Saw the OP wrote a post last night but now it’s gone… no matter.
You mentioned the company has been previously business and engineering focused and existed for 10 years and now wants to s3x up the products and bring on design (you) to do it. In my experience, this is a red flag. I’ve seen similar situations, where all of a sudden they come to design as a savior, and the initial impression (from the designer) is “great - i can only do good, it can’t get any worse! I can make some change.” Reality however is somewhat akin to trying to teach an old dog new tricks. Companies, owners, or the majority of the business people don’t wake up one day and all of a sudden change their priorities, how they see things, do business, etc. Design to be effective needs to be embraced and understood from the top down and integrated into all aspects of business from accounting and budgets to logistics and sales and marketing. Bringing in 1 designer, esp. a young inexperienced one, will never work.
I applaud you looking to take on a challenge and there is nothing wrong with that. My first design job I was brought on as a junior designer, and within 3 years was a product line manager and senior, as well as responsible for all development, marketing, branding and strategy. It wasn’t in the role or growth position for the job, but I saw an opportunity and knew I could do it, so grabbed a bigger chunk of responsibility.
R