Software Design Engineer Jobs
Software Design Engineer jobs are open across aerospace, automotive, consumer electronics, and enterprise software, from new-grad to principal and staff levels, with specializations in embedded systems, FPGA design, and hardware-software integration. Find a role that fits from the openings below and apply directly.
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Showing 5 of 77+ Software Design Engineer jobs
Req ID: 142146
Region: Americas
Country: USA
State/Province: California
City: San Jose
General Overview
Job Title: Director, Design Engineering 1
Functional Area: Engineering (ENG)
Career Stream: Engineering (ENG)
Role: Director 1 (DR1)
Job Code: DR1-ENG-DSGN
Job Band: 12
Direct/Indirect Indicator: Indirect
Summary
The role is for a highly motivated and experienced Senior Engineering Leader to spearhead a strategic customer engagement focused on cutting-edge technology solutions. This role demands a unique blend of technical expertise, customer-centricity, and leadership acumen to drive successful outcomes in a dynamic environment.
This role is accountable for strategic customer engagements - this includes regular engagement with the customer on technical advances, product quality, engineering metrics etc. To be successful in the role, the senior leader will need to work closely with internal and external stakeholders globally. The leader must be a thought leader, with strong communication skills and be forward thinking.
As a people leader, the leader will build and groom a team of high performing engineers, working with them on objective setting and professional development initiatives.
The candidate will have overall responsibility for quality, customer engagement (Engineering) planning, budgeting, implementing and maintaining costs in a functional area. The candidate will regularly interact with executives and/or major customers. Interactions may involve readouts, strategic direction setting or responding professionally and proactively to any potential escalations. They may also represent the organization in public speaking venues and/or community events.
Detailed Description
Performs tasks such as, but not limited to, the following:
- Lead Customer Engagement:
- Serve as the primary technical point of contact for a key customer, building strong relationships and understanding their needs.
- Collaborate closely with the customer to define project scope, requirements, and success criteria.
- Effectively communicate technical concepts and solutions to both technical and non-technical audiences at the customer.
- Ensure customer satisfaction by delivering high-quality solutions that meet their expectations and timelines
- Drive Engineering Excellence:
- Lead and mentor a team of engineers, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Oversee the design, development, and delivery of cutting-edge technology solutions, leveraging emerging technologies (e.g., AI, ML, IoT).
- Champion engineering best practices, including code reviews, testing, and documentation, to ensure high-quality deliverables.
- Drive continuous improvement in engineering processes and methodologies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
- Ensure Quality Outcomes:
- Define and implement design processes and metrics to ensure that deliverables meet the highest standards.
- Proactively identify and mitigate risks to project success
- Champion a culture of quality throughout the engineering team and the customer engagement.
Knowledge/Skills/Competencies
- Proven Leader: 15+ years of experience in software engineering, with a demonstrated ability to lead and deliver complex projects in a customer-facing role.
- Technical Depth: Strong foundation in software engineering principles, design patterns, and relevant technologies (e.g., cloud computing, microservices, AI/ML).
- Customer Focus: Excellent communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills, with a proven ability to build strong customer relationships.
- Quality Advocate: Deep understanding of quality assurance methodologies and a passion for delivering high-quality solutions.
- Emerging Tech Savvy: Experience with and understanding of emerging technologies, with the ability to identify and leverage them to solve customer challenges.
- Strategic Thinker: Able to translate customer needs into technical solutions and align engineering efforts with business goals.
- Thought leader: Be a thought leader for internal and external stakeholders, able to network effectively in a global environment.
Physical Demands
- Incumbent will perform the duties of this position in a normal office environment.
Typical Experience
- Fifteen plus years’ relevant experience
Typical Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related field, or consideration of an equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Advanced studies in Business/Operations/Technology are recommended.
Notes
This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities of the position. Employees are held accountable for all duties of the job. Job duties and the % of time identified for any function are subject to change at any time.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.
Celestica's policy on equal employment opportunity prohibits discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran or disability status, or other characteristics protected by law.
This policy applies to hiring, promotion, discharge, pay, fringe benefits, job training, classification, referral and other aspects of employment and also states that retaliation against a person who files a charge of discrimination, participates in a discrimination proceeding, or otherwise opposes an unlawful employment practice will not be tolerated. All information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
COMPANY OVERVIEW:
Celestica (NYSE, TSX: CLS) enables the world's best brands. Through our recognized customer-centric approach, we partner with leading companies in Aerospace and Defense, Communications, Enterprise, HealthTech, Industrial, Capital Equipment and Energy to deliver solutions for their most complex challenges. As a leader in design, manufacturing, hardware platform and supply chain solutions, Celestica brings global expertise and insight at every stage of product development – from drawing board to full-scale production and after-market services for products from advanced medical devices, to highly engineered aviation systems, to next-generation hardware platform solutions for the Cloud. Headquartered in Toronto, with talented teams spanning 40+ locations in 13 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia, we imagine, develop and deliver a better future with our customers.
Celestica would like to thank all applicants, however, only qualified applicants will be contacted.
Celestica does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruitment agencies or fee based recruitment services.
This location is a US ITAR facility and these positions will involve the release of export controlled goods either directly to employees or through the employee's movement within the facility. As such, Celestica will require necessary information from all applicants upon an applicant's acceptance of employment to determine if any export control exemptions or licenses must be filed.
Req ID: 142146
Region: Americas
Country: USA
State/Province: California
City: San Jose
General Overview
Job Title: Director, Design Engineering 1
Functional Area: Engineering (ENG)
Career Stream: Engineering (ENG)
Role: Director 1 (DR1)
Job Code: DR1-ENG-DSGN
Job Band: 12
Direct/Indirect Indicator: Indirect
Summary
The role is for a highly motivated and experienced Senior Engineering Leader to spearhead a strategic customer engagement focused on cutting-edge technology solutions. This role demands a unique blend of technical expertise, customer-centricity, and leadership acumen to drive successful outcomes in a dynamic environment.
This role is accountable for strategic customer engagements - this includes regular engagement with the customer on technical advances, product quality, engineering metrics etc. To be successful in the role, the senior leader will need to work closely with internal and external stakeholders globally. The leader must be a thought leader, with strong communication skills and be forward thinking.
As a people leader, the leader will build and groom a team of high performing engineers, working with them on objective setting and professional development initiatives.
The candidate will have overall responsibility for quality, customer engagement (Engineering) planning, budgeting, implementing and maintaining costs in a functional area. The candidate will regularly interact with executives and/or major customers. Interactions may involve readouts, strategic direction setting or responding professionally and proactively to any potential escalations. They may also represent the organization in public speaking venues and/or community events.
Detailed Description
Performs tasks such as, but not limited to, the following:
- Lead Customer Engagement:
- Serve as the primary technical point of contact for a key customer, building strong relationships and understanding their needs.
- Collaborate closely with the customer to define project scope, requirements, and success criteria.
- Effectively communicate technical concepts and solutions to both technical and non-technical audiences at the customer.
- Ensure customer satisfaction by delivering high-quality solutions that meet their expectations and timelines
- Drive Engineering Excellence:
- Lead and mentor a team of engineers, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Oversee the design, development, and delivery of cutting-edge technology solutions, leveraging emerging technologies (e.g., AI, ML, IoT).
- Champion engineering best practices, including code reviews, testing, and documentation, to ensure high-quality deliverables.
- Drive continuous improvement in engineering processes and methodologies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
- Ensure Quality Outcomes:
- Define and implement design processes and metrics to ensure that deliverables meet the highest standards.
- Proactively identify and mitigate risks to project success
- Champion a culture of quality throughout the engineering team and the customer engagement.
Knowledge/Skills/Competencies
- Proven Leader: 15+ years of experience in software engineering, with a demonstrated ability to lead and deliver complex projects in a customer-facing role.
- Technical Depth: Strong foundation in software engineering principles, design patterns, and relevant technologies (e.g., cloud computing, microservices, AI/ML).
- Customer Focus: Excellent communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills, with a proven ability to build strong customer relationships.
- Quality Advocate: Deep understanding of quality assurance methodologies and a passion for delivering high-quality solutions.
- Emerging Tech Savvy: Experience with and understanding of emerging technologies, with the ability to identify and leverage them to solve customer challenges.
- Strategic Thinker: Able to translate customer needs into technical solutions and align engineering efforts with business goals.
- Thought leader: Be a thought leader for internal and external stakeholders, able to network effectively in a global environment.
Physical Demands
- Incumbent will perform the duties of this position in a normal office environment.
Typical Experience
- Fifteen plus years’ relevant experience
Typical Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related field, or consideration of an equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Advanced studies in Business/Operations/Technology are recommended.
Notes
This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities of the position. Employees are held accountable for all duties of the job. Job duties and the % of time identified for any function are subject to change at any time.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.
Celestica's policy on equal employment opportunity prohibits discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran or disability status, or other characteristics protected by law.
This policy applies to hiring, promotion, discharge, pay, fringe benefits, job training, classification, referral and other aspects of employment and also states that retaliation against a person who files a charge of discrimination, participates in a discrimination proceeding, or otherwise opposes an unlawful employment practice will not be tolerated. All information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
COMPANY OVERVIEW:
Celestica (NYSE, TSX: CLS) enables the world's best brands. Through our recognized customer-centric approach, we partner with leading companies in Aerospace and Defense, Communications, Enterprise, HealthTech, Industrial, Capital Equipment and Energy to deliver solutions for their most complex challenges. As a leader in design, manufacturing, hardware platform and supply chain solutions, Celestica brings global expertise and insight at every stage of product development – from drawing board to full-scale production and after-market services for products from advanced medical devices, to highly engineered aviation systems, to next-generation hardware platform solutions for the Cloud. Headquartered in Toronto, with talented teams spanning 40+ locations in 13 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia, we imagine, develop and deliver a better future with our customers.
Celestica would like to thank all applicants, however, only qualified applicants will be contacted.
Celestica does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruitment agencies or fee based recruitment services.
This location is a US ITAR facility and these positions will involve the release of export controlled goods either directly to employees or through the employee's movement within the facility. As such, Celestica will require necessary information from all applicants upon an applicant's acceptance of employment to determine if any export control exemptions or licenses must be filed.
Software Design Engineer Jobs by Experience Level
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Find Software Design Engineer JobsSoftware Design Engineer Job Market
Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Science & Research
- Automotive
- Medical Devices
- Technology & Software
- Distribution & Wholesale
What Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in software design engineer jobs.
- Bachelor's degree in computer engineering, electrical engineering, or computer science
- Proficiency in C or C++ for embedded or systems-level development
- Experience with hardware description languages such as VHDL or Verilog for FPGA roles
- Familiarity with real-time operating systems and low-level firmware development
- Ability to read and interpret schematics, datasheets, and hardware interface specifications
- Experience using version control systems and design documentation tools such as Git and Confluence
Tips for Your Software Design Engineer Job Search
Tailor your resume to the domain
Software design engineers work across embedded, FPGA, and application layers, and hiring managers scan for domain fit first. Clearly label each project with its domain, the hardware or software stack involved, and your specific contribution to the design.
Show design artifacts, not just outcomes
Most candidates list results, but software design roles expect evidence of the design process itself. Include block diagrams, architecture decision records, or design review documents in your portfolio to demonstrate how you think through system constraints.
Filter openings by stack, not just title
The same job title covers very different work depending on whether a team uses VHDL, C on bare metal, or a RTOS. Read every job description for the specific stack before applying so your cover letter references the tools the team actually uses.
Apply early to roles that fit
Migrate Mate lists software design engineer openings from across the United States in one place, so you can find roles that match and apply directly to each listing.
Prepare for design-review style interviews
Many software design engineer panels ask you to walk through a past design under critique, not just solve whiteboard problems. Practice narrating your design decisions out loud, including trade-offs you rejected, so you can hold a technical discussion at the whiteboard.
Negotiate around IP and project scope
Compensation for software design roles often includes assignment-of-invention clauses that affect side projects and prior work. Before you sign, confirm which pre-existing projects are explicitly excluded so there are no disputes after you start.
Software Design Engineer Jobs: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies are hiring the most software design engineers?
The companies hiring the most software design engineers right now include Tesla, Meta, and Google, with the largest share of openings in California, Texas, and Washington, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Demand is concentrated at companies building embedded systems, semiconductor products, and complex consumer hardware.
How many software design engineer jobs are remote?
About 69% of software design engineer openings are fully remote or hybrid as of November 2026, which is lower than in pure software roles because much of the work involves interacting with physical hardware prototypes and lab equipment. Application-layer and firmware simulation roles tend to offer the most remote flexibility within this title.
How do you become a software design engineer?
Most software design engineers start with a bachelor's degree in computer engineering, electrical engineering, or computer science, building hands-on skills in C, C++, or hardware description languages through coursework and personal projects. From there, entry-level roles in embedded firmware, FPGA development, or systems software provide the design-cycle experience needed to advance. Building a portfolio of design artifacts, contributing to open-source hardware projects, and seeking roles that expose you to full design reviews accelerates the path to senior levels.
How do you get hired as a software design engineer with little experience?
Employers hiring junior software design engineers look for evidence you can work close to hardware, so personal projects involving microcontrollers, single-board computers, or custom PCBs carry real weight even without professional experience. Internships at companies with hardware products, contributions to open-source firmware repositories, and coursework in digital logic or operating systems all help close the gap. Applying to roles explicitly labeled associate or junior gives you a realistic entry point while you build your domain knowledge.
What does the software design engineer interview process look like?
The process typically starts with a recruiter screen focused on your background and domain experience, followed by a technical phone or video round covering coding, systems concepts, or hardware fundamentals depending on the role. On-site or virtual final rounds usually include a design exercise where you architect a system or component under time pressure, a deep-dive into a past project you designed, and a behavioral round. Some companies add a written design document review or ask you to critique an existing architecture before the final decision.
Where can I find and apply to software design engineer jobs?
You can find and apply to software design engineer jobs on Migrate Mate, which lists current openings from across the United States in one place. Search the listings to find roles that match your domain, stack, and seniority level, then apply directly to each opening that fits.
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