I’m the lone ID guy in a $billion private company for the past 7 yrs. I report to VP of R&D. Its not easy and its not for everyone. You are always ‘fighting’ for your design to push through because the majority of people don’t understand how ID as an important cog in the corporate machine.
Here’s the breakdown of staff. 40+ ME, 15+ EE, 5 BioEng, 9 Graphic Design, 10 Drafters, 50+ Marketing, 1 Industrial Designer
Pros
Its a blank slate; you steer the design direction where you want your company to go
You become indispensable to the company (assuming you’re good)
You are working in a cross-functional team 100% of the time
You get to have a hand in every product that goes out the door of the company
You have to wear many hats (project manager, mechanical designer, CAD jockey, ‘resident artist’, prototyper, graphic designer, package designer, etc)
You are the go-to aesthetic guy
Cons
You have to attend every meeting to make sure Engineering/Marketing doesn’t make design decisions for you
No way to collaborating (or bouncing ideas off) other designers
You have to be a design champion and constantly have to educate everyone what you bring to the table
If you’re company comes up with an ‘ugly’ looking product it’s 100% your fault (even though it may not be)
Similarly you have to face the music if the CEO (in a town hall address) says this particular product need to look better
You are an island in a sea of Engineers- its a constant struggle (unless you like that sort of thing)
there’s probably more but I need to get back to work