Principal Electrical Engineer, Wireless Design Services (Hopkins, MN - Hybrid)

Position

Position Digi International is seeking an experienced Principal Electrical Engineer to join our Wireless Design Services (WDS) team. This role is a hands-on technical position responsible for defining architecture, solving complex engineering challenges, and driving innovation across embedded and wireless product designs from concept through production.

About the Role

Digi International has been a pioneer in wireless communication since 1985, adapting to evolving network standards and optimizing data communications around advanced protocols and emerging technologies. Our IoT offerings include sensor-based solutions, a platform for remote device monitoring, and professional design, implementation, and certification teams. This role requires extensive experience in electrical engineering, systems architecture, and project leadership.

Location

Location: Hopkins, MN - Hybrid

What You Will Do

• Technical Expertise & Collaboration

• Foster a collaborative, innovative, and customer-focused engineering culture.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to engineers across multiple disciplines.
• Share best practices and engineering knowledge with team members.
• Support recruiting, onboarding, and professional development initiatives.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of engineering tools, methodologies, and development processes.
• Stay current with emerging technologies, industry trends, and regulatory requirements.

• Electrical Engineering & System Architecture

• Architect and lead all electrical aspects of product development from concept through production release.
• Define system-level requirements, architecture, interfaces, and design strategies.
• Perform component selection, circuit design, schematic capture, and PCB layout oversight.
• Analyze design tradeoffs involving performance, reliability, manufacturability, cost, power consumption, and product lifecycle considerations.
• Design, develop, troubleshoot, debug, test, and modify complex electronic circuits and embedded hardware platforms.
• Develop and review engineering documentation including requirements, architecture, design specifications, verification plans, and manufacturing support documents.
• Lead product integration, verification, validation, production support, and sustaining engineering activities.
• Create and execute test strategies to ensure product quality, performance, and compliance.

• Project & Business Leadership

• Provide technical leadership on multiple concurrent development programs.
• Identify project risks, develop mitigation plans, and communicate status to stakeholders.
• Partner with Project Management, Sales, and Business Development teams to support customer engagements and proposal development.
• Lead technical estimating activities and provide engineering input for project quotations and resource planning.
• Present technical solutions and recommendations to customers, executive leadership, and cross-functional teams.

• Compliance & Regulatory

• Lead certification and regulatory compliance efforts for new product development.
• Navigate applicable regulatory requirements including FCC, UL, ETL, ETSI, PTCRB, FDA, and other industry-specific standards as applicable.
• Develop compliance, verification, and test strategies early in the product lifecycle to ensure successful product certification and deployment.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or a related technical discipline.
• 10+ years of progressive electrical engineering experience developing commercial products, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Proven experience leading products from concept through manufacturing and production release.
• Deep hands-on expertise in:
• Electrical circuit design
• Schematic capture
• PCB design and layout review
• Component selection
• Hardware testing and troubleshooting
• Embedded hardware development
• Strong understanding of systems engineering principles including:
• Requirements definition
• System architecture
• Design and integration
• Verification and validation
• Product lifecycle management
• Ability to independently establish technical approaches and execute complex engineering tasks with minimal oversight.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical teams and influence across organizational boundaries.
• Able to manage multiple priorities and projects simultaneously.

Desired But Required Experience

• Developing wireless and connected products from concept to production.
• Familiarity with Digi International System-on-Module (SOM) and XBee product families.
• Experience with wireless communication technologies and protocols, including:
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• Zigbee
• Z-Wave
• Cellular
• GPS/GNSS
• LoRa
• Expertise implementing and championing systems engineering methodologies within engineering organizations.
• Experience developing automation, scripting, or software tools to improve engineering productivity and test efficiency.