Optical System Engineer III, Amazon Robotics

About the role

The Optical System Engineer III serves as the primary technical bridge between Amazon Robotics customers and engineering teams. This role requires seasoned judgment, strategic thinking, and the ability to self-guide and take point on complex system-level initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Oversee customer discovery sessions to probe beyond stated needs and translate them into quantifiable design goals.
• Own the full requirements lifecycle from capture through validation, formalizing specifications in tools like Jama and walking engineers through the intent behind the numbers.
• Drive system architecture selections for sensor and compute products, making trade-offs across optical, mechanical, electrical, and software domains. This includes decomposing system requirements into functional specs for each sub-team, developing SRS, ICDs, and V&V plans, and guiding cross-functional design reviews to identify gaps and risks early.
• Own product verification end-to-end—defining test specs, directing verification campaigns, authoring application notes, and driving comparative benchmarking that feeds directly into roadmap priorities.
• Influence across disciplines, mentor engineers on systems thinking and customer engagement, and contribute to hiring efforts that raise the bar for the team.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, or equivalent
• 8+ years of experience in systems engineering, product definition, or technical program management for hardware products
• Demonstrated experience as the primary technical interface with customers, gathering requirements and translating them into engineering specifications
• 2 years of experience leading system architecture decisions across multiple engineering disciplines (optics, mechanics, electronics) in a product development environment
• 2 years of experience developing system requirements, functional specifications, interface control documents, and verification/validation plans
• Proven ability to operate autonomously in ambiguous situations, defining both the problem and the solution
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience presenting technical content to leadership and diverse stakeholders

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
• Maternity and Parental Leave Options
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• 401(k) Plan