A well funded and rapidly expanding Oxford start-up is looking for a Senior Systems Engineer to take full ownership of their next-generation products – from first concept to field-ready reality. This is a technical leadership role at the heart of everything we build: architecture, integration, verification, and productization of complex opto-electro-mechanical systems.

You’ll sit at the intersection of precision mechanics, automation, software, and reliability engineering – turning ambitious R&D into robust, high-performance products our customers can rely on. Working across early-stage research, customer engagements, and product development, you’ll help shape the technical roadmap and mature prototypes into deliverable systems.

The Senior Systems Engineer will own:

End-to-end systems ownership

• Lead system architecture from concept through requirements, design, prototyping, verification, and release
• Build system-level specifications, performance budgets, and risk models spanning optical, mechanical, electrical, and software domains
• Define and drive processes for integration, validation, and troubleshooting

Integration & verification

• Bring motion control, electronics, and machine vision together into fully functional, production-ready systems
• Apply optical modelling and simulation tools to optimise performance and eliminate error sources
• Develop verification plans, test procedures, and system-level fault analysis frameworks

Automation, control & safety

• Define system-level control methodologies and sequencing with the Software Team
• Ensure full compliance with international safety standards, implementing robust interlocks, monitoring, and diagnostics
• Shape automation and workflow design that drives stability, repeatability, and throughput

The ideal Senior Systems Engineer will bring:

• A strong technical background in precision instrumentation, ideally with a degree in Physics, Engineering, or a related field
• Proven experience developing and integrating precision motion-controlled stages for high-accuracy processes
• The ability to architect and optimise complex systems, including optical and machine vision elements
• A proactive, solution-first mindset when facing technical challenges
• Excellent organisational, documentation, and communication skills for cross-functional collaboration
• Full ownership mentality – you thrive on taking complex projects from concept to deployment with technical excellence and on-time delivery

If working at the bleeding edge of technology in a high impact role offering lots of development and progression opportunities then this could be the role for you.

Bond Williams Professional Recruitment are an equal opportunity employer and operate as an Employment Business and Recruitment Agency