Senior R&D Engineer - System Dynamics and Controls: Digital Ag Innovation Lab

Required Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor's degree and eight years related experience

Job Description: Build the Future of Agriculture

If you want your engineering work to matter outside the lab—on real machines, in real farm fields, with real impact—this is the role for you.

Who We Are

The Digital Ag Innovation Lab partners with leading agricultural companies to imagine, design, and deploy next-generation technologies for agriculture. Our team works at the intersection of applied engineering, industry collaboration, and the land-grant mission, moving ideas from concept to prototype to field deployment and ultimately into industry adoption. 

Our vision is bold: to be the premiere thought leader and partner in ag innovation.

Our mission guides everything we do: Innovate. Educate. Outreach.

• We innovate with partners to create technology solutions that drive value into agriculture and our communities.
• We educate to inspire and develop students and professionals to ensure a thriving workforce that drives success within our industry. 
• We outreach to share knowledge with farmers and ag businesses and promote practices that enhance their success. 

We operate with four core values: Passion. Innovation. Collaboration. Excellence.

The Opportunity

We are seeking a Senior R&D Engineer to lead the architecture, integration, and deployment of advanced digital agriculture systems.

This is a hands-on systems engineering leadership role with ownership from concept through field deployment. You will design and integrate hardware and software systems, develop production-representative platforms, and deliver solutions that are robust, scalable, and deployment-ready.

You will work directly with OEM and industry engineering teams to define requirements, lead execution, and ensure systems meet real-world performance expectations.

What You’ll Do

• Lead system architecture and integration of automation and control systems for real-time vehicle applications
• Design and implement multi-sensor data pipelines to support control development and system performance analysis
• Develop and validate vehicle dynamics and system models to inform control strategies and hardware selection
• Define and execute validation strategies across simulation, HIL, lab, and field environments
• Integrate embedded systems with vehicle networks (e.g., CAN, Ethernet) and real-time control architectures
• Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies into deployable, production-representative systems
• Lead cross-functional engineering efforts, delivering against technical milestones and partner expectations
• Develop technical documentation, scopes of work, and deliverables for external partners
• Mentor engineers and contribute to a high-performance engineering culture focused on ownership, innovation, and execution

The successful candidate will bring deep experience designing and integrating complex hardware-software systems for vehicle dynamics and controls, from modeling and simulation through embedded deployment, lab and field validation, and extraction of meaningful performance metrics. Strong project management, communication, and leadership skills are essential when collaborating with interdisciplinary teams, industry partners, and externally funded engineering projects.

Technology & Systems You May Work With

• Vehicle communication networks (CAN, CAN FD, Ethernet)
• Sensor integration, data acquisition, and multi-sensor fusion systems
• Model-based development tools (MATLAB, Simulink, Simscape)
• Embedded systems and real-time control architectures
• Mechanical, electrical, and hydraulic system integration
• Agricultural and off-highway equipment platforms

To Apply: jobs.iastate.edu (REF R19081)