Senior Electrical Engineer

Work location:

• This position requires on-site presence in Des Plaines, IL, Decatur, GA, or Tucson, AZ following a hybrid work model.

Job Summary

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Electrical Engineer to join our dynamic team. The ideal candidate will play a pivotal role in driving the electrical design and development of products, with a strong focus on the lighting industry. The role requires hands-on expertise in analog, digital, and mixed-signal systems, with a keen understanding of product commercialization, outsourcing, and vendor management. This position offers the opportunity to lead technical initiatives, particularly in collaboration with Asia-based suppliers, and oversee the sourcing and integration of advanced technology into our products.

Key Tasks & Responsibilities (Essential Functions)

• Lead the electrical engineering design and development for lighting, lighting controls, and LED driver products and related technologies.

• Manage the technical aspects of outsourcing projects and sourcing initiatives, particularly with Asia-based finished goods suppliers.

• Perform hands-on design review, analysis, and troubleshooting of analog and mixed-signal systems. Design, model and test mixed-signal processor-based electronics.

• Write and review basic microcontroller firmware (FW); work with external and internal FW development teams to review and ensure code quality through detailed analysis of simple and complex FW projects.

• Collaborate with our strategic sourcing and product management teams to identify the right solutions from our OEM vendor base. Once selected, qualify the products through validation, interoperability testing, and other necessary design qualification processes to ensure they meet Acuity standards.

• Ensure compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements. Design and support products to relevant electrical code and testing laboratory standards, support UL / CSA testing and listing process for products.

• Develop and distribute engineering data in the form of Engineering Change Notices, Bills of Material and parts tracking

• Work closely with vendors to establish and maintain strong working relationships, ensuring quality and timely delivery of components and finished goods.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive product commercialization from concept to launch, ensuring alignment with project goals and timelines.

• Assist with project management tasks, including tracking progress, managing schedules, and ensuring project deliverables are met.

Skills and Minimum Experience Required

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering (EE), Computer Engineering (CE), or equivalent

• Minimum of 5 years’ experience

• Proven experience in switch mode power supply design.

• Hands-on experience with analog and digital (mixed signal) system design, review, and analysis.

• Experience in modeling, p-spice simulation, circuit analysis, tolerance stack analysis, worst-case thermal analysis, MTBF, and product lifetime expectancy calculation

• Understanding of the product commercialization and product development phase-gate process, from specification to mass production.

• Working understanding of embedded C firmware design, review, and testing practices in an Agile environment; able to accurately understand the status and drive progress in working with others from the internal FW team as needed.

• Able to develop ‘prototype quality’ C firmware for embedded devices and review the work of others.

• Experience with vendor management and fostering relationships with international suppliers, especially in Asia.

• Experience in engineering project management. demonstrated ability to take projects from start to finish with minimal supervision.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams.

• A proactive, problem-solving mindset with the ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience in lighting or lighting controls industries or similar fields.

• Relevant UL/CSA safety standards, and FCC part 15 certification knowledge

• Proficient in embedded FW development for bare metal, RTOS, or Linux-based projects.

• Experience with wired networks and communication protocols (I2C, SPI, RS-485, Ethernet, etc.)

• Experience with industrial / IoT wireless networks and communication protocols (Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Bluetooth, BLE, Proprietary, etc.)

• Experience with high volume electronics manufacturing