Feather Engineering
Feather Engineering is a specialized engineering practice built around one idea: that early-stage and resource-constrained product development deserves the same depth of expertise as any large-company program — without the overhead that comes with it.
We are a lean, agile partner. We move fast, operate with low overhead, and bring genuine multi-discipline depth to every engagement. When a project calls for capabilities beyond our own, we have a trusted network of specialists we can bring in — so you still get a single point of accountability.
John Maddox – Founder and Chief Engineer
John Maddox is an electronics and audio engineering specialist with over 40 years of experience in product design and development across consumer electronics, automotive systems, wearables, and professional audio.
His career spans some of the most technically demanding audio engineering work in the industry.
At Bose Corporation’s Automotive Systems Division, John developed the first programmable DSP-based equalizers for automotive applications and was part of the team that brought Bose’s first DSP amplifier generations to market. He later managed the European theater development team from the US. Returning to Bose in the Home Entertainment Division, he led embedded and DSP firmware development as an Advanced Engineering Manager.
As Engineering Manager at Oasis Silicon Systems John built a team to develop embedded firmware, signal processing libraries, along with industry relevant reference designs leveraging Oasis MOST Networking SOCs for automotive audio networking. John led the team through acquisition and integration into Standard Microsystems.
As CEO & Chief Engineer of Simple Media Networks, John built and led engineering efforts in audio networking and digital interface design.
In recent roles, John has contributed engineering expertise to projects at OnVocal, Fitbit, Google, Meta, and Loop Earplugs, among others — spanning hearables, wearables, and consumer audio.
John holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, with specialized study in Signal Processing, Control Systems, and Robotics. He has pursued additional graduate-level coursework in Power Electronics at the University of Wisconsin and in Acoustics and Digital Signal Processing at the Bose Institute of Technology.
John founded Feather Engineering to bring this depth of experience to bear on the kinds of hard, early-stage problems that many engineering teams aren’t resourced to solve on their own.
Who We Work With
Feather Engineering works with organizations tackling technically challenging embedded, audio, and intelligent-device projects, including:
- Startups that need to move fast and solve hard technical problems in early-stage development
- Small and mid-size companies filling a specific expertise or resource gap — eg. electronic design, embedded ML, signal processing, or acoustic tuning
- Larger organizations developing internal tools, evaluating new product ideas, or exploring advanced concepts outside traditional product-development workflows
We thrive in collaborative engineering environments where thoughtful design, efficient implementation, and product quality matter.
Why Feather?
“Feather” reflects our philosophy: lightweight, agile, and built for performance. We’re structured to stay lean — low overhead, fast decisions, direct communication. The same principles we apply to the products we help build.
Feather Engineering is the consulting and development practice. Feather Audio is our boutique electronics brand — currently in development, with products coming soon.
Get in Touch
Have a project in mind? We’d like to hear about it.