Lead Electrical Engineer
About The Position
Parallel Systems is seeking a Lead Electrical Engineer to lead the design, development, integration, and validation of electrical systems for production autonomous battery-electric rail vehicles. The role provides technical direction for electrical architectures and subsystems, including power distribution, traction and braking interfaces, safety-critical control systems, wiring harnesses, and compute and sensor networks. As the technical lead for vehicle electrical engineering, this position establishes system architectures, drives design decisions, and oversees electrical system development from concept through production deployment. The engineer works across mechanical, software, autonomy, manufacturing, and external partner teams to support reliable vehicle integration and meet performance, safety, reliability, and regulatory requirements. The role combines system-level ownership and technical leadership with hands-on design, testing, and integration in a hardware development environment. Success in the role includes learning existing vehicle architectures and risks, setting priorities, driving subsystem roadmaps and cross-disciplinary requirements, and advancing system-level architecture and prototype integration. The position also shapes electrical system development, production readiness, and regulatory milestones.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
- 8 or more years of relevant experience designing, developing, integrating, or validating electrical systems for vehicles or other complex electromechanical products.
- Demonstrated experience leading the architecture and development of complex electrical systems through multiple product lifecycle stages, from concept through production.
- Proven ability to establish technical direction, make system-level design decisions, and lead resolution of complex electrical engineering challenges.
- Strong understanding of vehicle electrical architectures, power distribution, control systems, and embedded communication protocols such as CAN and Ethernet.
- Experience defining system requirements, managing subsystem interfaces, and developing verification and validation strategies.
- Experience with electrical design and documentation tools such as SolidWorks Electrical, Altium, RapidHarness, or equivalent.
- Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional engineering efforts and communicate technical decisions, risks, and tradeoffs to engineering, manufacturing, and leadership stakeholders.
- Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis skills, including the ability to apply first principles to complex technical problems.
Nice To Haves
- Experience leading electrical engineering development for automotive, rail, aerospace, commercial vehicles, or heavy industrial equipment.
- Experience with traction systems, braking systems, high-voltage power distribution, vehicle control systems, or other safety-critical vehicle subsystems.
- Working knowledge of functional safety standards and frameworks such as ISO 26262, Automotive Safety Integrity Levels (ASIL), IEC 61508, or equivalent.
- Experience with system-level hazard analysis, DFMEA, fault analysis, reliability engineering, and formal verification and validation processes.
- Hands-on experience designing, prototyping, integrating, and validating complex wiring harnesses and electrical assemblies.
- Experience with hardware-in-the-loop testing, automated test systems, data acquisition, or electrical test stand development.
- Programming or scripting experience in Python, C/C++, Rust, or similar languages for test automation, diagnostics, or hardware integration.
- Experience supporting contract manufacturers, supplier qualification, design-for-manufacturing, and production ramp-up.
- Experience mentoring engineers, leading design reviews, establishing engineering standards, and coordinating technical execution across multiple disciplines.
- Evidence of exceptional technical ability through shipped products, complex system deployments, patents, technical projects, or a portfolio of engineering work.
Responsibilities
- Lead the technical direction, architecture, design, development, integration, and validation of vehicle electrical systems, including power distribution, wiring harnesses, commercial-off-the-shelf hardware, and electrical test infrastructure.
- Define electrical system requirements, architecture standards, interface specifications, and design practices; evaluate tradeoffs and make decisions balancing performance, reliability, safety, cost, and manufacturability.
- Oversee development and documentation of safety-critical subsystems, including hazard analyses, DFMEAs, risk assessments, and verification and validation strategies.
- Lead electrical engineering alignment with mechanical, embedded software, controls, autonomy, and systems engineering teams to ensure integration across vehicle subsystems.
- Lead electrical design reviews, identify technical risks, resolve complex system-level issues, and establish corrective actions through structured debugging and root-cause analysis.
- Define and oversee hardware bring-up, bench testing, electrical system validation, prototype vehicle integration, fault isolation, and reliability testing.
- Lead electrical design maturation from prototype through production, working with manufacturing, suppliers, and contract manufacturers on design-for-manufacturing, assembly, testability, quality, and production ramp-up.
- Develop repeatable processes for electrical design, requirements traceability, configuration management, validation, and engineering change control.
- Ensure schematics, wiring diagrams, bills of materials, interface specifications, test reports, and engineering change documentation meet quality and traceability requirements.
- Guide and mentor engineers, review designs, establish priorities, promote consistent engineering practices, and coordinate technical execution with vehicle development milestones.
- Identify critical-path electrical engineering risks, prioritize resources and technical activities, and communicate project status, dependencies, and tradeoffs to cross-functional stakeholders.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
