Principal Application/System Engineer

Nordson Corporation; Minneapolis (MN); On-site; USD 125,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Volunteer time off

Matching gifts program

Job summary

Nordson Test & Inspection seeks a Principal Systems Engineer for the WaferSense team. You will provide technical leadership for development and lifecycle support of a semiconductor product line used worldwide. Collaborate with engineering and business stakeholders to shape system architecture and guide cross-disciplinary execution.

The role emphasizes hands-on design, prototyping, and rigorous validation, with mentoring responsibilities and global collaboration across teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, physics, or related field.
• 10+ years of R&D and product development experience with complex systems.
• Experience leading cross-functional technical efforts and design decisions.
• Ability to guide investigations, experiments, and verifications.

Responsibilities

• Shape system architecture with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.
• Lead requirements, performance targets, and subsystem interfaces.
• Guide development to deliver integrated, high-performance products.
• Coordinate priorities, resources, and milestones across teams.
• Lead technical reviews, risk assessments, and trade studies.
• Contribute hands-on design, prototyping, experiments, and troubleshooting.
• Guide system integration, testing, and validation across subsystems.
• Mentor engineers and share knowledge to strengthen the team.

Skills

System architecture

Cross-functional leadership

R&D leadership

Prototyping

Technical mentoring

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering

10+ years R&D experience

Job description

Overview

Nordson Test & Inspection, a global leader in X-Ray & Test Systems and Optical Sensors and Metrology, is seeking an experienced and highly motivated individual to join our team.

We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, and we are looking for candidates who share that same commitment.

Job Summary

As a Principal Systems Engineer on the WaferSense team, you will provide technical leadership for the development and lifecycle support of a product line used by semiconductor manufacturers and equipment OEMs worldwide. Working closely with cross-functional engineering teams and business stakeholders, you will help shape system architecture, guide development, and connect technical contributions across disciplines to deliver innovative, high-performance products. The successful candidate brings a proven track record of R&D and development of complex, multidisciplinary systems, combining practical engineering expertise with the ability to guide technical execution, resolve complex challenges, and align teams toward a common product vision. This is an individual contributor role with significant technical leadership and mentoring responsibilities.

Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities

• Shape system architecture and design decisions in collaboration with cross-functional engineering teams and stakeholders.
• Lead cross-team definition of system requirements, performance targets, and subsystem interfaces.
• Guide cross-functional development, ensuring engineering contributions integrate into a complete, effective product.
• Coordinate technical priorities, dependencies, resources, and milestones with functional and project leaders.
• Lead technical reviews and trade studies, balancing performance, manufacturability, cost, schedule, and risk.
• Contribute hands‑on to design, prototyping, experiments, and troubleshooting as needed.
• Guide system integration, testing, and validation across subsystems.
• Collaborate on the development of calibration methods, fixture architecture, and production processes.
• Lead complex investigations using engineering analysis and experimental evidence to resolve product and production issues.
• Lead technical risk assessments and coordinate mitigation and verification of corrective actions.
• Translate customer and business needs into technical requirements and development priorities with relevant stakeholders.
• Ensure documentation captures consistent requirements, interfaces, decisions, and validation results across teams.
• Mentor engineers and share technical knowledge to strengthen team capability.

Education and Experience Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, physics, or related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of R&D and product development experience, with demonstrated success developing complex systems and leading cross-functional technical efforts.
• Experience making substantial technical contributions through design, prototyping, integration, and validation.
• Strong technical depth in a relevant field and the ability to understand interactions across a complete system.
• Demonstrated ability to guide cross-functional technical work, build alignment on design decisions, and drive execution.
• Experience evaluating system-level trade-offs and resolving complex design or integration problems.
• Ability to structure investigations, design effective experiments, interpret data, and verify engineering solutions.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, including the ability to build agreement and explain technical recommendations clearly.

Preferred Skills and Abilities

• Experience developing precision products, sensors, metrology systems, scientific instruments, or semiconductor equipment.
• Experience guiding a multidisciplinary development effort from concept through production release.
• Experience with calibration, measurement systems, test fixtures, or manufacturing-process development.
• Experience in resolving complex manufacturing or field-performance issues.
• We welcome candidates with relevant R&D and product-development experience across industries.
• Candidate do not need to meet every preferred qualification to be considered.

Travel

Travel Required None

Compensation

Base Salary for this position is: $125,000 to $170,000 annually and bonus target is 3%;

Benefits include Medical, Rx, Vision, Dental, and Health Savings Account (HSA), Retirement and Security benefits including 401k and Life Insurance.

In addition to Paid Time Off and paid Holidays, each employee receives 16 hours paid time each calendar year to perform volunteer services for Nordson-sponsored events.

Ample opportunities for giving exist at Nordson including our Matching Gifts Program.

The base pay range for this job level is a general guideline and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Individual salaries are determined by a variety of factors including but not limited to internal equity, business considerations, and local market conditions, as well as candidate qualifications, such as education, experience, and skills

Company Overview

Nordson Test & Inspection Nordson Test & Inspection manufactures world-class metrology equipment and inspection systems to ensure electronic products are built to meet the highest standards. We use X-ray inspection, acoustic imaging, and optical inspection technologies to create testing systems that enable the identification of even the smallest defects at high resolution. By joining our team today, you will help us bring innovative ideas to life. Nordson Test & Inspection is a global team that works to create machines and systems that improve the manufacturing process for a wide range of industries, including electronics, aerospace, automotive, energy, lighting, and medical. We offer a supportive culture in a growing and dynamic work environment. Whether you're just beginning your career or you're a seasoned professional, there's a place for you to belong at Nordson Test & Inspection. We offer hourly and salary positions in production, maintenance, customer service, quality, engineering, and more. We actively invest in our teams to help you build your skillsets and advance your career. At Nordson, we believe that anything is possible. We empower our global team of employees to engineer, manufacture, and market innovative products and systems that are essential to everyday life. These differentiated products and systems are used for precision dispensing and processing and serve a variety of end markets, including packaging, transportation, medical, and electronics. Founded in 1954, we are guided by our values of integrity, respect for people, customer passion, energy, and excellence. We care for our employees and provide them with opportunities to advance their careers and make an impact, inside and outside of work. Nordson is headquartered in Westlake, Ohio, and has direct operations in more than 35 countries to support our products and systems with application expertise and a direct global sales and service organization.