About The OpportunityWe're looking for an Associate Director of Systems Engineering to lead the development of our next-generation automated beverage platform. This role requires a principal architect who can bridge high-level product strategy with technical execution across the entire development lifecycle.
You will have ultimate authority and accountability for the product, driving a complex, multi-disciplinary program from a blank slate to a fully realized, high-performance system. You will operate at the intersection of hardware, software, and controls to ensure we deliver a world-class solution that meets Wonder's high standards for quality and scale.
The Impact You Will Make - Own the Product Roadmap: Act as the ultimate accountable person for the success of the automated beverage system, defining the product requirements and driving the technical vision.
- Architect Complex Systems: Lead the high-level architecture across mechanical, electrical, and software domains, making the "big-picture" decisions that balance performance, reliability, and timeline.
- Drive 0-to-1 Development: Navigate the full product lifecycle, from initial concepts and prototyping, to a high fidelity prototype to real world pilots.
- Lead Cross-Functional Teams: Guide a diverse team of hardware and software engineers, fostering a culture of high performance, rapid iteration, and technical excellence.
- Manage Timelines & Risk: Build and maintain aggressive but achievable development timelines, proactively identifying and mitigating technical and operational risks.
- Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Work closely with our culinary platform team to ensure the product we build matches our culinary and business ambitions.
- Drive "Buy vs. Build" Strategy: Lead the evaluation and selection of key technology partners and sub-components deciding when to outsource or leverage off-the-shelf parts versus developing proprietary solutions in-house
- Identify, onboard, and cultivate strategic third-party vendor relationships in the beverage equipment industry, ensuring partners are deeply aligned with and invested in our product vision.
What You Bring to the Table- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, or Mechatronics Engineering or a related technical field.
- Proven Leadership: 12+ years of experience in engineering, with a significant track record of leading large-scale, complex hardware/software projects from scratch ideally in the robotics or industrial automation industry.
- Technical Breadth: Deep expertise in systems integration, robotics, or industrial automation. You should be equally comfortable discussing controls architecture, mechanical design and software.
- The "Architect" Mindset: Demonstrated ability to synthesize competing requirements into a cohesive, elegant system architecture. You are comfortable with ambiguity and making difficult architectural, technical and product decisions.
- Execution Focus: A "builder" mentality with the grit to manage through the challenges of hardware development and the leadership to keep a large team aligned and motivated.
- Communication Excellence: Ability to distill complex technical concepts for executive leadership while providing granular technical guidance to individual contributors.
- Strategic Precision: Exceptional organizational skills and a mastery of modern project management tools (Jira, Confluence, Miro, etc.), with the ability to architect these tools for a matrixed team.
- Product and Business focused mindset: you have experience owning product requirements and becoming deeply embedded in business priorities and user needs.
- Experience and know-how in the Beverage industry building beverage products and established relationships with beverage equipment vendors is strongly preferred.
This role requires a minimum of 4 days a week in the office, with additional days as needed based on project demands.This role is based in our Boston office in Charlestown, MABase Salary Range: $229,000-$255,000 per yearWonder uses geographic-specific salary structures, which means the salary offered may vary depending on where the job is located. The final salary offer will take into account various factors, such as the candidate's skills, education, training, credentials, and experience.
BenefitsWe offer a competitive salary package including equity and 401K. Additionally, we provide multiple medical, dental, and vision plans to meet all of our employees' needs as well as many benefits and perks that are not listed.
We look forward to hearing from you! We'll contact you via email or text to schedule interviews and share information about your candidacy.
