Systems Engineering Lead / System Owner

A deep-tech startup building real-time vision intelligence systems, is looking for an experienced Systems Engineering Lead / System Owner to drive the end-to-end technical execution of a multidisciplinary hardware-software product. This role owns the full system lifecycle — from architecture, integration, and testing to releases, customer deployments, and field readiness.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on technical leader with strong system-level thinking, capable of connecting software, hardware, algorithms, and field operations to ensure the product performs reliably in real-world environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end system integration across software, hardware, sensors, optics, edge compute, communications, power, and mechanical components.
• Lead technical execution and delivery, translating product and customer requirements into engineering plans, priorities, and release scopes.
• Drive system architecture decisions in collaboration with technical leadership, with a focus on performance, integration, and system constraints.
• Define release readiness criteria, including lab testing, field validation, customer demos, deployments, and production readiness.
• Establish testing and validation processes, including logging, configuration management, documentation, and troubleshooting workflows.
• Lead debugging and root-cause analysis across the full system stack.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams (Software, Hardware, Algorithms, Operations, Field teams) to ensure successful execution and delivery.
• Balance engineering trade-offs between performance, reliability, cost, manufacturability, timelines, and customer requirements.
• Translate field feedback into product improvements and technical enhancements.

Requirements

• 7+ years of hands-on experience in multidisciplinary systems involving hardware, software, and real-world deployments.
• Experience with cameras, imaging, electro-optics, sensors, or similar real-world sensing systems.
• Proven experience leading integration, testing, debugging, and release processes in production environments.
• Strong system-level thinking with the technical depth to challenge and guide engineering teams across domains.
• Experience delivering under tight timelines and customer-facing pressure.
• Comfortable working in a hands-on startup environment, including lab, integration, and field activities.

Strong Advantages

• Background in Defense, Security, Robotics, Drones, ADAS, Edge AI, Embedded Systems, or ruggedized products.
• Familiarity with manufacturing processes, BOMs, suppliers, and production readiness.
• Experience building engineering processes from scratch in startup environments.