Senior Systems Engineer

Cambridge Design Partnership; Raleigh; On-site; CAD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee-owned

Job summary

Cambridge Design Partnership is seeking a Senior Systems Engineer to act as Technical Lead on complex electromechanical products. You will integrate mechanical, electrical, firmware and software elements to deliver fully functioning prototypes and production-ready designs.

You will shape requirements and architecture, assess risks, plan verification, and work closely with clients and project teams to translate ideas into tangible solutions.

Qualifications

• Experience designing electromechanical products in regulated industries.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to lead cross-disciplinary teams.
• Hands-on engineering with hardware and software.
• Ability to translate stakeholder needs into requirements.

Responsibilities

• Take a whole-product view from feasibility to verification.
• Define system requirements and architecture.
• Lead risk assessments and DFMEA.
• Coordinate interfaces across hardware, embedded software and mechanics.
• Collaborate with clients and suppliers.

Skills

Systems engineering

Electrical engineering

Mechatronics

DFMEA

Risk management

Technical leadership

Education

Bachelor's/Master's in Electrical Engineering

Equivalent practical experience

Tools

SysML

Requirements tools

Job description

Cambridge Design Partnership is looking for a Senior Systems Engineer to operate as Technical Lead on a range of complex Electromechanical products for our clients. Working alongside a Project Manager to manage a multidisciplinary team, you will bring mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software elements together to ensure the complete product works as intended.

This is a practical, delivery-focused role. You will shape requirements and architecture, assess risks and technical options, plan integration and testing, and help resolve issues as ideas become working prototypes and production-ready designs. You should be just as comfortable discussing a design with a client as you are investigating a problem in the lab.

We are particularly interested in engineers with an electrical or mechatronics background who enjoy thinking beyond their own discipline. You will work with talented specialists across a variety of product development projects and take on technical responsibility appropriate to your experience.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Systems Engineering and Product Ownership

• Take a whole-product view of development, from initial feasibility and concept selection through detailed design, integration and verification.
• Turn stakeholder needs into practical requirements and trace them through to verification
• Manage Technical Risk and develop effective Risk Control Measures to ensure products are safe to use and meet regulatory constraints
• Comfortable managing mechanical, electronics, firmware, software and other specialists together so that individual subsystems work as one coherent product.
• Spot technical gaps and risks early, agree priorities with the team and drive engineering issues through to resolution.

Requirements, Architecture and Interfaces

• Take the lead on defining, reviewing and maintaining system requirements, making sure they are clear, testable and linked to the needs they address.
• Shape system architecture, data flow, and long-term technical roadmaps across multiple teams.
• Develop functional architectures, break products into manageable subsystems and agree technical responsibilities across engineering disciplines.
• Define interfaces between hardware, embedded software, controls and mechanical systems, including signals, power, communications and physical connections.
• Establish and assess key performance budgets, such as power, timing, accuracy or throughput, using analysis and test data to guide decisions.

Technical Problem Solving and Risk

• Take a hands-on approach to technical challenges, working with engineers to investigate unexpected behavior and find the root cause of problems.
• Plan and carry out focused feasibility work, experiments and prototype tests to answer important engineering questions early.
• Manage design reviews and risk assessments, helping the team make sound decisions on performance, reliability, safety and design maturity.
• Manage DFMEA and Risk Registers, assessing risk acceptability and tracing risks through Risk Control Measures to implementation

Integration, Test and Verification

• Plan how subsystems will be brought together and tested, with clear methods and acceptance criteria for demonstrating product performance.
• Support the build and integration of electromechanical prototypes, helping diagnose issues across electronics, controls, firmware, software and mechanisms.
• Prepare test methods and plans, participate in testing, interpret results and follow through on failures and design changes.
• Maintain clear evidence that the product meets its requirements through traceability documentation, and support design handover and transfer with the necessary technical information.

Working with Clients and Project Teams

• Act as a technical lead point of contact, giving project teams a clear view of the overall design and the implications of technical decisions.
• Explain technical options, trade-offs and recommendations clearly to clients and colleagues, using the right level of detail for the audience.
• Work with project managers and technical leads to plan engineering activities, estimate effort and manage technical dependencies and priorities.
• Collaborate with suppliers and external partners to agree specifications, resolve interface issues and integrate their work into the product.
• Support writing proposals, costing and planning work, technical workshops and design reviews, and help colleagues use systems engineering methods in a practical, proportionate way.

• Track record of at least 10 years' experience designing products in a highly regulated industry, preferably medical devices.
• Hands‑on and practical engineering skills, willing and able to get stuck in to designing solutions and able to demonstrate a passion for engineering in and out of work.
• Able to see the complete product while still understanding enough technical detail to make informed engineering decisions at all levels and engineering disciplines.
• Strong problem‑solving skills, with the curiosity and judgement to challenge assumptions and work through unfamiliar technical problems.
• Pragmatic and organized, able to bring structure to an ambiguous brief without creating unnecessary complexity or paperwork.
• Confident working across disciplines, with technical strengths in mechanical and electrical engineering or mechatronics.
• A clear communicator who can build strong relationships with clients, explain technical issues and influence decisions constructively.
• Able to balance performance, usability, cost, risk and development timescales when recommending engineering solutions.
• Proactive, collaborative and accountable, with the drive to take ownership and see technical issues through to completion.
• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in electrical engineering, mechanical/mechatronics, systems engineering or a closely related engineering discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience developing physical products that combine electronics, software or firmware, and mechanical components, ideally through more than one stage of development.
• Practical experience defining system requirements, developing architectures and managing interfaces between engineering disciplines.
• Hands‑on experience building, integrating, testing or troubleshooting electromechanical systems and resolving issues that span hardware and software.
• A good grounding in sensors, actuators, embedded controls, power and communications, and confidence interpreting schematics and technical test results.
• Experience planning and carrying out system‑level tests, assessing performance against requirements and documenting engineering findings.
• Familiarity with requirements tools, simulation, modelling, scripting or model‑based systems engineering (including SysML) would be beneficial.
• Strong AI skills and experience in applying tools to streamline technical activities, including requirements management
• Experience in a product development consultancy, medical devices, diagnostics, scientific instruments, robotics, automation or other regulated industries would be advantageous.

We’re an employee‑owned innovation partner with a growing US team. We bring ideas to life-from insight to engineering to pilot manufacture—across consumer and healthcare.