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About the Role

Provide unified technical leadership across firmware, electronics, and mechanical engineering for a small, senior team building rugged, field-deployed embedded systems. You will be the integration point between disciplines, setting firmware architecture and system-level design standards, catching issues on the bench before they reach the field, and driving AI-first practices into the team's design, testing, and documentation processes. This is a player-coach role balancing strategic leadership with hands-on technical direction.

Responsibilities

Provide strategic leadership across firmware, electronics, and mechanical engineering to ship one integrated customer-facing system.
Champion an AI-first design framework across hardware, firmware, and mechanical work.
Set and enforce firmware standards for architecture, coding practice, and field-release hygiene.
Require co-design and early system validation across disciplines to catch issues on the bench.
Oversee execution of firmware, electronics, and mechanical programs from concept through production and field performance.
Foster system-level ownership and hold engineers accountable for product performance.
Establish and monitor KPIs for schedule, quality, field issues, and firmware release health.
Make and document system-level trade-off calls between disciplines.
Enable the Firmware Test Automation engineer to own embedded test architecture.
Oversee resource allocation, priorities, and budget across engineering disciplines.
Maintain living system documentation visible across all disciplines.
Lead a small multi-discipline engineering team.
Grow firmware and system capability through hiring, mentoring, and maintaining a high review bar.
Own high-severity field issues as system-level problems, driving root cause analysis.
Partner with Product to champion technician- and user-centered design decisions.
Model AI proficiency and drive team-wide adoption.
Invest in personal growth and stay current with industry trends.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
10+ years developing shipped embedded products with deep firmware expertise (C/C++, RTOS/bare-metal, HAL/drivers, bootloaders, field firmware update, low-power, connectivity).
2+ years leading engineers as a people manager or technical lead of a small hardware/firmware team, comfortable as a player-coach.
Electronics literacy sufficient to lead schematic and layout reviews, board bring-up, and mixed-signal/power trade-offs.
Mechanical fluency sufficient to set packaging requirements, judge DFM, and direct contract-manufacturer mechanical work.
Demonstrated daily use of AI tools in engineering or management with a track record of driving team-wide adoption.
Track record of taking products from concept through production and field performance, including ownership of customer or field issues.
Experience leading or partnering with a senior embedded/firmware test-automation or HIL engineer.
Experience coaching firmware, electronics, and mechanical contributors to co-design and validate at the system level early.
Industrial instrumentation, test and measurement, or rugged outdoor electronics experience (nice to have).
Hardware-in-the-loop, firmware CI, and design-for-test experience (nice to have).
Experience shipping products with trade-offs in measurement accuracy, wireless/GPS, power, and packaging (nice to have).
Cellular, satellite, BLE, and GPS/GNSS integration on MCU-class products (nice to have).
Experience directing mechanical contractors or a contract manufacturer (nice to have).
People leadership of mixed firmware, electrical, and mechanical contributors on a small team (nice to have).
Must be eligible to work in the US.
Must be able to pass a pre-employment background and drug test.

Skills

Firmware Architecture
System-Level Design
AI-First Design Frameworks
Embedded Systems
C/C++
Microcontrollers
RTOS
Bare-metal programming
HAL/Drivers
Bootloaders
Field Firmware Update
Low-power operation
Connectivity Integration (Serial, BLE, Cellular, Satellite, GPS/GNSS)
Schematic Reviews
Board Bring-up
Mixed-signal/Power Trade-offs
Packaging Requirements
DFM (Design for Manufacturability)
Contract Manufacturer Management
AI Tools
Product Development Lifecycle
Field Issue Resolution
Embedded Test Automation
Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL)
Firmware CI (Continuous Integration)
Design-for-Test
Resource Allocation
Budget Management
Team Leadership
Mentoring
Hiring
Product Management Partnership
Technician- and User-Centered Design

Location

Austin, TX

Work Type

On-site
Monday–Friday

Experience Level

10+ years developing shipped embedded products
2+ years leading engineers
Senior team

Education Level

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field
Equivalent combination of education and demonstrated embedded-product experience

Benefits

Competitive Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance
Company Provided Life and Disability Insurance
Paid Family Leave
Matching 401k

About the Company

American Innovations is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer.

Equal Opportunity

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.