Systems Engineer

Position Summary

Support the definition, documentation, integration, and verification of system behavior for the ARIES (Autonomous Robotics & Imaging Ecosystem for Stroke) program, a multi-institutional, federally funded advanced medical technology initiative combining robotics, imaging, AI, autonomous control systems, neurovascular devices, and safety-critical software. This role works closely with system architects, software engineers, electrical engineers, robotics engineers, and external consortium partners to translate architectural concepts into clear system specifications, especially for interfaces, component communication, system states, and expected behavior during interface use. The Systems Engineer will help define system state machines, document how components shall interact under nominal and fault conditions, create verification test cases, and implement tests in simulation and hardware environments to confirm that the system adheres to its specifications.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with system architects and engineering teams to translate system architecture into clear requirements, specifications, and engineering documentation.
• Define and maintain interface specifications that describe data exchange, commands, status information, error handling, timing expectations, and communication behavior between system components.
• Specify system behavior when interfaces are used, including nominal workflows, degraded modes, fault conditions, recovery behavior, and safe-state transitions.
• Define and document system state machines, including allowed states, transitions, triggers, guards, outputs, and expected behavior across interacting components.
• Create, review, and maintain verification test cases that demonstrate whether system behavior, interfaces, and communication between components meet the defined specifications.
• Implement and execute test cases in simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and real hardware environments to verify that components and integrated systems adhere to their specifications.
• Coordinate interface and behavior specifications with external consortium partners to ensure that partner components, internal components, and communication pathways remain compatible and aligned.

Required Experience

• Demonstrated experience in systems engineering for complex technical systems, preferably involving robotics, distributed software, real-time control, medical technology, or safety-critical environments.
• Strong experience creating technical documentation, system specifications, interface descriptions, requirements, and verification artifacts.
• Experience defining system behavior across interfaces, including command flows, status reporting, component communication, fault handling, recovery behavior, and safe-state behavior.
• Practical experience with state machines, workflow logic, system modes, and behavior modeling for interconnected hardware and software components.
• Experience developing and executing test cases in simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, or real hardware setups to verify requirements, interfaces, and system behavior.

Preferred Experience

• At least 3 years with systems engineering methodologies, interface management, requirements decomposition, behavior modeling, verification planning, traceability, and design reviews.
• At least 3 years supporting complex cyber-physical systems, autonomous robotic systems, medical robotic platforms, image-guided therapy systems, or distributed control systems.
• At least 2 years with medical device development, regulated product development, or safety-critical software and hardware integration.
• Experience with advanced healthcare technologies involving robotics, imaging, AI/ML, autonomous systems, or neurovascular applications.
• Familiarity with requirements management, interface documentation, system modeling, test management, issue tracking, version control, and simulation or hardware-in-the-loop test tools is preferred. Examples may include Helix ALM, Polarion, Jira, Git, and related engineering collaboration platforms.
• Familiarity coordinating technical specifications with external partners, subcontractors, or consortium members to ensure component compatibility and integration readiness.
• Familiarity with federally funded programs or with multi-institutional research collaborations.

Education

• Required: Bachelor’s degree in Robotics, Engineering, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Preferred: Master’s degree in Robotics, Autonomous Systems, Control Engineering, or a related technical field.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Can translate architectural concepts into clear, testable specifications that engineering teams and external partners can implement consistently.
• Understands how interfaces, component communication, and system state machines define reliable system behavior.
• Is hands-on and comfortable validating specifications through simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and real hardware test environments.
• Communicates clearly with architects, engineers, and external partners and helps turn ambiguous integration topics into actionable documentation and verification steps.