Senior Sensor Engineering Leader

Senstar

About The Position

Senstar is looking for a senior engineering leader to own the delivery and evolution of our perimeter intrusion detection sensor portfolio — products that combine custom hardware, embedded software, and advanced signal processing, deployed at critical sites around the world. This is a leadership role for someone who has built sensor or embedded products end-to-end and can lead a combined hardware and software organization with equal credibility on both sides. You will manage a team that includes an embedded software group led by a development manager, senior hardware and RF/optical design engineers, verification staff, and a design services function — roughly ten engineers in total, including experienced managers, long-tenured senior individual contributors, and early-career engineers you will be expected to grow. The mandate spans both horizons: driving the development of our next-generation sensor platform while sustaining mature fielded products with long lifecycles, demanding environments, and customers who depend on them for physical security. You will partner closely — through influence rather than authority — with a principal systems architect who holds cross-system design authority, and with an AI/ML specialist integrating deep-learning-based detection into the sensor line.

Requirements

Proven engineering leadership of combined hardware and embedded software teams, including managing other managers.
Deep technical grounding in at least one core sensor domain — embedded systems, signal processing, RF, electro-optics/photonics, or electronics design — sufficient to hold credibility with senior specialists in each.
Experience delivering physical products end-to-end: concept through design, verification, certification, manufacturing transfer, and field support.
Experience with long-lifecycle products where backward compatibility, installed-base support, and reliability are first-order constraints.
A track record of developing engineers: growing first-time managers and technical leads, and advancing early-career staff.
Demonstrated ability to lead senior individual contributors and to work effectively alongside architect-level peers you do not manage.
Experience leading distributed or multi-site engineering teams.
Strong delivery and planning discipline: estimation, prioritization, and predictable execution across parallel hardware and software workstreams.

Nice To Haves

Experience with perimeter security, physical security, defense, or other safety- and security-critical products.
Experience with fiber-optic sensing, distributed acoustic sensing, radar/microwave detection, or similar sensing technologies.
Experience deploying machine-learning-based detection or classification on embedded or edge platforms.
Familiarity with regulatory certification for electronic products (e.g., CE, FCC, UL) and design-for-manufacture practices.
Experience introducing AI-assisted engineering workflows into hardware/embedded development (documentation, test generation, analysis, code review).
Experience taking over an established team from a long-tenured predecessor and earning credibility with senior staff.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end delivery of the sensor product portfolio across hardware design, embedded software, signal processing, and verification.
Lead a combined engineering organization that includes development managers, senior individual contributors, and early-career staff.
Drive execution of the next-generation perimeter intrusion detection platform while sustaining and supporting fielded products through long product lifecycles.
Balance new product development against sustaining engineering, field escalations, and manufacturing support, and make the trade-offs explicit.
Partner with the systems architect who owns cross-system design authority: the architect is accountable for the design being right; you are accountable for delivery, staffing, and execution.
Work with our AI/ML specialist to productionize neural-network-based detection within embedded sensor platforms.
Develop people deliberately: coach a first-time development manager, progress a technical lead toward formal team leadership, and advance early-career engineers from execution roles into independent development roles.
Manage senior, long-tenured individual contributors who need technical engagement and prioritization rather than close supervision.
Lead across sites: the team is distributed, and so is the customer base.
Own planning and roadmap commitments with Product Management, including estimation, resourcing, and make/buy decisions.
Oversee the design services and documentation interface into manufacturing, including design-for-manufacture and regulatory/compliance requirements.
Own quality outcomes for the sensor line, including escalation and resolution of complex field issues spanning hardware, firmware, and installation environments.
Establish engineering standards, design review practices, and delivery discipline across hardware and embedded software.
Recruit and retain senior engineering talent in competitive hardware and embedded software markets.