Principal​/System Engineer

Overview

Nordson Test & Inspection, a global leader in X-Ray & Test Systems and Optical Sensors and Metrology, is seeking an experienced and highly motivated individual to join our team.

We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, and we are looking for candidates who share that same commitment.

As a Principal Systems Engineer on the Wafer Sense team, you will provide technical leadership for the development and lifecycle support of a product line used by semiconductor manufacturers and equipment OEMs worldwide. Working closely with cross-functional engineering teams and business stakeholders, you will help shape system architecture, guide development, and connect technical contributions across disciplines to deliver innovative, high-performance products.

The successful candidate brings a proven track record of R&D and development of complex, multidisciplinary systems, combining practical engineering expertise with the ability to guide technical execution, resolve complex challenges, and align teams toward a common product vision. This is an individual contributor role with significant technical leadership and mentoring responsibilities.

• Shape system architecture and design decisions in collaboration with cross-functional engineering teams and stakeholders.
• Lead cross-team definition of system requirements, performance targets, and subsystem interfaces.
• Guide cross-functional development, ensuring engineering contributions integrate into a complete, effective product.
• Coordinate technical priorities, dependencies, resources, and milestones with functional and project leaders.
• Lead technical reviews and trade studies, balancing performance, manufacturability, cost, schedule, and risk.
• Contribute hands‑on to design, prototyping, experiments, and troubleshooting as needed.
• Guide system integration, testing, and validation across subsystems.
• Collaborate on the development of calibration methods, fixture architecture, and production processes.
• Lead complex investigations using engineering analysis and experimental evidence to resolve product and production issues.
• Lead technical risk assessments and coordinate mitigation and verification of corrective actions.
• Translate customer and business needs into technical requirements and development priorities with relevant stakeholders.
• Ensure documentation captures consistent requirements, interfaces, decisions, and validation results across teams.
• Mentor engineers and share technical knowledge to strengthen team capability.

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, physics, or related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of R&D and product development experience, with demonstrated success developing complex systems and leading cross-functional technical efforts.
• Experience making substantial technical contributions through design, prototyping, integration, and validation.
• Strong technical depth in a relevant field and the ability to understand interactions across a complete system.
• Demonstrated ability to guide cross-functional technical work, build alignment on design decisions, and drive execution.
• Experience evaluating system-level trade-offs and resolving complex design or integration problems.
• Ability to structure investigations, design effective experiments, interpret data, and verify engineering solutions.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, including the ability to build agreement and explain technical recommendations clearly.

• Experience developing precision products, sensors, metrology systems, scientific instruments, or semiconductor equipment.
• Experience guiding a multidisciplinary…