Product and Engineering Lead
Join a supportive, collaborative team where curiosity and varied experiences are celebrated, and where your voice matters from day one.
Position: Product and Engineering Lead
Close Date: 3 October 2025
Location: Darlington, NSW with flexible working conditions
Security requirements: Due to work with the Australian Defence Force, only Australian citizens can be considered for this role.
Position Overview
We are seeking a hands-on and mission-driven Product and Engineering Lead to drive the development and delivery of Deteqt’s first field-ready prototype. This role bridges deep technical design with systems integration, customer co-development, and program delivery, ensuring we bring a compact, high-performance sensing platform into real-world evaluation environments.
You will own the architecture and systems integration of the device, spanning our quantum sensing core (diamond, optics, chip), electronics, and embedded systems through to downstream integration requirements. Beyond technical leadership, you will act as the primary liaison with customers and partners, translating requirements into product specifications and milestones.
You will report directly to the CEO, managing up to provide transparency on priorities, progress, and workload across the development team. Your remit includes leading a cross-functional engineering team, establishing project management frameworks, guiding co-development with external partners, and ensuring alignment with budgets, risks, and delivery timelines.
This is a key leadership role at the intersection of engineering execution, customer engagement, and market deployment.
About Deteqt
Deteqt is an early-stage, venture-backed startup building a diamond-on-chip quantum sensing platform that can detect and measure magnetic fields with unprecedented sensitivity and stability. By leveraging semiconductor manufacturing, our devices will achieve radical reductions in size, weight, power and cost, putting “quantum” into mainstream use.
Our first applications are in GPS-denied navigation, where satellites can be jammed or spoofed, and in critical mineral detection, helping reduce the environmental and economic costs of resource exploration.
Longer term, our sensors have the potential to transform medical diagnostics (MRI, MEG, MCG) and open completely new categories where magnetic-field awareness can be deployed ubiquitously in vehicles, infrastructure, and eventually consumer devices.
Your Key Responsibilities
Technical Leadership
Lead the system-level design of Deteqt’s quantum magnetometry device, spanning hardware, optics, electronics, software, and embedded integration.
Provide hands-on technical guidance while mentoring and coordinating the engineering team.
Make informed trade-offs to balance experimental performance, manufacturability, and field robustness
Customer & Partner Engagement
Act as the primary point of contact for customer and co-development meetings, translating requirements into technical specifications and product milestones.
Serve as the technical liaison with external manufacturing and integration partners to ensure alignment with go-to-market needs.
Prototype Development & Integration
Deliver functional prototypes for field pilots on schedule and to specification.
Oversee component selection, system integration, validation, and field testing.
Lead and participate in bench testing, simulations, and debugging.
Field Deployment Readiness
Align system design with field pilot needs including power, packaging, robustness, calibration, and user interfaces.
Build in diagnostics, error handling, and documentation to support operability in real-world environments.
Project Delivery, Budget & Risk Management
Establish and maintain project management frameworks and tools that provide visibility on progress, priorities, and workload.
Own project planning, scope, and delivery milestones, anticipating and unblocking roadblocks across teams.
Manage project budgets and track costs across internal builds and partner deliverables.
Identify, assess, and mitigate technical and operational risks to ensure reliable delivery.
Your Qualifications
Education
Degree (Bachelor’s or PhD) in Engineering, Physics or a related field.
Experience
8+ years of relevant experience in commercial and industry driven research and development with strong milestone driven, project management disciplines.
Experience in quantum sensing system test and measurement, especially at the prototype stage.
Required skills and experience
10+ years experience in systems engineering for high-tech hardware products.
Proven track record delivering functional prototypes into field use.
Demonstrated ability to engage directly with customers and partners, translating requirements into technical specifications and product milestones.
Experience managing project budgets, timelines, and risk in complex technical programs.
Experience in applied sensing technology, ideally in navigation, mineral resource discovery or medical imaging.
Experience leading end-to-end system builds that involve optics, embedded systems, and electronic design.
Strong interdisciplinary communication skills; can translate between physics, engineering, software, and commercial needs.
Australian Citizenship (mandatory).
Desirable skills and experience
Optical and photonics prototyping and development skills.
Magnetometer test and measurement.
Formal project management training and demonstrated effectiveness.
Novel and inventive design experience that has led to significant impact in final product or prototype performance.
What does success in this role look like?
A field-deployable prototype delivered on time, tested with customers and partners, and meeting performance goals
A well-integrated, manufacturable system that demonstrates Deteqt’s core technical advantage and readiness for productisation.
A scalable project delivery framework is in place, providing transparency on workload, priorities, and timelines as the company grows.
Strong alignment across internal teams, external partners, and co-development customers, with clear technical leadership.
Effective management of budgets, risks, and delivery milestones, ensuring reliable execution.
A solid foundation laid for scale-up beyond the pilot, with customer feedback directly informing the product roadmap.
Why Join Us?
Ground-floor impact: Be part of a well-funded, fast-growing startup at a pivotal stage, shaping a globally significant technology.
Values-led culture: We prioritise curiosity, diversity of thought, and building with integrity.
Mission with meaning: Help bring quantum sensing out of the lab and into real-world domains that matter — from secure navigation to sustainable resource discovery.
To Apply
Please submit your resume and a cover letter to info@deteqt.tech
We are an equal-opportunity employer and welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and experiences.
See our progress on linkedin.com/company/Deteqt