Job Application for Senior Systems Engineer at AEye, Inc

New

Senior Systems Engineer

We are looking for a Senior Systems Engineer to join our systems engineering team and drive the requirements, system architecture, performance analysis, and functional safety work for AEye's lidar and its variants. You translate customer and product needs into verifiable system and subsystem requirements, define the KPIs the system is measured against and analyze performance data to confirm it meets them, contribute to the definition and documentation of the system architecture and its interfaces, and support the functional safety and cybersecurity activities that take a sensor from concept through production. Working with architecture, hardware, software, firmware, and mechanical teams, you keep requirements, design, verification, and interfaces consistent across disciplines and help the program meet its system- level targets in partnership with engineering, program management, and business development.

Key Responsibilities

Requirements engineering: elicit, author, and maintain system requirements from customer, product, and regulatory inputs. Decompose system-level targets into clear, verifiable subsystem requirements (EE / ME / FW / SW / optics) with bidirectional traceability from stakeholder need to verification result, using a requirements management tool.
System architecture: contribute to the definition and documentation of the lidar system architecture, taking ownership of assigned areas such as functional decomposition, hardware/software partitioning, and the interfaces between subsystems (optical, electrical, firmware, software, mechanical, thermal). Author and maintain interface control documents for those areas, keep interface definitions consistent across disciplines, and support trade studies to validate architectural decisions.
Functional safety and cybersecurity: contribute to the functional safety lifecycle activities for the product per ISO 26262, including item definition, HARA, safety goals, functional and technical safety concepts, and safety analyses (FMEA, FMEDA, FTA, DFA). Support the cybersecurity concept and TARA per ISO/SAE 21434, and SOTIF considerations per ISO 21448, in collaboration with hardware and software teams.
Verification criteria: define the verification method and acceptance criteria for every system and subsystem requirement, including those derived from environmental and eye-safety standards, and hand them off to the test and validation teams. Review verification evidence to close requirements and keep the traceability matrix current. Test plan authoring and test execution are owned by the test and validation teams, not this role.
Cross-functional collaboration: act as the technical systems liaison across architecture, hardware, software, firmware, and mechanical teams, contributing to design reviews, resolving interface, integration, and performance issues at the system level, and supporting customer technical reviews and RFI/RFQ responses.
Manufacturing transition: support the transition of prototypes through R&D validation into production, including production integration, design-for-x, and the process and documentation deliverables required by automotive quality and qualification standards.
Performance KPIs and analysis: define the system KPIs (for example range, accuracy, precision, false alarm rate, separability) and develop physics-based performance models that link them to subsystem parameters. Analyze lab, field, and customer data against those KPIs and requirements, identify root causes of performance gaps, and feed the findings back into requirements, architecture, and trade studies.

Qualifications

Required

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics, Optics, Mechatronics, or a related field.
5+ years of systems engineering experience on optoelectronic or sensor products, preferably lidar or active depth sensing, in automotive, aerospace, or industrial markets.
Strong requirements engineering skills: writing clear, verifiable requirements with verification methods and acceptance criteria, decomposing system targets into subsystem requirements, and maintaining traceability.
Hands-on experience with at least one requirements management tool (for example DOORS, Jama, Polarion, Codebeamer).
Experience defining and documenting system architectures and interfaces, including hardware/software partitioning and interface control documents covering electrical and data interfaces (for example Automotive Ethernet, CAN, SPI, I2C).
Hands-on experience with at least one MBSE or architecture modeling tool (for example SysML based tools such as IBM Rhapsody, Capella, Cameo, or Enterprise Architect).
Strong grounding in the physics of the system: lasers and device physics, optics, and signal processing, together with the optical, electrical, mechanical, and thermal aspects of
system design.
Working knowledge of structured product development and quality processes and standards (for example ISO 9001, V-Model, ASPICE, ISO 26262, AEC-Q), and the ability
to contribute to functional safety work within them.
Experience collaborating across architecture, hardware, software, firmware, and mechanical teams to drive system and subsystem specifications and resolve interface
issues.
Strong technical documentation skills: requirements, specifications, architecture descriptions, interface control documents, verification criteria, and reports.
Experience defining performance KPIs, building performance models, and analyzing measured data to assess a system against its targets, with scripting for data analysis
(Python preferred).

Preferred

M.S. or Ph.D. in a related field.
Experience across the full lifecycle of automotive, aerospace, or industrial sensor development and production, from concept and requirements through design, verification,
qualification, and launch.
Hands-on experience leading HARA, safety concepts, and safety analyses (FMEA, FMEDA, FTA, DFA), and familiarity with AUTOSAR and MISRA.
Experience with automotive cybersecurity engineering per ISO/SAE 21434 and UN R155, including TARA, cybersecurity concepts, secure boot and secure communication requirements, and coordination with hardware and software security teams.
Familiarity with SOTIF (ISO 21448) and its application to perception sensors.
Functional safety or cybersecurity certification (for example TÜV/SGS Functional Safety Engineer, ISO/SAE 21434 practitioner) or ASPICE assessor training.
Understanding of thermal concepts in sensor system design (power dissipation and heat paths, thermal budgets and derating, temperature limits, and thermal degradation of optical and electronic performance), including interpreting thermal simulation results and analyzing thermal test data.
Hands-on experience evaluating and characterizing optical or electro-optical subsystems, including prototype bring-up, lab and field testing, and common failure modes.
Experience with sensor calibration and its integration into production.
Experience with sensor fusion, time synchronization (for example PTP / IEEE 802.1AS, gPTP), and perception applications.

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at AEye, Inc? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

First Name

Last Name

Preferred First Name

Country

Phone

Location (City)

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

School

Select...

Degree

Select...

Walk us through a system or subsystem you took from requirements through verification on an optoelectronic or sensor product. Which requirements management and architecture modeling tools did you use, how did you maintain traceability from stakeholder need to verification result, and which parts of the architecture or interfaces (ICDs, hardware/software partitioning) did you personally own?

Tell us about a time you defined the KPIs or ran a performance or safety analysis for a sensor or electro-optical system, found a gap between target and measured performance (or a safety concern), and drove it to resolution. What standards framed the work (for example ISO 26262, DO-178C, or IEC 61508), and how did you feed the findings back into requirements, architecture, or trade studies?

U.S. Standard Demographic Questions

We invite applicants to share their demographic background. If you choose to complete this survey, your responses may be used to identify areas of improvement in our hiring process.

How would you describe your gender identity? (mark all that apply)

Select...

How would you describe your racial/ethnic background? (mark all that apply)

Select...

How would you describe your sexual orientation? (mark all that apply)

Select...

Do you identify as transgender?

Select...

Do you have a disability or chronic condition (physical, visual, auditory, cognitive, mental, emotional, or other) that substantially limits one or more of your major life activities, including mobility, communication (seeing, hearing, speaking), and learning?

Select...

Are you a veteran or active member of the United States Armed Forces?

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in AEye, Inc’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Gender

Select...

Are you Hispanic/Latino?

Select...

Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Veteran Status

Select...

Senior Systems Engineer

Apply for this job

U.S. Standard Demographic Questions

Voluntary Self-Identification