Systems Engineering Lead

Wenco International Mining Systems ), a subsidiary of Hitachi Construction Machinery (HCM), provides industry leading, innovative technologies to customers in the mining and material movement sectors, enabling sustainable and safe operations.

Wenco has R&D offices located in Vancouver, Canada and Brisbane, Australia. This role is based in Brisbane.

Reporting to the Senior Software Engineering Manager the Support Systems Engineering Manager will lead a specialized team serving as the critical bridge between Wenco's Support organization and Development teams. This role is pivotal in ensuring operational excellence of our Open Autonomy platform and Fleet Management System (FMS) by establishing best practices for high-availability support, driving continuous improvement, and maintaining the highest standards of system reliability.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Lead and develop a specialized systems engineering team that serves as the technical liaison between Support and Development organizations
• Foster strong collaborative relationships across departments to ensure seamless issue resolution and knowledge transfer for the Open Autonomy platform and FMS
• Build and mentor a high-performing team capable of handling complex technical challenges in autonomous mining systems
• Coordinate with development teams and internal stakeholders

Incident Management & Technical Excellence

• Develop and implement comprehensive best practices for incident management, ensuring rapid response and resolution for high-availability systems
• Oversee 24/7 technical support operations by managing on-call schedules, escalation procedures, and critical incident response during non-business hours
• Establish robust root cause analysis (RCA) methodologies and lead implementation of RCA best practices within the R&D organization
• Create and maintain knowledge management systems, including technical documentation and knowledge articles
• Drive systematic problem-solving approaches across the organization
• Support a 'build quality in' mindset and culture within the team

Performance Monitoring & Metrics Management

• Design and implement comprehensive monitoring systems for support effectiveness metrics including: First Time Fix Rate (FTFR), Time to Resolution/Containment Action, Time to Root Cause identification, Product quality metrics (defect escape rates), Onboarding effectiveness measurements
• Extend monitoring capabilities beyond direct team to ensure organization-wide support efficiency
• Establish SLA compliance tracking and reporting mechanisms for Open Autonomy and FMS deployments

Quality Analysis & Continuous Improvement

• Be relentless in pursuit of continuous improvement
• Analyze and report on product quality trends and support effectiveness to senior leadership
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives within both Development and Support organizations
• Lead change management projects to optimize support processes and tools
• Identify and quantify risks within the development and support processes and implement appropriate controls

Process Development & Optimization

• Define standards and ways of working to enable growth of a high capability systems engineering team
• Design, document, and implement scalable support processes for high-availability autonomous systems
• Establish feedback loops between Support, Development, and QA teams
• Optimize escalation procedures and technical handoff processes
• Develop playbooks for critical incident response specific to autonomous mining operations

Product Development Support

• Interface with product management/owners and developers to define and improve requirements and test cases
• Provide strategic feedback on product testing methodologies based on field support insights
• Support product testing initiatives by leveraging team's operational expertise
• Collaborate with the Simulation group to employ simulation capabilities for better customer outcomes
• Ensure test scenarios reflect real-world operational challenges in mining environments
• Support the product and delivery teams in deriving testable specifications from requirements

Standard Engineering Management Responsibilities

• Manage team budget, resource allocation, and capacity planning
• Conduct performance reviews and career development planning
• Participate in technical architecture reviews and design decisions
• Contribute to product roadmap discussions based on support insights
• Ensure compliance with engineering standards and best practices
• Work with Product Owners and/or stakeholders to help set direction for the team

Qualifications & Skills

Must Have:

• Bachelor's Degree in Software, Mechatronics, Systems Engineering or equivalent
• 5+ years' experience working on complex systems comprised of edge and cloud computing elements, sensing and sensor processing communicating using fixed and wireless networks
• 2+ years of people management experience in a technical environment
• Strong software development background, preferably in Python and C++
• Proven experience with high-availability systems and autonomous or robotics platforms
• Experience with incident management frameworks (ITIL, SRE practices)
• Experience with monitoring and observability tools
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively across organizational boundaries
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with focus on root cause analysis
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Experience leveraging automation and simulation frameworks for product verification

Nice to Have:

• Prior experience with the mining industry and/or mining operational systems such as Fleet Management or Autonomous Equipment
• Experience working with cloud environments such as AWS or Azure
• Knowledge of Open Autonomy frameworks and autonomous vehicle systems
• Experience with data analytics and visualization tools
• Six Sigma, Lean, or other process improvement certifications
• Experience managing distributed or remote teams
• Track record of successful change management initiatives
• Experience working in the autonomous vehicle or robotics industry

Eligibility & Travel

• Must be eligible to work in Australia
• This role may require some international and domestic travel to customers sites or Wenco offices (