Posted: April 1, 2026
Quick description
3D Anatomy Studios is hiring a full-time Product Maker to make and assemble our products at our workshop in Portland’s Central Eastside.
We’re a small business founded by scientists, educators, and makers with the mission of helping people make their own discoveries through play. We believe that the best education is not simply being told “this is how things are” but rather making discoveries for yourself. And we believe that learning should not bore the mind but rather engage the imagination.
We work toward this mission by designing hands-on learning tools for exploring how animals work. Our first product was a 3D magnetic shark skull that students can take apart and put together like a puzzle and manipulate to simulate sharks’ complex jaw motions. And our newest product is a life-size model of a human knee that moves like a real knee, with ligaments that can be removed to simulate an injury and muscles as cords that can be pulled to figure out each muscle’s action.
If you are hired as our Product Maker, 90% of your workday will be spent helping us make these kits, in addition to future products and custom projects. We currently make all of our products using makerspace-type tools (e.g., 3D printing, hot glue, small hand tools)—what you might call “light manufacturing.” And your workplace will be our studio space in Portland’s Central Eastside, a centrally located neighborhood where studios, restaurants, bars, and coffee shops share blocks with furniture stores, small factories, and warehouses. If you love makerspaces, this is the workplace for you.
In addition to being a small business, we’re also democratically owned and operated and our hope is to hire an employee who will eventually join us as a co-owner. To this end, the remaining 10% of your workday will be spent learning other aspects of our business with a mentor so you can steadily take on more responsibilities in and help guide various areas of the business. If you love learning and are interested in eventually being a co-owner of a design and maker studio, we want you.
Our founder recently moved 3D Anatomy Studios to Portland for a reason: it’s a great city for work-life balance, nature, food, community, and nearly any social group imaginable. So we actually have time to enjoy these things, we operate on a 32-hour work week. If you’re hired for this role, you’ll be able to have a four-day work week so you have an extra day every week to relax, get chores done, or whatever you want to do.
If this all sounds like the job for you, we hope you’ll apply. If you belong to a group underrepresented in tech and/or the STEM fields, we especially encourage you to apply; cultivating a diverse and inclusive workplace where every individual can be their full self is a core value of our company. Please read this job description fully and carefully before applying and we look forward to hearing from you!
Pay, hours, location
Location
This position is fully in-person (not remote). All work will take place at the 3D Anatomy Studios workshop at 1001 SE Water Ave, Portland OR 97214.
Hours and schedule
You’ll be expected to work a minimum of 32 hours per week, weekdays only, and the maximum hours you can work is 125 hours per month (1,500 hours per year). You can decide whether you want to distribute these work hours over four vs. five days (e.g., 8 hours per day over 4 weekdays for a 4-day non-compressed work week or 6.4 hours per day over 5 weekdays). At a later date, it may be possible for you to work more than 125 hours per month, if you would like, to increase your total annual income. But we cannot guarantee this at this time.
Vacation/Days off
You’ll have 16 weekdays off per year for holidays (e.g., New Year’s Eve and day, Martin Luther King Jr day, President’s Day) and 10 additional vacation weekdays off per year whenever you would like (with sufficient notice). All vacation/holiday days off are unpaid.
Pay
You’ll be paid $28 per hour. If you work the maximum 1,500 hours per year allowed for this position, that equals a gross pay of $42,000 per year.
In addition to your hourly pay, you’ll have access to up to $6,450 in the form of pre-tax QSEHRA reimbursement funds that you can use to be reimbursed for medical costs, including premiums. These funds can only be used for reimbursement for expenses. For example, if you only have $5,000 in eligible medical expenses in a given year, you would only be able to receive up to $5,000 of the $6,450 funds available that year.
QSEHRA funds can be used to reimburse your premium expenses (e.g., health insurance, dental, vision) in addition to medical expenses (eligibility criteria apply, not all expenses may be eligible for reimbursement). If you purchase your health insurance through the Oregon Health Insurance Marketplace, you can use these funds to reimburse your premium expenses since all Marketplace plan premiums are eligible for reimbursement.
Qualifications
Essential qualifications
The qualifications below are essential and are listed in alphabetical order. Any applicant not meeting these qualifications will not be considered.
- Ability to lift up to 50 pounds occasionally and up to 20 pounds frequently
- Experience with precision manual tasks/crafts/handiworks including, but not limited to: crafting, machine/tool repair, 3D printing, illustration, circuit building, metalwork, woodworking, knitting, sewing, origami, pottery, jewelry making, etc. This experience could be as a job or as a hobby. After the first stage of the application process, applicants will be invited to share about this work and will be evaluated based on evidence of high quality of work, precision, and attention to detail.
- HS Diploma or GED
- Normal trichromatic color vision (our products include extensive color coding of parts)
- Proficiency in English
Preferred qualifications
The qualifications below are preferred but not essential and are listed in alphabetical order, not order of importance. If you don’t have any of these qualifications, please still apply; they are not essential. If you do have one or more of these qualifications, there is a place for you to include them in your application.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
- Coursework in anatomy
- Experience as a healthcare professional
- Experience as an educator
- Experience with or proficiency in Blender
- Experience with or proficiency in Google Sheets and/or Excel
- Graduate degree or equivalent experience
- Proficiency in a language other than English
Essential job duties
Essential technical job duties
These are the essential job duties that relate to technical tasks and are listed in alphabetical order. Applicants need not have any prior experience with any of the duties listed below, many of which are specific to how we make our products. Training will be provided on the job in all of these duties.
- Assemble products (e.g., by hand, using small hand tools)
- Clean 3D prints (e.g., by removing supports and waste material using small hand tools and/or power tools such as a craft knife, dental tool, or Dremel tool)
- Cut cords, ropes, straps, and other textile materials, singe the ends (e.g., by using a hot knife), and create anchor points at precise lengths (e.g., by knotting, attaching 3D printed clips)
- Finish the surface of 3D prints (e.g., by using small hand tools and/or power tools such as a craft knife, dental tool, Dremel tool, or heat gun)
- Insert magnets into 3D prints with the proper polarity and secure the magnets into place (e.g., by using a hot glue gun)
- Maintain a 3D printer farm (e.g., track usage, perform regular maintenance, fix printer errors)
- Maintain production spaces and work surfaces clean and organized (e.g., by sweeping, vacuuming, carrying trash/recycling to dumpster)
- Pack products and orders (e.g., for shipping, exhibiting)
- Prepare paper parts (e.g., by inkjet printing, cutting and folding paper, cutting and folding cardboard, applying reinforcement tape, stamping ink, applying stickers, lamination)
- Run a 3D printer farm (e.g., print parts, clean print beds between prints, load filament)
- Track inventory of parts, materials, and any other product components (e.g., tracking which parts need to be made, which materials need to be ordered)
- Help move the workspace by packing and carrying moving boxes if the location of the business changes
- Other duties of a similar nature to those listed above
Essential professionalism job duties
These are the essential job duties that relate to professionalism and are listed in alphabetical order. These are just as important as the technical job duties.
- Be cooperative (e.g., be trustworthy, be courteous, seek consensus, ask questions, give constructive feedback)
- Be dependable (e.g., be punctual, be attentive, follow instructions, meet agreed upon deadlines without any external reminding/badgering)
- Communicate effectively (e.g., express ideas and explanations clearly, write effectively)
- Continuously build expertise (i.e., learn) and aim for excellence in one or more areas of the company’s operations
- Demonstrate our company’s values
- Perform high quality work (e.g., perform work accurately, pay attention to detail, and work in an organized manner)
- Solve problems and think critically (e.g., identify problems that could improve the business, troubleshoot problems, solve problems creatively)
Changes to essential job duties
We are continuously evolving as a small business to stay competitive and grow our design portfolio. Thus, the job duties and responsibilities will also evolve over time. Any additions to the essential job duties and responsibilities will be explicitly agreed upon by supervisor and employee in a renewed employment contract.
Review and supervision of employee
The supervisor for this role is Dr. Aaron Olsen and the employee hired will work directly with him. Aaron is the founder of 3D Anatomy Studios. The other current member co-owners of 3D Anatomy Studios, Dr. Tim Sosa and Dr. Callie Crawford, will serve in a secondary supervisory capacity. Employees are welcome to contact Tim or Callie with any questions or concerns that they do not feel comfortable raising directly with Aaron.
The employee’s performance of their essential job duties will be evaluated regularly by their supervisor through reviews using our General Performance/Promotion Criteria (the Essential professionalism job duties listed above are pulled directly from these criteria). These reviews are opportunities for employees to learn whether any aspect of their job performance is not meeting expectations and for the supervisor to learn whether the role, its duties, and the company are meeting the employee’s expectations. These reviews will also serve as the basis for any potential termination and promotion decisions.
Opportunities for promotion
As a small business that designs, makes, and ships products directly to customers, we are jacks of all trades. The duties that we perform in-house include:
- Product design
- Product making (the position advertised here!)
- Manufacturing engineering
- Order processing
- Customer service
- Customer discovery and marketing
- Sales
- Bookkeeping
- Web programming and design
- Writing grant proposals
- Writing product guides (i.e., user manuals but much more fun)
The person hired for this advertised job will spend the majority of their time making products (including training in our light manufacturing techniques). However, we hope this new hire will aspire to grow their skill set and eventually advance to a new role that includes at least one of the in-house duties listed above, in addition to their product making duties.
To facilitate this, the person hired for this advertised job will have the opportunity to spend at most 10% of their paid time training in one or more of the abovelisted in-house duties under the mentorship of the role supervisor. The particular duty or duties chosen for training will be mutually agreed upon by the employee and supervisor, based on what is most vital for the business and the employee’s interests, skills, and passions. The duties for which we anticipate the greatest future need are: manufacturing engineering (e.g., increasing the efficiency with which we make our products, scaling up production, designing or researching new production methods), order processing, and customer service.
To be eligible for promotion to a new role, an employee must meet all the expectations listed in our General Performance/Promotion Criteria and any promotion criteria specific to the new role. Promotion may include an increase in compensation, depending on the role and the financial situation of the business.
Opportunity to co-own
As a cooperatively owned and operated small business, it is our aspiration that any employee will eventually join us as a co-owner of the business. We believe in the power of a democratic workplace to build an inclusive and equitable workplace, raise the quality of life for all workers, and deliver the best possible products and services to our customers. We currently have two levels of co-ownership: managing members and directing members. The path from employee to co-owner is as follows:
Employee → Managing member → Directing member
Employees have no rights or responsibilities of co-ownership. Managing members have some rights and responsibilities of co-ownership. For example, managing members have a vote in deciding what our next product will be but they are also expected to contribute proposals to meetings and take responsibility for projects. Directing members have the full rights and responsibilities of co-ownership. For example, directing members have a vote on hiring decisions and compensation levels but are also responsible for the financial wellbeing of the business and are legally responsible for the actions of the business.
For an employee to be eligible for promotion to managing member or for a managing member to be eligible for promotion to directing member, they must meet all the expectations listed in our General Performance/Promotion Criteria corresponding to the new status. To become a managing member, an employee must have worked for the company for a minimum of 800 hours. Promotion may include an increase in compensation, depending on the role and the financial situation of the business.
How to apply
Apply for this position by completing this application. You will be required to sign into a Google account to view and complete the application. This is because the application includes a file upload and Google requires that you be signed in to upload files to a Google Form. If you don’t have a Google account, you can create one for free at https://accounts.google.com/signup.
There is no set deadline for applying; applications will be evaluated and applicants will be interviewed on a rolling basis until we find someone who is a good fit. As soon as we make a final hiring decision, we will update this page and close the application submission form. So if this page is still active, please apply!
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran status, military status, or national origin.