R&D Manager, Systems Engineering

Neogen Corporation • Oakdale, CA

2d • Onsite

About The Position

The R&D Manager, Systems Engineering is a hands-on technical and people leader within Neogen’s Instrumentation and Software R&D organization. The role leads a multidisciplinary team of approximately 3–6 mechanical and electrical engineers while applying systems engineering principles across new product development, portfolio modernization, and sustaining engineering.

The position strengthens and scales systems engineering practices across the instrumentation development lifecycle, including system architecture, requirements development and traceability, interface management, system integration, design risk management, verification and validation, and technical decision-making. It partners with Product Management, Portfolio Management, Software, Firmware, Quality, Regulatory, Manufacturing, Service, and other Engineering functions to translate customer and business needs into product architectures and executable engineering plans.

Based in Oakdale, Minnesota, the role requires regular collaboration with Engineering, Product Management, Manufacturing, Quality, Regulatory, Service, and other cross-functional teams.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Progressive professional engineering experience developing complex multidisciplinary products.
• Experience working with products integrating hardware, software, firmware, electrical, and mechanical systems.
• Hands-on experience with system architecture and system-level technical design.
• Experience developing and managing system or subsystem requirements.
• Experience with requirements traceability and change control.
• Experience defining and managing interfaces across multiple engineering disciplines.
• Experience supporting or leading system integration activities.
• Experience with design risk management and technical risk mitigation.
• Experience developing or executing verification and validation strategies.
• Previous people-leadership or technical-leadership experience, including coaching engineers or coordinating multidisciplinary engineering work.
• Demonstrated ability to translate customer or business needs into technical requirements and executable engineering plans.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, decision-making, and communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively within a cross-functional, matrixed product-development environment.
• Strong systems-thinking and multidisciplinary problem-solving capabilities, including understanding interactions across hardware, software, firmware, electrical, and mechanical domains.
• Ability to balance hands-on technical responsibilities with people leadership and team development.
• Strong requirements-development and technical documentation skills.
• Ability to identify technical risks, evaluate trade-offs, and develop practical mitigation strategies.
• Strong coaching, mentoring, collaboration, relationship-building, and engineering talent-development skills.
• Ability to influence technical direction across teams and functions and communicate complex technical concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multiple technical priorities and exercise sound judgment amid technical uncertainty or competing priorities.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in Systems Engineering or a related engineering discipline.
• Experience developing scientific instrumentation, diagnostics, laboratory equipment, medical technology, or other regulated products.
• Experience leading systems engineering activities for products integrating hardware, firmware, and software.
• Systems engineering experience within healthcare, automotive, aerospace, or another complex product-development environment.
• Experience with model-based systems engineering.
• Experience with SysML.
• Experience with system modeling, simulation, or digital-twin methods and tools.
• Experience implementing requirements-management or traceability tools and processes.
• Knowledge of product-development lifecycle governance and configuration management.
• Knowledge of reliability engineering principles and practices.
• Experience supporting manufacturing transfer.
• Experience establishing or scaling systems engineering practices within a multidisciplinary engineering organization.
• Experience leading organizational or engineering-process change.
• Experience supporting both new product development and sustaining engineering.

Responsibilities

• Lead instrumentation development programs and sustaining initiatives as the hands-on systems engineering leader.
• Define system, subsystem, and component architectures for complex multidisciplinary products.
• Lead functional decomposition and allocation across mechanical, electrical, software, and firmware domains.
• Develop and maintain system and subsystem requirements, acceptance criteria, bidirectional traceability, and change control.
• Define and manage interfaces across engineering disciplines, subsystems, external partners, manufacturing environments, and connected software systems.
• Lead system-level technical decisions, evaluating design trade-offs, risks, dependencies, and implementation options; communicate decisions and recommendations to teams and senior stakeholders.
• Plan and lead system integration across hardware, software, firmware, electrical, and mechanical elements, including integration sequencing, test readiness, issue triage, and cross-functional resolution.
• Develop system-level verification and validation strategies and ensure subsystem and component verification supports system-level objectives.
• Lead or support investigations of complex system failures, integration issues, and performance gaps; ensure technical evidence and documentation support design reviews and product-development requirements.
• Establish and scale systems engineering methodologies, tools, templates, and design-review practices for requirements management, traceability, interface definition, architecture, integration, and verification.
• Identify opportunities to improve engineering rigor, efficiency, and consistency; support adoption of requirements-management and traceability tools; advance modeling, simulation, model-based systems engineering, and digital-twin approaches where appropriate.
• Promote systems thinking and cross-disciplinary engineering practices throughout the organization.
• Integrate technical and design risk management into architecture and product-development decisions; lead or support risk analyses, design reviews, mitigation planning, and technical risk tracking.
• Identify system-level failure modes, interface risks, and integration dependencies early, and partner with Quality, Regulatory, and Engineering to ensure risk controls are identified, implemented, and verified.
• Support new product development from concept and architecture through integration, verification, validation, and commercialization.
• Provide systems engineering leadership for portfolio modernization and sustaining engineering initiatives; support root-cause investigations and evaluate architecture improvements for performance, reliability, serviceability, cost, and lifecycle needs.
• Support component obsolescence response, alternate technology evaluation, product lifecycle planning, manufacturing transfer, configuration management, and product-development lifecycle governance.
• Partner with Manufacturing, Service, and Quality to resolve complex technical issues and improve product performance.
• Lead, coach, and develop approximately 3–6 mechanical and electrical engineers; set goals, priorities, responsibilities, and performance expectations.
• Support recruiting, onboarding, development planning, and retention; provide technical guidance and regular coaching to direct reports.
• Build engineering capability through mentoring, development opportunities, and structured feedback; coordinate team resources and priorities to support project and portfolio objectives.
• Foster accountability, collaboration, technical excellence, and continuous improvement within the team.
• Partner with Product Management and Portfolio Management to translate customer and business needs into system-level requirements and technical strategies.
• Collaborate with Software, Firmware, Mechanical, Electrical, Quality, Regulatory, Manufacturing, and Service teams throughout the product lifecycle.
• Align technical architecture and engineering execution with product objectives, customer needs, and business priorities; participate in design reviews, project reviews, portfolio discussions, and technical planning.
• Support alignment between engineering teams and external development or manufacturing partners when applicable.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage beginning on the first day of employment.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Generous paid time off.
• Career growth opportunities, including tools, training, and support for career development.
• Meaningful work with an impact on customers, communities, and the world.
• Collaborative culture valuing innovation, respect, teamwork, and continuous improvement.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager