’re changing the way the world farms - and with that comes a great deal of responsibility to the producers worldwide who trust us with their animals. We’re looking for a highly motivated individual to join our fleet team and help enable faster, better, and more efficient processes for our field returned hardware.

We’re looking for a highly capable and hands-on Hardware Returns Manager to join our Fleet team and lead our end-to-end returns and diagnostic process for field-deployed hardware. You’ll be responsible for managing a team that collects, debugs, and diagnoses returned devices, including collars and tower components, to understand why they failed in the field.

This is both a technical and operational role where you will play a key role in closing the feedback loop between our field performance and our engineering teams, ensuring that every failure is investigated, understood, and used to improve product reliability. This is a key role to enable growth across the globe.

**What You’ll Do**:

- Lead and grow the returns operations team, including - a field team responsible for collecting and processing returned hardware and an office-based debug and diagnostic team responsible for triaging, testing, and identifying failure modes.
- Personally contribute to hands-on debugging of returned hardware, including circuit-level troubleshooting and mechanical assessments.
- Develop and refine diagnostic processes and tooling to ensure efficient and consistent root cause analysis.
- Work closely with engineering, hardware, firmware, and communications teams to communicate trends, insights, and specific failure modes.
- Implement systems to track team performance.
- Drive continuous improvement in both return processes and hardware quality based on data-driven insights.
- Ensure safe handling, storage, and processing of returned devices and components.

**What You’ll Bring**:

- Strong technical background in electronics and/or mechanical systems - ideally with hands-on experience debugging PCBs, embedded systems, or wireless hardware.
- A methodical and structured approach to problem solving and process development.
- Experience leading technical teams in a hardware, electronics, or diagnostics environment.
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to translate technical findings into clear feedback for cross-functional teams.
- Strong sense of ownership and a bias for action - you’re not afraid to roll up your sleeves and get stuck into hardware or other key challenges facing the wider fleet team.

**Why our team loves working at Halter**

At Halter, we’re committed to creating an environment where people thrive. We offer unlimited paid annual leave, as well as additional wellness days. Each year, every team member receives a $1,000 self-development budget to invest in whatever fuels their personal growth.

We offer six months of fully paid leave for primary caregivers and four weeks of fully paid leave for secondary caregivers, along with a range of additional family-friendly benefits. To support your wellbeing, we offer subsidised health insurance through Southern Cross.

And finally, everyone at Halter is an owner. Every employee is part of our stock ownership plan; when we succeed, you share in that success.

**Our office-first approach**

Being office-first is a core pillar of our culture. We believe in-person connections are key to driving your own growth, learning, impact, and building genuine long-lasting relationships.

We’re office first, not office only. This means that working from the office every day is our default setting, but we flex when needed. Your growth, learning, and impact are truly unlimited here, and a big part of that comes from being together, solving problems, innovating, building context, and constantly learning from each other.

We have a state-of-the-art, dog-friendly office in the heart of Auckland City and a test farm in Morrinsville. Delicious snacks and drinks are readily available.

**About Halter**

At Halter, we’re on a mission to enable farmers and graziers to run the most productive and sustainable operations. Our customers are using Halter to break free from the time-intensive constraints of conventional practices and revolutionizing grazing with Halter. People join Halter to do meaningful work. Our team out-think, out-work and out-care. We’re committed to delivering real change in the world. We’re backed to deliver on a mission that matters by Tier 1 investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, DCVC, Blackbird, Promus Ventures, Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck and Icehouse Ventures.

**Join our team**

If you think you have what it takes but don’t necessarily meet every requirement on this job description, please still get in touch. We’d love to chat to see if you’ll be an epic fit

Feel free to check out the careers page for more information on working at Halter and don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn & Instagram.