Prin Audio Systems Design Engineer

Lead the system-level design of next-generation hearing solutions, connecting audiology, acoustics, signal processing, and product engineering to deliver better patient outcomes. Shape technical strategy, guide cross-functional teams through complex decisions, and mentor engineers as you advance Starkey’s audio capabilities.

Starkey is a world leader in the manufacturing and distribution of advanced hearing technologies. We are in the business of connecting people and changing lives. Our teams come to work each day focused on ensuring people everywhere have the products and services they need to hear better and live better.

Founded in 1967 by Bill Austin, Starkey is known for our cutting-edge hearing health innovations, industry-leading research and development, and not being afraid to push the edge of what’s possible.

We are headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, have over 5,000 employees in 29 facilities across the globe, and do business in more than 100 markets worldwide.

The Principal Audio Systems Design Engineer provides strategic technical leadership and is a hybrid professional who bridges audiology, acoustics, signal processing, and product engineering to develop, evaluate, and audiological technologies to ensure that product designs deliver clinically effective, patient-centered hearing solutions. The engineer is a recognized subject-matter expert who leads major cross-functional initiatives, owns complex system tradeoffs and technical risks, and drives resolution of critical audio-system issues throughout the product life cycle.

The role mentors technical teams and shapes practices, methods, and technology direction that support best-in-class hearing solutions. Principal level expectation:
Operates with little to no supervision, influences across functions and programs, and is accountable for decisions with significant product and business impact.

• Provide strategic vision and technical leadership for audio-system architecture and end-to-end audiological performance across hearing aids and supporting tools.
  • Define system concepts, design principles, integration strategies, and measurable performance expectations that connect clinical and user needs to product architecture.
  • Establish and maintain system-level audio and audiological requirements, interfaces, assumptions, constraints, and traceability to relevant subsystem requirements.
• Lead audio and audiological architecture and design tradeoffs across acoustics, electroacoustics, DSP, hardware, firmware, fitting algorithms, connectivity, controls, and user interfaces.
  • Evaluate tradeoffs involving sound quality, speech audibility and intelligibility, listening comfort, fitting flexibility, power, latency, stability, acoustic coupling, usability, and system constraints.
  • Develop and communicate recommendations using objective measurements, clinical evidence, perceptual evaluation, field data, manufacturing data, and engineering analysis.
• Own audio-system impact analyses for product changes, scope changes, architecture decisions, and design reviews, including options, risks, dependencies, and recommendations.
  • Lead cross-functional technical risk identification, analysis, mitigation, and closure using applicable risk-management methods and program tools.
  • Identify integration gaps and emerging technical risks early, and drive prevention and containment plans across affected teams.
• Lead system integration, bring-up, characterization, and optimization across prototypes, verification builds, and pre-production systems.
  • Drive root-cause analysis of complex audio, acoustic, fitting, and cross-domain system issues; ensure problems are reproducible, clearly documented,…