System Lead

Optics11 Life; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Optics11 is seeking a System Lead Energy to oversee system architecture, technical integrity and end-to-end integration of Energy monitoring products. You translate objectives into requirements, interfaces and decisions ensuring hardware, software, sensing, edge, cloud and AI components work as one reliable system.

The role combines hands-on engineering leadership with practical validation, ensuring traceability and release readiness across product lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Degree in Systems/Electrical/Applied Physics/CS or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of relevant engineering experience with hardware/software products.
• Ownership of system requirements, architecture and interfaces.
• Strong depth in embedded or software systems across electronics, sensing, networking and data processing.
• Experience defining data flows and processing chains and their impact on performance.
• Hands-on integration and troubleshooting using measurements, logs and experiments.
• Experience with traceability, configuration management and verification planning.
• Clear English communication and independent technical leadership.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain system requirements, architecture, interfaces and criteria; allocate to subsystems.
• Lead technical decisions and design reviews across disciplines for performance, reliability and cost.
• Define data exchange and interpretation requirements, data quality, timing and compatibility.
• Identify risks, failure modes and operating limits early; guide design decisions.
• Drive system integration with component owners and resolve dependencies across hardware/software/AI.
• Represent Energy requirements in the shared OptimAE platform and maintain compatibility.
• Lead complex system investigations and root-cause analyses for improvements.
• Collaborate with IVVQ on testability, verification, and release readiness.
• Guide deployment, diagnostics, recovery and serviceability with clear documentation.

Skills

System engineering

Embedded software

Data processing

Diagnostics

Technical leadership

English communication

Education

Engineering degree (Systems/Electrical/Applied Physics/CS)

Tools

Python

Embedded Linux

Docker

Job description

As a System Lead Energy at Optics11, you are responsible for the system architecture, technical integrity, and integration of our Energy monitoring products throughout their lifecycle.

You translate product objectives and customer needs into system requirements, architecture, interfaces, and technical decisions, ensuring that hardware, software, sensing technologies, and algorithms work together to deliver reliable system performance.

Our systems combine fiber-optic sensors, interrogator hardware and firmware, Edge computing, networking, cloud applications, data processing, and AI-driven algorithms. Your role is therefore focused on maintaining the complete system overview, managing technical dependencies, and ensuring that all components function together as one integrated solution.

You work closely with Product, Systems Engineering, Software, Embedded, Hardware, Algorithms, Operations, Manufacturing, and other IVVQ engineers.

This is a senior hands-on individual contributor role, combining system-level thinking, test design, technical investigation, and practical validation.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and maintain system requirements, architecture, interfaces and technical acceptance criteria, allocating requirements to subsystems and maintaining traceability to product and customer needs.

• Lead technical decisions and design reviews across disciplines, balancing performance, reliability, security, maintainability, manufacturability and cost.

• Define how components exchange and interpret data, including requirements for data quality, timing, syncronisation and compatibility.

• Identify system risks, failure modes and operating limits early, using analysis, prototypes and targeted experiments to guide design decisions.

• Drive system integration with component owners, assessing the impact of changes and resolving technical dependencies across hardware, software, AI and data processing.

• Represent Energy requirements in the shared OptimAE platform and maintain compatibility across supported system configurations.

• Lead complex system investigations and root-cause analysis, turning integration, test and field findings into sustainable product improvements.

• Work with IVVQ on testability, verification approaches and release readiness, ensuring that system level functionality, performance and reliability are supported by evidence.

• Guide improvements in deployment, diagnostics, recovery and serviceability, maintaining clear system documentation and sharing knowledge across teams.

Qualifications

• A degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Computer Science or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

• At least 7 years of relevant engineering experience, including technical leadership of multidisciplinary products combining hardware and software.

• Demonstrated ownership of system requirements, architecture and interfaces through development, integration and release.

• Strong practical depth in embedded or software systems, with the ability to reason across electronics, sensing, networking, algorithms and data processing.

• Experience defining and assessing data flows and processing chains, including how data quality, timing and algorithm limitations affect system performance.

• Hands-on integration and troubleshooting skills, using measurements, logs, analysis and experiments to understand system behaviour.

• Experience with requirements traceability, configuration management, technical risk assessment and verification planning.

• Clear communication in English, independent ownership and the ability to guide engineers through complex technical decisions. Occasional customer or field visits may be required.

Nice to have

• Experience with optical or acoustic sensing, industrial monitoring or energy infrastructure.

• Python experience is strongly preferred.

• Familiarity with embedded Linux, Docker, signal processing, AI/ML enabled products, cybersecurity or environmental qualification is valuable.

Why Join Us?

• Join one of Europe’s most promising deep-tech scale-ups.

• Work on complex multidisciplinary products combining photonics, hardware, software, cloud, and algorithms.

• Shape how system-level validation is done within a growing R&D organization.

• Competitive salary and benefits package.

• Regular team activities, company events, and fresh team lunches.