Lead Engineer

Description

The Lead Engineer at Nielsen-Kellerman Co. (“NK”) is a technical leader driving a diverse portfolio of low-power electronic products from concept through production. The Lead Engineer owns simultaneous cross-functional projects spanning hardware, firmware and mechanical engineering, working with Product Management on requirements, running sprints and managing priorities and risks. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who can balance strategic project ownership with real engineering depth, and who's energized by keeping fast-moving, multidisciplinary projects on track.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Be an integral part of a “concept-to-customer” design team launching new low-power electronic products every year and sustaining and improving existing designs
• Own simultaneous cross-functional projects (Hardware, Firmware, Mechanical)
• Work with Product Management to define functional requirements and storyboards
• Balance budget and resource constraints against project scope and MVP features
• Prioritize and organize overall work, avoiding cross-functional roadblocks
• Proactively identify/develop mitigation plans for technical, schedule and supply chain risks
• Organize and run sprints, technical reviews and status meetings
• Remove roadblocks, champion and make key decisions that keep projects moving
• Dig into and help solve technical problems across disciplines
• Manage the interface between engineering and external partners/contractors
• Drive design reviews, ensuring deliverables meet quality, compliance and manufacturing standards
• Enforce engineering best practices (version control, design review, testing standards) across the engineering team

Personal Qualities for Success in this Job

• Ability to work quickly yet carefully and within established standards and practices
• Initiative to work independently combined with the judgement to ask appropriate questions
• Self-organization to manage assignments to meet deadlines
• Personal interest in being part of a smaller, entrepreneurial team designing products for cost-effective US manufacturing
• Empathetic to user experience and interested in making products that are enjoyable to use as well as effective and reliable
• Analytical and good at solving complex problems
• Interested in learning new things
• Open to feedback
• Collaborative

Requirements

Qualifications and Experience

Required:

• 4-year BS degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or other relevant engineering specialty or equivalent training, certifications or experience
• 7+ years of experience developing physical electronic products with at least 3 years in a technical/project lead role spanning multiple disciplines
• Demonstrated experience taking products through the full “concept-to-customer” lifecycle
• Working knowledge of low-power electronics design principles (component selection, power budgeting, sleep-modes) sufficient to evaluate tradeoffs
• Familiarity with embedded firmware development practices and constraints (RTOS vs. bare-metal, low-power techniques, communication protocols such as BLE, Wi-Fi and Cellular)
• Understanding of mechanical design and injection molding sufficient to asses mechanical tradeoffs and participate in reviews of deliverables
• Track record of managing project budgets, schedules and resource allocation, including making scope/MVP tradeoff decisions under constraints
• Proven experience running Agile/Scrum or similar sprint-based processes for hardware development, including backlog management and cross-functional sprint planning
• Experience identifying and mitigating technical, schedule and supply-chain risk on hardware programs, including component sourcing/lead-time risk
• Familiarity with relevant compliance and quality standards for electronic products (FCC/CE, UL/IEC safety standards, RoHS/REACH) and experience driving products through certification
• Strong track record of leading design reviews and enforcing engineering best practices (version control, design documentation, test planning) across a multidisciplinary team
• Excellent cross-functional communication skills, with experience translating between Product Management's requirements and engineering execution
• Demonstrated ability to make and own decisions under ambiguity, and to lead engineers without direct reporting authority
• Proficiency with project tracking and version control tools such as Jira, ClickUp, Git, GitHub/GitLab; familiarity with standard engineering tools for the relevant disciplines (schematic/PCB CAD, mechanical CAD)
• Fluent in written and spoken English

Desired:

• Master’s degree or other advanced certifications
• Direct experience developing low-power, battery operated electronics
• Hands-on experience with wireless connectivity stacks (BLE, Thread/Matter, Wi-Fi, cellular IoT/LTE-M/NB-IoT)
• Experience with cloud-connected or app-paired hardware products, including familiarity with how firmware/hardware decisions affect the companion app or backend
• Prior experience standing up or improving engineering processes from scratch
• Experience managing/working with outside contractor resources

Supervisory Responsibility

This position does not have direct supervisory responsibilities.

Work Environment and Physical Demands

Climate-controlled indoor office with attached manufacturing facility. May be required to stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl, climb or balance. Must be able to lift and/or move up to 20 pounds. Dogs in office.

Training

Most training is on-the-job but formal education and training may be provided where appropriate.

Travel / Work Location

Hybrid work environment that can accommodate remote work with some regular need to be in the office (likely 1-2x per week). NK’s facilities are located in Boothwyn, PA. Occasional travel may be required for training or working with consulting engineers.

Pay Rate

This is a salaried position. Pay rate commensurate with qualifications and experience as well as company size. Annual bonus based on company and individual performance ranges averages 2%- 4% of compensation.

Benefits

• Employee benefits include medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance.
• Voluntary benefits include family medical, life insurance, critical care insurance, FSA dependent care and pet insurance.
• HSA with employer contribution
• 401k with employer match up to 5% at time of eligibility after 90 days of employment
• 9 paid holidays, one floating holiday and flexible PTO
• Paid Maternity/Paternity leave

All benefits are subject to a benefit waiting period of 60 to 90 days.

Work Authorization/Security Clearance

Must be eligible to work in the US without sponsorship. Security clearance is not required.

About NK

Nielsen-Kellerman is the parent company for eight brands focused on helping people succeed in their profession or passion by providing mission-critical measurements, information, insight and guidance whenever and wherever needed. Ambient Weather, Kestrel Weather, KestrelMet, RainWise, Kestrel Ballistics, MagnetoSpeed, Blue Ocean Megaphones and NK Sports are each recognized as the preeminent products for their applications from meteorology to military, firefighting to farming and rowing to research.

Our products ARE us - we design them, build them, sell them, and passionately stand behind them. NK has been in business for over four decades and is still growing stronger. Working here offers excellent opportunities for personal and professional development as well as the fun and satisfaction of being part of a successful American business. NK is a Lean enterprise committed to American manufacturing and continuous improvement of our design, production, administrative and sales processes.

NK's headquarters comprises three facilities located in Boothwyn, PA, about 30 minutes southwest of Philadelphia. Our Ambient Weather brand operates primarily from Chandler, AZ in the Phoenix suburbs. NK's work environment is informal and high-energy, and our employees' quality of life is important to us. NK has been named Philly Top Workplace 11 times, including 2026.

Equal Opportunity Employer – At Will Employment

NK is an equal opportunity employer. NK conducts all employment-related activities in full compliance with all applicable Federal and State laws and without regard to an individual’s age, color, sex, disability, marital status, national origin, citizenship, race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status, or other legally protected category is an Equal Opportunity Employer. No person will be discriminated against in hiring or in any other aspect of their employment and also applies to training, transfer, promotion, compensation, benefits, and all other aspects of employment. Reasonable accommodation will be made to enable people with disabilities to perform the essential duties and responsibilities of this position.