Collar Tech Lead

Job Description

About AH Technology Solutions

Animal health Technology Solutions offers global animal identification and monitoring solutions for companion animals and livestock. These solutions enable pet owners to better manage the health and well-being of their pets and enable livestock producers to improve well-being and animal production. Technology Solutions include Core Technologies in Livestock Identification Dairy Beef and Swine monitoring for which the product/market fit is established as well as products in discovery.

Our Technology Solutions division is evolving. We are moving to a Product Operating Model a new way of working that empowers product teams to take full ownership and accountability for delivering customer and business value in ways our customers love and that work for the business.

Our product teams are cross-functional and durable bringing together all the skills required to deliver impactful outcomes. Each team includes a Product Manager Technology Lead Product Designer Delivery Lead engineers and developers.

We believe in customer centricity ownership and accountability. Solutions must be:
Valuable customers choose to buy or use them
Viable aligned with business constraints and goals
Usable intuitive and user-friendly
Feasible achievable with our technical capabilities

Leadership of the team is shared between the Product Manager and the Technology Lead ensuring balanced guidance that bridges product vision and technical execution.

Role summary

As the Collar Tech Lead you will provide technical leadership for the animal wearable device (collar) within the broader solution. You will lead the technical design and execution of the collar from concept through mass production ensuring the solution is technically robust manufacturable reliable and scalable in real-world farm environments.

You will work as part of the core product team in close partnership with the Collar Product Manager R&D teams NPI Operations Customer Success and manufacturing partners. You will be accountable for technical architecture system integration validation risk management and technical readiness for launch and ongoing support.

We are looking for a Collar Tech Lead who:
Thrives on leading technical development of products that customers love understanding customer problems and leading the development and delivery of technological solutions
Is guided by measurable results related to collar performance and customer outcomes
Collaborates across R&D NPI Operations Supply Chain and Customer Success to deliver a technically strong device
Uses field data and technical evidence to guide engineering tradeoffs and improvements
Fosters an environment of continuous learning innovation and collaboration in a multidisciplinary team

Key responsibilities

Collar Technical Strategy Architecture and Design

Work with the Collar Product Manager and cross-functional partners to understand customer needs and translate agreed product outcomes into technical solutions for the collar
Lead the technical architecture and system design for the collar including electronics mechanics embedded software RF communications integration and validation
Define and drive engineering solutions that meet performance reliability manufacturability and cost constraints
Ensure collar designs and algorithms are compatible with and make effective use of relevant Core Platforms avoiding duplication of platform responsibilities
Evaluate technical feasibility complexity and risk for proposed design changes and solutions
Own collar-specific product outcomes and metrics (e.g. field failure/return rates installation/activation success battery life robustness unit cost) and use these to guide design trade-offs

Collaboration Product Discovery & Cross Functional Leadership

Work as part of the core product team to define goals and solve customer problems related to the collar bringing collar-specific technical and field insights into decisions
Drive and participate in product discovery for collar-related problems:
oEngage with Customer Success field teams and customers to understand pain points (installation comfort durability reliability)
oHelp define and run experiments and trials to validate ideas before committing to full design changes
Collaborate cross-functionally with R&D functional managers engineers product design NPI Operations Supply Chain and Customer Success to ensure alignment and delivery

Validation Quality and NPI Readiness

Ensure speed to market while maintaining focus on quality robustness and performance in demanding environments
Collaborate with NPI and Operations on production launch and ramp-up as well as ongoing mass production support
Define and oversee validation strategy technical acceptance criteria and readiness activities
Identify risks early and proactively define mitigation strategies
Support ongoing operations by investigating and resolving field issues and feeding insights into future improvements
Stay current with relevant IoT hardware and wearable technologies and industry trends
Promote innovation while maintaining strong focus on reliability safety and field performance

Performance and accountability

Own the technical architecture and engineering of the collar and ensure the solution achieves customer outcomes
Deliver high-quality technical solutions that meet agreed requirements and performance targets
Track and report technical metrics such as reliability test coverage yield field failure rates and risks
Ensure engineering decisions balance feasibility reliability maintainability manufacturability and cost
Provide strong technical input to support product decisions

Required qualifications

• BSc/MSc in Electrical Engineering or a related discipline
• Minimum 5 years of experience in technical leadership or technical project management for multidisciplinary hardware products.
• Proven experience working in a product team and collaborating cross-functionally.
• Minimum of5 years of experienceworking inmedium and largescale companies
• Comprehensive knowledge of IoT architecture embedded systems hardware mechanics integration and validation.
• Experience developing mass-production products for wireless IoT or wearable devices.
• Proven experience working throughout the entire product life cycle fromdiscovery and conceptthroughdesign validation and mass production.
• Experience working on complex products requiring a high level of technical knowhow and coordination across multiple geographic locations.
• Excellentcommunication presentation and organizational skills.
• Passion for building products that solve real customer problems and deliver measurable value in the field.
• A mindset of ownership accountability and customer focus; comfortable signing up for results and driving outcomes through others when needed.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience in geofencing animal technology or similar field-deployed hardware solutions

Characteristics

• Ability to lead as anindividual contributor within a matrix environment influencing without direct line authority.
• Strong ability tofocus on what is important to the customer and the business not just what is technically interesting.
• Willingness totravelto meet customers field teams manufacturing partners and remote R&D teams.
• Problem solver with acando attitudeand strong desire for learning and innovation.
• Excellent team player able to collaborate closely with the Product Manager Tech Lead core product team engineering NPI Operations and Customer Success.
• Passion for fostering team innovation and leveraging the collective ideas and expertise of crossfunctional colleagues.

Required Skills:

Preferred Skills:

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