Systems Engineer in Product Release Team

Scope of the Role

Exosens/Advanced Imaging (Xenics NV) specializes in the research, development and industrialization of opto-electronic products: IR sensors, image intensifier tubes, camera platforms for visible light, night vision, industrial inspection, thermal inspection etc.

The Product Release Group is a critical part of the R&D department. The group investigates a wide range of state-of-the-art image sensor and camera projects targeting a large variety of markets and applications and ensures the deliveries of the R%D design teams are ready-for- transfer to production and ready-for-sales, allowing a trustworthy transfer to the production department (manufacturing, supply chain, …). The team will work in close collaboration with many different teams including sensor, firmware, software, mechanical and optical design teams inside R&D, production and some key customers.

The Product Release Group transfers the released products to Operations, for further industrialization and production.

The Product Release Group consists of two sub teams: (i) Test and Measurement, and (ii) Systems Engineering.

The Test and Measurement team is responsible for testing and fully qualifying the products made by the development groups in R&D. This activity includes scripting to facilitate and automate the tests.

The team ensures that test and calibration approaches are available for small-scale production, including the definition of measurement methods, calibration procedures, and validation strategies required to demonstrate product performance.

The Production Engineering group in the Operations department is responsible for industrializing, scaling, and optimizing these test and calibration solutions for volume manufacturing.

The Systems Engineering activities ensure product readiness, ensuring complete validation, documentation and manufacturability demonstration, enabling a smooth transfer to production. (enabling transfer to production, allowing the Product Engineering Group inside the Operations Department to prepare production lines, initiate scaling and support production), 2nd line support in case design problems are identified in production or in the field, and management of Special Engineering Requests.

The Product Release Team is the contact point for design-related issues reported by production or customers (issues caused by design flaws or by discrepancies with the product specifications) that cannot be handled by support or operations.

The team troubleshoots issues, identifies root causes, and implements corrective actions or design modifications when the original product design is at fault. They also coordinate design improvements with the R&D teams to prevent recurrence. While the Product Release Team ensures the product design is corrected and robust, manufacturing processes, production yield, line capacity, and operational performance remain the responsibility of Production Engineering.

We are looking for a (Senior) Systems Engineer for the Product Release Team to (i) assume ownership of an assigned group of products, (ii) ensure product are fully validated, documented, and ready for transfer to Operations and Production Engineering., and (iii) to become the go-to person in case of design issues identified by other departments.

Objectives of the role

As (Senior) Systems Engineer, your main responsibilities are

• Take in the designs/prototypes/… from the R&D design teams and ensure the product readiness (fully qualified, fully documented, ready for production.

• Successfully transferring the released products to the Operations department.

• Become a system-level expert in one or more products, as to ensure

  • 2nd line troubleshooting (in case Operations identifies problems encountered in operations as due to design issues)
  • Quality support to the FAEs

As (Senior) Systems Engineer, you will

• Ensure product readiness for operations

  • Ensure a formal “Definition of Done” is defined and agreed by the stakeholders at the beginning of the process

    • Ensure the “definition of done is met before the transfer

  • Documentation ready

  • Fully tested (functional, environmental, reliability), including sensitivity analysis (the testing itself is to be done by T&M, the systems engineer will be involved to at least cross-check the test results).

  • Troubleshooting instructions available

    • Scripts where needed
    • QCout guidelines (a subset of the troubleshooting instructions)
    • Optionally QCin guidelines, especially if the components are sensitive

  • Work description ready – focus on het “product”, so the description is for “small” volume” manufacturing, and the recipients are the production engineers who must translate this into a production line, and possibly scale the approach

    • Description of calibration/… methods including scripts aimed at demonstrating the product
    • All steps clear, e.g. how to calibrate/... the cameras
    • Scripts available where needed (not adjusted for large volumes)
    • Small number of units (2 or 3) made by the product release team to write this work description
    • Pilot manufacturing (very small volume) with Production Engineering to ensure the usability of instructions + possibly update these instructions.

  • At least 10 units made by production (under supervision of R&D, but without intervention of R&D to make it “realistic”, and working “as is”) + possible update of the work instructions

  • Risk analysis completed and known scaling roadblocks identified

  • Readiness for scaling (at product level, not at production line level)

    • Possible roadblocks for scaling identified
    • Risk analysis

• Troubleshooting/support/experiments in case of design related problems, reported by Operations or FAEs

• Provide second-line support for design-related issues reported by Operations, FAEs, or customers.

• Engage with vendors or customers as needed for design-level clarifications, in second line support of Operations and FAEs.

• Suggest workarounds and small design fixes where appropriate.

• Build knowledge for the products/projects assigned to you, as to become the go-to person for these products.

• Become a system-level expert in assigned products.

• Maintain configuration control and design traceability.

Required skills and Experience:

• Requirements

  • Master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant domain
  • 4+ years of experience (7+ for a Senior Systems Engineer)
  • Experience with Industrialization and transfer of R&D results.
  • Knowledge of Firmware, Software, FPGA development, Optical systems, ASIC designs, Mechanical designs.
  • Handson experience with debugging and troubleshooting is a plus.
  • Handson design and development experience (as to do better troubleshooting and be able to fix small issues and provide workarounds) is a plus.
  • Experience with validation is a plus.

• Soft skills

  • Excellent oral and written communication
  • Trouble solver mindset
  • Rigorous worker
  • Autonomous
  • Cross-cultural sensitivity

This position is based in Leuven.