Role Purpose
As Lead Systems Engineer, you'll hold the highest level of technical ownership on our Systems Engineering track, joining a dispersed, cross-disciplinary team of hardware, software, and electrical engineers. You'll lead the technical delivery of complex, integrated tolling systems, bringing together roadside hardware, embedded devices, applications, and back-office software into a fully operational solution. This role requires someone with demonstrated experience delivering tolling systems in real-world environments, ideally having led major system delivery activities over multiple years. You'll take ownership from the bid and solution development phases through engineering, installation, integration, commissioning, and operational handoff. You'll be accountable for ensuring the technical solution is delivered to customer requirements, contractual commitments, quality expectations, and operational objectives.
You'll be the technical face of the client relationship, building trust with customer stakeholders throughout the life of a program while leading the engineering teams responsible for successful delivery. You'll own the requirements baseline, manage technical scope, coordinate complex hardware and software dependencies, and provide the technical direction needed to move programs forward.
This is an opportunity for an experienced systems engineering leader who understands what it takes to deliver tolling infrastructure—not just design it—and who can translate complex technical requirements into successful, operational systems.
How You'll Make an Impact
- Lead end-to-end tolling system delivery — Take technical ownership of tolling system implementations from bid-phase sales support and solution development through engineering, installation, integration, testing, commissioning, and operational handoff. Ensure the system is delivered efficiently, meets contractual and technical requirements, and achieves the intended operational outcomes.
- Bring proven tolling delivery experience — Apply practical experience delivering tolling systems and roadside infrastructure programs, anticipating the technical, operational, integration, and implementation challenges that arise throughout the project lifecycle.
- Serve as the primary technical point of contact — Lead technical discussions with customers, understand their business and operational objectives, communicate tradeoffs clearly, manage expectations, and navigate difficult technical or scope conversations with professionalism and sound judgment.
- Own the requirements baseline end-to-end — Lead requirements elicitation, analysis, decomposition, specification, validation, traceability, and change control from the first customer conversation through final acceptance. Translate customer needs and contractual requirements into clear, testable, and achievable system requirements.
- Manage requirements and scope as the solution evolves — Establish and maintain requirements traceability across hardware, software, electrical, integration, installation, and verification activities. Identify gaps, ambiguities, dependencies, and risks before they become program issues.
- Own the integrated solution end-to-end — Maintain technical accountability for the complete system architecture and implementation, ensuring roadside hardware, embedded devices, applications, and back-office systems function together as one cohesive solution.
- Provide technical leadership during implementation — Guide engineering and implementation teams through installation, configuration, integration, troubleshooting, and commissioning. Resolve technical roadblocks and ensure delivery activities remain aligned with the approved design and customer requirements.
- Define and control system interfaces — Own the interfaces between roadside hardware (sensors, cameras, controllers, gantry equipment, and power) and the software layer (applications, databases, and back-office systems). Define protocols, data flows, timing, dependencies, and failure behavior to ensure subsystems perform as one integrated system.
- Support integration, verification, and validation — Serve as the system design and implementation lead, partnering with the validation team to enable successful integration and testing, including Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT), Site Acceptance Testing (SAT), and Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT). Direct troubleshooting where hardware, firmware, and software meet in the field.
- Design and maintain the full solution architecture — Oversee systems, interfaces, protocols, databases, and applications while maintaining an end-to-end understanding of technical dependencies, performance constraints, and opportunities for optimization.
- Lead cross-functional engineering teams — Align hardware, software, electrical, and systems engineering resources around a common technical direction and requirements baseline. Coordinate technical dependencies, resolve competing priorities, and maintain accountability for delivery milestones.
- Build out the physical design layer — Develop and maintain wiring diagrams, roadway sensor placement design, hanger and mounting systems, power distribution design, civil drawing interpretation, cabinet layouts, and cable/conduit layouts, partnering with highway designers and infrastructure teams to integrate technology into the physical roadside environment.
- Set the technical direction and delivery standard — Provide hands-on technical leadership, challenge assumptions constructively, make sound engineering decisions, and step in to unblock teams when technical or delivery challenges arise.
- Connect technical execution to customer outcomes — Understand not only what the system must do, but why the client needs it to work that way. Use that understanding to guide practical engineering decisions and deliver solutions that meet technical requirements and operational objectives.
What Makes You a Great Fit
- At least 3 years of direct experience delivering tolling systems, including involvement in the implementation, integration, commissioning, or operational deployment of tolling technology.
- 10+ years of professional experience delivering complex, integrated systems, combining hardware, software, and field-deployed infrastructure with 4+ years of experience and expertise across two or more of the following: electrical, mechanical, civil, structural, software, embedded/firmware, database, or systems integration engineering.
- Demonstrated experience leading system delivery on complex, multi-year programs, with accountability for technical execution from requirements and solution design through installation, integration, testing, commissioning, and final handoff.
- Experience coordinating multidisciplinary engineering teams, including hardware, software, electrical, embedded/firmware, and systems integration resources.
- Demonstrated ability to own a client relationship from a technical perspective, building trust with customer stakeholders, understanding their needs, managing expectations, communicating technical tradeoffs, and handling difficult scope or technical discussions.
- Strong requirements engineering experience — eliciting requirements from customers and stakeholders, writing and decomposing requirements, identifying gaps and ambiguities, establishing traceability from customer specifications through verification, and managing requirements and change control on a live program.
- Excellent communication and relationship-management skills, with the ability to establish credibility with both technical and non-technical stakeholders and maintain productive client relationships through challenging project situations.
- Working knowledge of IP networking — enough to integrate, configure, and troubleshoot devices on the network (our environment runs on Cisco). Certification not required.
- Proven ability to lead technical conversations with customers, make sound technical decisions, and guide successful cross-functional collaboration.
- Ability to develop and deliver technical presentations while engaging with and managing client relationships.
- Strong written communication skills, including the ability to produce clear requirements, specifications, interface definitions, technical documentation, and customer-facing communications.
- Ability to recognize when a customer request represents a requirement clarification, a change in scope, or a technical risk — and appropriately manage each situation.
- Curiosity, ownership, and a roll-up-your-sleeves mindset, balanced with strong team collaboration.
- Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field
Bonus Qualifications
- Professional Engineer (PE) license or Engineer in Training (EIT) certification.
- Networking certification (CCNA, CCNP, or equivalent).
- Experience with specific tolling technologies, such as All-Electronic Tolling (AET), Open Road Tolling (ORT), Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), roadside systems, and back-office tolling platforms.
- Experience delivering tolling projects for state Departments of Transportation (DOTs), government agencies, or other public-sector customers.
- Prior technical or people leadership, particularly leading multidisciplinary engineering or system delivery teams.
- Project management skills, with knowledge of business economics and commercial project delivery.
- Experience estimating time and effort for system functionalities and technical implementations.
- Familiarity with relevant international standards.
- Located in California
What We Offer
- Exciting challenges with room for new and innovative ideas within a highly qualified team.
- High responsibility within a global, fast-growing, renowned family-owned company.
- A position within a diverse and dynamic environment with attractive career opportunities.
- Career growth, stability, and ongoing professional education and training opportunities.
- The opportunity to solve complex problems that improve the daily lives of people around the world.
- Competitive salary range with a full benefits package, including unlimited paid time off, 401(k) program, 11 paid holidays, HSA and FSA option and no-cost medical premium insurance option for employees and eligible dependents. Salary based off experience and location.
- Casual work environment with remote or hybrid work options if near a corporate office location
Take the next step in your career with Kapsch
We believe hiring is a human decision. AI supports some of the operational side of our process (things like interview scheduling and coordination), but every step that matters is handled by a person. Your application will be read, your interviews will be conducted, and your offer will be made by humans who are genuinely invested in getting it right.
