Vence Collar Tech Lead

Job Description

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 Vence Collar Tech Lead, you will provide technical leadership for the animal wearable device (collar) within the broader Vencesolution. 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 Vence core product team, in close partnership with the Vence 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 Vence 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 Vence Collar Product Manager and cross-functional partners to understand Vence 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 Vence 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:

• Engage with Customer Success, field teams, and customers to understand pain points (installation, comfort, durability, reliability).
• Help 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.

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