Associate Principal Engineer, Systems Architecture

About the role

Flex is the diversified manufacturing partner of choice that helps market-leading brands design, build and deliver innovative products that improve the world. A career at Flex offers the opportunity to make a difference and invest in your growth in a respectful, inclusive, and collaborative environment. Flex intends to spin off its Cloud and Power Infrastructure segment into a new, independent publicly traded company, Axiom, with the spin planned for Q1 2027. If the intended spin occurs, this role will support Axiom, a company focused on critical digital infrastructure and delivering end-to-end power and thermal management solutions for AI data centers and other mission-critical applications. To support our extraordinary teams who build great products and contribute to our growth, we’re looking to add an Associate Principal Engineer, Systems Architecture located in Austin, TX. Reporting to the Chief Technology Officer, the Associate Principal Engineer, Systems Architecture will serve as a technical leader responsible for defining, integrating, and validating complex AI infrastructure systems across power, cooling, compute, controls, software, networking, and facility interfaces. This role provides the systems-level engineering leadership that connects architecture, requirements, interface management, design tradeoffs, validation strategies, and manufacturing readiness. The position drives the translation of customer and product requirements into scalable, reliable, and deployable platform solutions from concept through production and deployment.

Responsibilities

• Lead system architecture development, feasibility assessments, and technology roadmaps for AI infrastructure platforms and integrated systems.
• Define system requirements, specifications, interface controls, and validation criteria to meet customer and business objectives.
• Drive cross-functional integration across electrical, mechanical, cooling, software, controls, networking, and manufacturing teams.
• Own requirements management, system decomposition, trade studies, technical risk assessments, and architecture decision-making.
• Lead system integration, verification, validation, prototype builds, qualification testing, and production readiness activities.
• Partner with internal and external stakeholders to support deployment planning, manufacturing readiness, customer reviews, and technical discussions.
• Champion systems engineering best practices, architecture governance, emerging technologies, and technical leadership across engineering teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline; Master’s degree preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in systems architecture, systems engineering, infrastructure engineering, hardware development, or complex product development environments.
• Proven success defining system requirements and leading multidisciplinary product development programs from concept through manufacturing and deployment.
• Strong expertise in systems architecture, requirements management, interface control, hardware/software integration, and verification & validation methodologies.
• Experience integrating complex electrical, mechanical, thermal, software, controls, networking, and infrastructure systems.
• Demonstrated ability to drive architecture decisions, manage technical risk, resolve system-level integration challenges, and lead cross-functional engineering teams.
• Excellent customer-facing, communication, analytical, problem-solving, and technical leadership skills, with the ability to mentor engineers and drive engineering excellence.