Introduction
Mission Summary:
Are you looking to make a real difference in peoples lives?
Here at iRobot, we deliver innovative robots that span a wide spectrum of duties. We are constantly striving to find better ways to free up people from home chores, and we are having fun while doing so.
iRobot is seeking a talented, motivated, high level technical leader, or a "Sr. Principal Electro-Mechanical Sensors Engineer" to join the Modules and Platform (M&P) arm of the iRobot Research and Development (R&D) organization as the Sensors Initiative Lead.
Hands on experience and in-depth knowledge within the sensor technology field (modeling and simulation, electromagnetic spectrum generation and detection, optics, focal plane arrays, electronic sensors, lasers, imaging systems, signal processing, algorithms)
In this role you will lead a multidisciplined engineering team responsible for sensor advance development activities to meet near term and long term sensor needs for robotic applications.
The sensors lead will enjoy the day-to-day hands on technical engagement with the sensors team as well as leading long term strategic planning with both R&D and Product Organization leaders.
The Sensors Lead is the technical advisor to the R&D and business Product organizations advising both on the competitive advantages of emerging sensing technologies and their potential applications for robotic applications.
The candidate will draw on their prior experience in advanced development and product development environments to guide the team through early stage technology explorations where requirements and applications are seldom well understood.
A well-organized lead will coordinate activities across multiple explorations and will share the engineering activities with the team.
The candidates experience in cost sensitive consumer electronics development environments will be crucial to the success of the team and their ability to deliver practical sensing solutions into production.
Ideally the candidate will have a solid electrical engineering development background. In addition, the candidate will have experience in mechanical design and/or SW coding to enable their own explorations of prototype concepts.
This position requires superior organizational, communication and interpersonal skills.
What You Will Do:
- Manage a sensor technology portfolio of projects ranging from early advanced development through late stage product development
- Lead or direct
- Sensing technology trade studies
- Off the Shelf (OTS) sensor evaluations
- Participate in the creation of the Module and Platform technology roadmap and long term sensing strategy
- Maintain and groom a backlog of sensing technologies for future investigation
- Review technology backlog with M&P, R&D and Product leaders
- Keep abreast of industry trends and technology developments in sensing and sensing applications
- Remain current and share technical analysis of the competitive landscape
- Grow capabilities of both staff and infrastructure in support of team objectives
- Provide technical mentoring for junior team members
- Provide regular project updates on technology advancements to stakeholders.
- Coordinate sensor transition from M&P into product development
To Be Successful You Will Have (required skills):
- Technical Masters degree or Ph.D. in Engineering, Physics, Optics or any engineering discipline (EE, ME, Systems or Software Engineering)
- 10+ years experience in a combination of consumer product and advanced development environments
- Strong systems based thinking is a must
- Ability to decompose complex problems into realistic plans designed to burn down technical risk
- Experience bringing low cost/high volume consumer products into production
- Experience in advanced development engineering environments and transition of AD programs into product development
- Strong organizational and communication skills
- Track several work streams at once
- Ability to effectively and efficiently communicate status and risks to stakeholders
- Keep team members informed and engaged
- Maintain confluence wiki and Jira tracking
- Ability to work across organization boundaries: Supply Chain, Product Org, Program Management, Engineering Competency, Industrial Design, Executive Leadership etc.
- Ability to foster and maintain collaborative relationships with technology suppliers (ex: semiconductor, module, system on a chip providers etc.)
Desired or ideal Skills and experience:
- Experience with robotic systems
- Optical design experience (ex: lensing, IR, light pipes)
- Hands on experience and in-depth knowledge within the sensor technology field (modeling and simulation, electromagnetic spectrum generation and detection, optics, focal plane arrays, electronic sensors, lasers, imaging systems, signal processing, algorithms)
- Low level analog (ex: comparators, op-amps, amplifiers) design
- Digital interfaces (ex: I2C, SPI)
- Microcontroller expertise (ex: STM32)
- Brushed and brushless motor/motor drive
- Circuit design experience
- Python or similar scripting language experience
- MS Office product expertise
- Microsoft SharePoint, OneNote, Confluence, Jira, Slack
- Creation of automated test fixtures in support of AD activities
- Altium schematic capture (or similar)
- Creo (or similar)
- 3D printing for quick prototyping
