Under the Radar

Stratos Product Development President Sean MacLeod has helped build the company into a versatile custom shop for some of the top technology and manufacturing companies in the U.S.

Suppose you’re a smart, young mechanical engineer who wants
to build better high-tech gadgets and have an impact. You are intrigued by
tricky consumer electronics and medical device challenges in the wireless,
networked, always-on, must-be-reliable real world. You snagged a degree from
Stanford University and got your feet wet solving problems and honing
organizational skills in Bay Area tech firms. You have options and job offers,
but where would you go to engage your skills across a wide spectrum of
enterprise?

For Wallace White, the answer was Stratos Product
Development LLC, a low-key, 50-person, engineering services firm in Seattle
with a rock-star client roster that includes Microsoft, Nike, InFocus, British
Airways, Fluke Electronics, Response Biomedical, Abbott Laboratories, Spacelabs
Healthcare and Apple. Founded in 1987, Stratos has forged a central but largely
behind-the-scenes role in bringing a series of new technologies to market. It
offers a unique blend of services from product strategy to applied research,
industrial design, engineering and project management. Throughout its
evolution, it has attracted a cadre of mechanical, electrical, software, biomedical,
optical and industrial engineers needed to commercialize new technology.

Stratos’ balanced approach to innovation lured him in, White
said. The style differed markedly from one Silicon Valley employer that prized
innovation so much, it was routine for projects to change schedules several
times, wreaking havoc on planning. Stratos’ approach also veered sharply from
another shop where it was “all about the schedule” with no room for innovation.

“We’re a very flat organization. We’re not heavily siloed.
There is good cross-pollination,” White says of the culture at Stratos, where
he is lead mechanical engineer and manages projects ranging from home theater
projectors to portable medical diagnostic devices.

From its origins working in consumer electronics, Stratos
has carved a niche serving life sciences, biotechnology, medical devices and
health care electronics. Health care related projects now comprise about
three-fourths of the company’s business. Housed in 23,000 square feet of
offices and labs on Elliott Avenue in Seattle’s Belltown, the company provides
engineers a work environment that includes open spaces, low walls, and great
views of Washington State Ferries and Port of Seattle marine traffic.  

“We’ve been used in the past by Nike, Apple and Microsoft as
an arm’s-length skunkworks,” says Stratos President

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