Senior R&D Engineer - System Dynamics and Controls

Iowa State University•Ames, IA

16h•Onsite

About The Position

Build the Future of Agriculture. If you want your engineering work to matter outside the lab —on real machines, in real farm fields, with real impact—this is the role for you. Who We Are The Digital Ag Innovation Lab partners with leading agricultural companies to imagine, design, and deploy next-generation technologies for agriculture. Our team works at the intersection of applied engineering, industry collaboration, and the land-grant mission, moving ideas from concept to prototype to field deployment and ultimately into industry adoption. Our vision is bold: to be the premiere thought leader and partner in ag innovation. Our mission guides everything we do: Innovate. Educate. Outreach. We innovate with partners to create technology solutions that drive value into agriculture and our communities. We educate to inspire and develop students and professionals to ensure a thriving workforce that drives success within our industry. We outreach to share knowledge with farmers and ag businesses and promote practices that enhance their success. We operate with four core values: Passion. Innovation. Collaboration. Excellence. The Opportunity We are seeking a Senior R&D Engineer to lead the architecture, integration, and deployment of advanced digital agriculture systems. This is a hands-on systems engineering leadership role with ownership from concept through field deployment. You will design and integrate hardware and software systems, develop production-representative platforms, and deliver solutions that are robust, scalable, and deployment-ready. You will work directly with OEM and industry engineering teams to define requirements, lead execution, and ensure systems meet real-world performance expectations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and 8 years related experience
Deep experience designing and integrating complex hardware-software systems for vehicle dynamics and controls, from modeling and simulation through embedded deployment, lab and field validation, and extraction of meaningful performance metrics.
Strong project management, communication, and leadership skills are essential when collaborating with interdisciplinary teams, industry partners, and externally funded engineering projects.

Nice To Haves

M.S. or Ph.D. in Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field
Background in agricultural equipment, off‑highway machinery, robotics, or precision ag systems
Experience commercializing applied engineering solutions
Experience mentoring engineers in fast‑paced development environments

Responsibilities

Lead system architecture and integration of automation and control systems for real-time vehicle applications
Design and implement multi-sensor data pipelines to support control development and system performance analysis
Develop and validate vehicle dynamics and system models to inform control strategies and hardware selection
Define and execute validation strategies across simulation, HIL, lab, and field environments
Integrate embedded systems with vehicle networks (e.g., CAN, Ethernet) and real-time control architectures
Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies into deployable, production-representative systems
Lead cross-functional engineering efforts, delivering against technical milestones and partner expectations
Develop technical documentation, scopes of work, and deliverables for external partners
Mentor engineers and contribute to a high-performance engineering culture focused on ownership, innovation, and execution