Vence Collar Tech Lead

Merck•San Diego, CA

About The Position

Animal Health Technology Solutions offers global animal identification and monitoring solutions for companion animals and livestock. These solutions enable pet owners to better manage the health and well-being of their pets and enable livestock producers to improve well-being and animal production. Our Technology Solutions division is evolving to a Product Operating Model, a new way of working that empowers product teams to take full ownership and accountability for delivering customer and business value. Our product teams are cross-functional and durable, bringing together all the skills required to deliver impactful outcomes. Each team includes a Product Manager, Technology Lead, Product Designer, Delivery Lead, engineers, and developers. We believe in customer centricity, ownership, and accountability. Solutions must be valuable, viable, usable, and feasible. Leadership of the team is shared between the Product Manager and the Technology Lead, ensuring balanced guidance that bridges product vision and technical execution. As the Vence Collar Tech Lead, you will provide technical leadership for the animal wearable device (collar) within the broader Vence solution. You will lead the technical design and execution of the collar from concept through mass production, ensuring the solution is technically robust, manufacturable, reliable, and scalable in real-world farm environments. You will work as part of the Vence core product team, in close partnership with the Vence Collar Product Manager, R&D teams, NPI, Operations, Customer Success, and manufacturing partners. You will be accountable for technical architecture, system integration, validation, risk management, and technical readiness for launch and ongoing support. We are looking for a Vence Collar Tech Lead who thrives on leading technical development of products that customers love, understanding customer problems and leading the development and delivery of technological solutions, is guided by measurable results related to collar performance and customer outcomes, collaborates across R&D, NPI, Operations, Supply Chain, and Customer Success to deliver a technically strong device, uses field data and technical evidence to guide engineering tradeoffs and improvements, and fosters an environment of continuous learning, innovation, and collaboration in a multidisciplinary team.

Requirements

BSc/MSc in Electrical Engineering or a related discipline.
Minimum 5 years of experience in technical leadership or technical project management for multidisciplinary hardware products.
Proven experience working in a product team and collaborating cross-functionally.
Minimum of 5 years of experience working in medium and large-scale companies.
Comprehensive knowledge of IoT architecture, embedded systems, hardware, mechanics, integration, and validation.
Experience developing mass-production products for wireless IoT or wearable devices.
Proven experience working throughout the entire product life cycle, from discovery and concept through design, validation, and mass production.
Experience working on complex products requiring a high level of technical know-how and coordination across multiple geographic locations.
Excellent communication, presentation, and organizational skills.
Passion for building products that solve real customer problems and deliver measurable value in the field.
A mindset of ownership, accountability, and customer focus; comfortable signing up for results and driving outcomes through others when needed.

Nice To Haves

Experience in geofencing, animal technology, or similar field-deployed hardware solutions.
Ability to lead as an individual contributor within a matrix environment, influencing without direct line authority.
Strong ability to focus on what is important to the customer and the business, not just what is technically interesting.
Willingness to travel to meet customers, field teams, manufacturing partners, and remote R&D teams.
Problem solver with a “can-do” attitude and strong desire for learning and innovation.
Excellent team player, able to collaborate closely with the Vence Product Manager, Vence Tech Lead, Vence core product team, engineering, NPI, Operations, and Customer Success.
Passion for fostering team innovation and leveraging the collective ideas and expertise of cross-functional colleagues.
Change Controls, Portfolio, Programme, and Project Support, Problem Management, Release Management, Risk Management, Strategic Planning, System Designs

Responsibilities

Work with the Vence Collar Product Manager and cross-functional partners to understand Vence customer needs and translate agreed product outcomes into technical solutions for the collar.
Lead the technical architecture and system design for the collar, including electronics, mechanics, embedded software, RF communications, integration, and validation.
Define and drive engineering solutions that meet performance, reliability, manufacturability, and cost constraints.
Ensure collar designs and algorithms are compatible with and make effective use of relevant Core Platforms, avoiding duplication of platform responsibilities.
Evaluate technical feasibility, complexity, and risk for proposed design changes and solutions.
Own collar-specific product outcomes and metrics (e.g., field failure/return rates, installation/activation success, battery life, robustness, unit cost) and use these to guide design trade-offs.
Work as part of the Vence core product team to define goals and solve customer problems related to the collar, bringing collar-specific technical and field insights into decisions.
Drive and participate in product discovery for collar-related problems: Engage with Customer Success, field teams, and customers to understand pain points (installation, comfort, durability, reliability).
Help define and run experiments and trials to validate ideas before committing to full design changes.
Collaborate cross-functionally with R&D functional managers, engineers, product design, NPI, Operations, Supply Chain, and Customer Success to ensure alignment and delivery.
Ensure speed to market while maintaining focus on quality, robustness, and performance in demanding environments.
Collaborate with NPI and Operations on production launch and ramp-up, as well as ongoing mass production support.
Define and oversee validation strategy, technical acceptance criteria, and readiness activities.
Identify risks early and proactively define mitigation strategies.
Support ongoing operations by investigating and resolving field issues and feeding insights into future improvements.
Stay current with relevant IoT, hardware, and wearable technologies and industry trends.
Promote innovation while maintaining strong focus on reliability, safety, and field performance.
Own the technical architecture and engineering of the collar and ensure the solution achieves customer outcomes.
Deliver high-quality technical solutions that meet agreed requirements and performance targets.
Track and report technical metrics such as reliability, test coverage, yield, field failure rates, and risks.
Ensure engineering decisions balance feasibility, reliability, maintainability, manufacturability, and cost.
Provide strong technical input to support product decisions.