Ashton Kutcher is now a Lenovo product engineer

Following the time-honored tradition of hiring celebrities as advisors, Lenovo has just announced Ashton Kutcher is its latest product engineer. According to a press release from the company, Kutcher — who previously studied biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa — will work alongside Lenovo’s engineering teams around the world to “develop and market” its Yoga line of Windows 8, Windows RT, and Android convertible tablets. It’s hoped he’ll inject “input and decision making into design, specifications, software, and usage scenarios.”

Ashton Kutcher’s first duties appear to be promoting the Lenovo Yoga in a commercial, in which the Jobs star proudly brandishes his new Lenovo ID card. Of course, he’s by no means the first celebrity to be hired by a tech company, and undoubtably won’t be the last. Notable examples include BlackBerry’s creative director Alicia Keys, Polaroid’s creative director Lady Gaga, and Intel’s director of creative innovation Will.i.am.

In the case of Kutcher, however, Lenovo may at least be getting some relevant expertise. The actor’s investments in startups like Skype, Airbnb, and Path, not to mention his role as an advisor to The Verge’s parent company Vox Media, are well publicized, meaning the star may do more for Lenovo than cynically lend his face to a product line.