Senior Field Systems Engineer in Ripon, Wisconsin at Alliance Laundry System LLC

As a Senior Field Systems Engineer at Alliance Laundry Systems, you will serve as the "tip of the spear" for diagnosing and resolving the most complex, intermittent, and high-impact issues affecting our laundry machines deployed at customer sites around the world. Working as part of a specialized, rapid-response team of electrical and firmware engineers, you will travel to customer facilities domestically and internationally to capture debug data, deploy diagnostic firmware, and gather the evidence needed to reproduce issues in our Ripon, WI lab. You will play a critical role in investigating complex, intermittent, and difficult-to-reproduce issues spanning embedded firmware, subsystem interactions, and communications between edge machines, IoT gateways, and connected peripherals. Your findings will directly drive the development of production firmware patches that protect our brand, delight our customers, and keep our machines running at peak performance

• Serve as a key member of the Team, rapidly deploying to customer sites in the U.S. and internationally to diagnose and resolve complex, high-priority issues with fielded laundry machines.
• Investigate and troubleshoot intermittent and hard-to-reproduce firmware issues within laundry machine controllers, HMIs, I/O boards, and related embedded subsystems.
• Diagnose and resolve communication and data integrity issues between edge machines, IoT gateways, and the cloud platform.
• Troubleshoot interoperability and communications bus issues between laundry machines, vending systems, and other external devices.
• Capture field debug data using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, CAN/Modbus sniffers, and network/IoT traffic capture tools.
• Develop, deploy, and update units with specialized diagnostic/debug firmware builds designed to log events, capture traces, and expose root-cause data for intermittent field issues.
• Recreate field-observed issues in a controlled lab environment in Ripon, WI, and work collaboratively with the core Firmware and Electrical Engineering teams to develop, validate, and release production firmware patches.
• Document findings, root-cause analyses, and resolution steps in clear, comprehensive technical reports for internal engineering, quality, service, and customer-facing stakeholders.
• Partner with the Firmware, Electrical, IoT/Cloud, and Quality Engineering teams to feed lessons learned back into product design, test coverage, and release processes.
• Develop and improve field diagnostic tooling, debug firmware hooks, data capture scripts, and standard operating procedures used by the team.
• Interface directly with customers, distributors, and service technicians in a professional manner, representing Alliance Laundry Systems as a technical subject-matter expert during on-site visits.
• Support supplier and third-party integration efforts, particularly with payment system vendors and IoT gateway providers, to resolve cross-vendor issues.
• Mentor and support junior engineers on the Team, fostering skill development and promoting best practices in field diagnostics, debugging, and embedded troubleshooting.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline.
• Minimum of 5 years of embedded systems / firmware development experience, preferably in a manufacturing or consumer/commercial appliance environment.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience debugging production embedded systems written in C on resource-constrained microcontrollers (ARM Cortex-M, PIC, STM32, Renesas, or similar).
• Proven experience monitoring, capturing, and analyzing communications between edge/embedded devices and IoT gateways or cloud platforms.
• Prior field service, field engineering, or customer-site troubleshooting experience strongly preferred.
• Experience working with third-party peripherals (e.g., payment kiosks, vending systems) and integrating them with embedded devices preferred.
• Experience with RTOS (FreeRTOS, etc.) and/or bare-metal embedded architectures preferred.

Skills and Abilities:

• Embedded Systems Expertise — Deep proficiency in C programming, firmware development tools (IDEs, compilers, Git/SVN), and embedded architecture including memory management, interrupts, timers, ADC/DAC, PWM, and communication peripherals.
• Hardware Debugging & Diagnostics — Expert use of JTAG/SWD debuggers, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and protocol analyzers, with the ability to read, modify, and deploy diagnostic firmware builds.
• Communication Protocols & Connectivity — Comprehensive knowledge of embedded protocols (CAN, Modbus, UART, SPI, I2C) and IoT/network protocols (MQTT, HTTPS, TCP/IP, TLS, Wi-Fi, cellular) across edge-to-cloud systems.
• Root Cause Analysis & Problem Solving — Skilled at analyzing packet captures, telemetry logs, and event traces, and applying rigorous scientific thinking to define complex problems, reproduce intermittent field issues, and draw valid conclusions under time pressure.
• Technical Communication & Documentation — Strong written and verbal communication skills, producing clear trip reports, root-cause analyses, and technical documentation, while effectively conveying complex issues to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Field & Customer Engagement — Proven ability to represent the organization professionally at customer sites, manage competing priorities in fast-paced environments, and respond quickly to emerging field issues.
• Leadership & Professional Effectiveness — Self-motivated, detail-oriented, and resourceful, with a track record of mentoring junior engineers and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Travel Requirements:

• Up to 25% travel, both domestically within the United States and internationally, to customer sites, distributor locations, and Alliance Laundry Systems facilities.
• Must possess (or be able to obtain and maintain) a valid U.S. passport and be able to travel internationally on short notice.
• Must possess a valid driver's license and be able to travel by air, rail, and automobile as required.
• Ability to respond rapidly to emerging field issues, including occasional travel on short notice.

Standard and Physical Requirements:

• Position involves sitting long periods, standing, manual dexterity, stooping, bending, and kneeling — often in customer laundry rooms, commercial facilities, and industrial environments.
• Capable of light to moderate lifting, moving, and carrying of items (e.g., test equipment, tool cases, laptops, laundry machine components, development hardware), including transport of equipment through airports and customer sites.
• Ability to work hands-on in both lab and field environments with live electrical equipment and production laundry machines.
• Ability to work in a variety of customer environments, which may include heat, humidity, noise, and confined spaces typical of commercial and industrial laundry facilities.