Your Embedded Design and Engineering Department.
Senior industrial design and mechanical engineering on a monthly retainer, embedded in your team, from proof of concept to manufacture-ready.
Companies we have worked with:
Four steps from first call to manufacture-ready.
- 0120 to 30 min
Discovery call
We walk through the product, the stage you are at, and where design and engineering capacity is currently blocking the roadmap. You get an honest read on whether we are the right team, including when we are not.
- 022 to 4 weeks
Design sprint
A fixed-fee starter project aimed at one clear deliverable. It gives you real output, a working relationship, and a realistic view of pace before anything ongoing is signed.
- 03Every week
Iterate weekly
Once the retainer starts we ship in weekly cycles. You see CAD, drawings, and renders as they land, review them in your own tools, and steer the next week in a short call. Nothing waits for a monthly reveal.
- 04At release
Manufacture-ready handoff
Every program ends in a release package your supplier can quote and build from: native CAD, neutral formats, dimensioned drawings, BOM, and a change log. If you hire in-house later, the files are in a state a new engineer can inherit on day one.
Concrete deliverables, not a slide deck.
CAD models
CAD owned end to end by your embedded engineering team. Parametric assemblies built for change, with feature trees a future engineer can read, delivered natively and as STEP.
Enclosure design
Housings, brackets, seals, and mounts designed around your real electronics stack-up, thermal path, and ingress requirements rather than a generic box.
DFM review
Part consolidation, draft, wall thickness, bend allowance, and fastener strategy reviewed against your supplier's actual capability before tooling money is committed.
Prototype support
3D printing, CNC, and sheet fabrication coordinated with your shops or ours. We chase quotes, check incoming parts, and turn iterations in days.
Manufacturing drawings
ASME Y14.5 GD&T drawing packages with datum schemes and inspection callouts, so the shop can quote and inspect on the first pass.
3D renders
Photoreal stills and product motion built straight from the engineering CAD, ready for a deck, a data sheet, or a launch page before tooling comes back.
Questions we get asked.
What is an embedded engineering team?
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It is a fixed group of senior designers and engineers who work inside your company rhythm rather than quoting each task. We join your standups, hold your roadmap context between quarters, and work in your tools. The difference from an agency is continuity, and the difference from headcount is that you can adjust the level each quarter.
How is an outsourced engineering team different from a freelancer?
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A freelancer gives you one discipline and one person, and they leave when their next contract starts. An outsourced engineering team gives you industrial design, mechanical engineering, DFM, and visualization under one contract, plus continuity when any individual is unavailable.
What industries do you work in?
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Robotics and automation, defense and aerospace, climate and energy, medical and lab devices, and industrial machinery. Funded B2B and B2G hardware companies between proof of concept and pilot production are our core.
How fast can we start?
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Within a week of the discovery call in most cases. The design sprint runs two to four weeks, and the retainer typically begins the month after, priced against the workload we can both see in the next quarter.
An outsourced engineering team as an alternative to building in-house
Every funded hardware company eventually reaches the same fork in the road. Ship the next revision now, or spend six months building an internal industrial design and mechanical engineering team first. The internal build is the right long-term move once you have three or more concurrent programs. Before that, it stalls the roadmap.
Lucent is your embedded engineering team in the meantime. A senior mechanical engineer, an industrial designer, and a visualization lead, on a fixed monthly retainer, working inside your Slack and your PDM the way an internal team would. It is an outsourced engineering team that behaves like an internal department, not a replacement for having a real hardware culture.
Capabilities inside the retainer.
One embedded team, one monthly fee. Scroll through what sits inside the contract, from first sketch to release package.
05 capabilities
- 01 / 05
Full discipline coverage under one contract
Industrial design, mechanical engineering, DFM, prototype build management, and product visualization, on one line item instead of five separate vendors.
- 02 / 05
Embedded in your team, not a project shop
We attend your standups, we review the roadmap with you, and we carry context between quarters. Not a proposal for every change request.
- 03 / 05
A flat monthly fee, scoped to real workload
After a paid design sprint we look at what your roadmap actually needs over the next quarter and price a retainer against it. No time-tracking, no hour blocks.
- 04 / 05
Senior operators from day one
The engineers who scope the work are the engineers who do the work. No account manager layer, no offshoring, no junior handoff.
- 05 / 05
Clean transition when you hire in-house
When the workload justifies internal hires, we help you scope the role, review candidates, and hand over CAD, drawings, and change history in a state the new lead can inherit on day one.
Want to see whether a retainer fits your roadmap?
What is the alternative to hiring a mechanical engineer or industrial designer in-house?
The comparison people usually make is retainer versus per-project. The comparison that actually matters is retainer versus building the team in-house. Once you frame it that way, the numbers and the timeline both change.
A retainer starts in a week. An in-house department starts in three to six months once you count recruiting, notice periods, and ramp. During that gap, your roadmap either stalls or gets patched together with freelancers who leave when the next project starts. The embedded design and engineering department model closes that gap without locking you into permanent headcount.
In-house hire vs Lucent retainer
Hiring one senior mechanical engineer covers one discipline. A retainer with Lucent covers industrial design, mechanical engineering, DFM, and visualization at the same time, for less than the fully-loaded cost of a single senior engineer in most European and US markets.
Below is the honest comparison. We are not the right answer forever, we are the right answer between now and the point where your roadmap justifies three permanent salaries.
In-house hire vs recruiter vs freelancer vs Lucent retainer.
The honest comparison for a funded hardware team choosing an embedded design and engineering department, versus building the team in-house.
Multiplier on base salary once you add overhead, benefits, tooling, and management time.
Typical recruiter placement fee on first-year comp for a senior mechanical or industrial designer.
Realistic time from opening the role to a first-day hire ramped enough to ship. Your roadmap either stalls or gets patched.
The retainer is the alternative to building the team in-house before the workload justifies it, not a permanent replacement for having a real hardware culture.
| Dimension | Hire in-house | Recruiter placement | Freelancer | Lucent retainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to start | Hire in-house3 to 6 months once you count recruiting, notice, and ramp | Recruiter placement2 to 4 months, then still a notice period and ramp | Freelancer1 to 3 weeks, subject to availability | Lucent retainerNext week |
| True first-year cost | Hire in-houseBase salary, plus 20 to 30 percent overhead and benefits | Recruiter placementSalary and overhead, plus a 20 to 30 percent placement fee on first-year comp | FreelancerHourly rate with time-tracking and scope creep on every change | Lucent retainerFlat monthly retainer, no time-tracking, priced against real workload |
| Commitment | Hire in-housePermanent headcount | Recruiter placementPermanent headcount, plus a rebate window if the hire leaves early | FreelancerPer-project, walks away when the next contract starts | Lucent retainerMonth-to-month, cancel with notice |
| Discipline coverage | Hire in-houseOne specialization per hire (ID or ME, rarely both) | Recruiter placementOne specialization per hire | FreelancerOne specialization, one person | Lucent retainerIndustrial design, mechanical engineering, DFM, and visualization under one contract |
| Continuity through churn | Hire in-houseProgram stalls if the hire leaves | Recruiter placementProgram stalls, and the placement fee is often only partially refunded | FreelancerZero continuity between projects | Lucent retainerTeam-owned, not person-owned |
| Scale up or down | Hire in-houseRe-hire or lay off | Recruiter placementRe-hire or lay off, plus a new placement fee | FreelancerDepends on their next booking | Lucent retainerAdjust retainer level each quarter |
How the retainer works.
- 0120–30 min
Intro call
We learn the solution, the stage, and what is blocking you. No pitch, no slide deck.
- 022–4 weeks
Design sprint
A fixed-fee starter project on one clear deliverable, so you see how we work before any ongoing commitment.
- 031 session
Sprint review
We present the work and map the next 90 days together, what to build, what to validate, what to leave alone.
- 04Monthly
Retainer
We scope the real workload and send a proposal for a fixed monthly fee. Embedded team, no time-tracking, cancel with notice.
Common questions.
- After an intro call and a paid design sprint, we assess the workload your solution needs over the next quarter and send a proposal for a fixed monthly fee. No time-tracking, no hour blocks, month-to-month with notice.
- Good outcome, that is the goal. We help you scope the internal role, review candidates, and hand over CAD, drawings, and change history so the new lead is productive on day one. We often stay on at a reduced scope during the transition.
- Yes. We review workload at the end of every quarter and adjust the retainer level in the next month. Month-to-month contracts mean you are never paying for capacity you no longer need.
- A freelancer gives you one discipline and one person, and they leave when the next contract starts. The embedded design and engineering department gives you full discipline coverage, continuity through churn, and a team that carries your product context between quarters.
- Yes. Every engagement starts with a mutual NDA and an IP assignment. All CAD, drawings, renders, and engineering output transfer to you on delivery. We retain the right to show finished work in our portfolio only with your written approval.
Let's design your next solution, together.
Tell us where the solution is and what's blocking you, we'll tell you honestly whether a retainer makes sense, or what we'd do instead.