Lead System Engineer

Job Description

Please Note: This position requires onsite work, with two potential work locations, near Rockford or Aurora, IL. Candidates must currently be within a reasonable commuting distance of at least one location. At this time, this role is not open to candidates who require relocation and employment sponsorship is not available.

\n

\n

Key Responsibilities:

\n

• Develop, manage, and maintain product-level system requirements throughout the development lifecycle.

\n

• Translate customer, business, product, and regulatory needs into clear, testable, and traceable engineering requirements.

\n

• Define and maintain system architecture, subsystem interfaces, inputs, outputs, and interactions.

\n

• Lead system integration activities and proactively identify and manage technical integration risks.

\n

• Serve as a technical leader across mechanical, electrical, controls, and other engineering disciplines.

\n

• Lead system-level technical decisions and evaluate tradeoffs involving performance, cost, reliability, manufacturability, and compliance.

\n

• Drive alignment between engineering teams on critical technical decisions and system interfaces.

\n

• Own system-level Design Verification Plans and Reports (DVP&R) and ensure validation activities demonstrate full product performance.

\n

• Review subsystem validation plans and ensure alignment with overall system requirements.

\n

• Lead system-level design reviews, integration discussions, and technical problem-solving activities.

\n

• Communicate system status, technical risks, integration challenges, and recommended solutions to engineering and cross-functional stakeholders.

\n

• Lead root cause analysis of system-level issues and coordinate cross-functional corrective actions.

\n

• Capture lessons learned and continuously improve systems engineering practices.

\n

• Provide systems engineering ownership throughout the full NPD lifecycle, including concept and feasibility, design, validation, and ongoing product lifecycle improvements.

\n

\n

Required Qualifications:

\n

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.

\n

• 5+ years of experience in product development, systems engineering, or a closely related engineering function.

\n

• Strong understanding of system architecture, requirements definition, system integration, and verification/validation.

\n

• Experience working across multiple engineering disciplines within complex product development environments.

\n

• Demonstrated ability to understand subsystem interactions and evaluate product performance at the overall system level.

\n

• Strong technical problem-solving, root cause analysis, and decision-making capabilities.

\n

• Ability to evaluate engineering tradeoffs involving performance, cost, reliability, manufacturability, and compliance.

\n

• Strong cross-functional communication skills with the ability to influence technical decisions across engineering teams.

\n

\n

Preferred Qualifications:

\n

• Experience leading system-level product development efforts.

\n

• Experience with requirements management and traceability tools.

\n

• Experience developing and/or owning DVP&R or similar system-level verification and validation processes.

\n

• Experience working with regulated products and applicable compliance standards.

\n

• Experience supporting products that integrate mechanical, electrical, controls, or similar multidisciplinary technologies.