R&D Sonar Transducer Engineer Lead

Sonar Research And Development Engineer

Provides technical leadership in the research and development activities required to investigate, invent, and incorporate new sonar technologies into marine consumer electronics products.

Key Responsibilities:

• Identifies and investigates innovative and complex sonar product designs and concepts for low-cost implementation.
• Performs competitive product evaluations including tracking the latest military, commercial and competitive sonar technologies and reviewing competitor products to determine our products competitiveness and project viability.
• Tracks the latest sonar signal processing published papers, concepts, and intellectual properties.
• Partners with the software team in sonar algorithm development, integration and testing phase.
• Partners with engineering on the development/design stages, prototypes, sonar system level specification, hardware and software integration and testing.
• Partners with engineering on piezoelectric element selection, characterization, cutting and testing; transducer construction, hydrodynamic analysis, housing materials, pressure relief materials, adhesives, transducer potting, testing, design verification and design reviews.
• Collaborates with marketing to identity and understand customer needs, brainstorm product concepts, propose new product conceptual designs and perform proof of concept demonstrations.
• Initiates and oversees corporate and university research experimentation projects by partnering on best practices, reaching out to solicit information and obtaining state of the art/cutting edge technology.
• Responsible for patent research and writing.
• Serves as a mentor to lower-level engineers and technical staff by providing guidance and technical expertise on product development and project management. Additionally, provides technical guidance/expertise to peers.

Education: Bachelors degree and/or a masters degree in electrical or mechanical engineering, computer engineering with an emphasis in acoustics or equivalent.

Experience: Typically requires a minimum of 10 of professional experience in applicable sonar research and development.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Advanced knowledge and practical experience with the design and operation of single beam and multi-beam sonar systems.
• Advanced knowledge and practical experience with the operational characteristics of hard and soft PZT electro-ceramic materials.
• Advanced knowledge of electrical design and test of sonar transmitters and low noise receivers.
• Advanced knowledge and experience in the specification, design implementation, and test of sonar transducer projectors, hydrophones, and multi-element arrays.
• Advanced sonar test experience with transducer polar patterns, free field voltage sensitivities, transmit voltage response, and transducer comparison and self-reciprocity calibration.
• Advanced knowledge of sound propagation, multipath, square law spreading, reflection loss, and absorption loss in water.
• Advanced knowledge and experience in the development and commercialization of Phased Array Multibeam Sonar.
• Advanced embedded analog and digital signal processing fundamentals and techniques.
• Advanced experience with software simulations environments such as MATLAB (Matrix Laboratory).
• Experience working with general purpose test equipment and troubleshooting procedures.
• Experience with proper printed circuit analog and digital design techniques.
• Expertise in managing projects from concept development to implementation and evaluation.
• Demonstrated leadership skills and abilities to effectively provide direction, guidance and motivation to development team engineers and other internal teams to produce quality designs on schedule.
• Excellent verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated proficiency in the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) or similar products.

This position can be located in Alpharetta, GA or Eufala, AL.

Stellar candidates may be able to work remote with occasional travel.