Systems Engineer

Job description

About Vitestro

Vitestro is pioneering the future of blood collection with the Aletta® Autonomous Robotic Phlebotomy Device™ (ARPD™). This medical device combines advanced multi-modal imaging (near-infrared, ultrasound, and Doppler ultrasound) with robotics and AI to perform the entire diagnostic blood draw procedure autonomously.

By addressing critical healthcare staffing shortages and improving patient experience, Vitestro is transforming one of the most common and essential medical procedures. With more than 130 team members and growing rapidly, the company is scaling its impact. As the first devices have been placed with customers, the team is expanding to ensure successful implementation and long-term reliability.

At Vitestro, continuous innovation and improvement are central.

As our Systems Engineer, you own a set of the device's key functions across their full product lifecycle: the way patients and supervisors interact with the device through its screens and indications, the structural frame and housing that carries and packages every other system, the safe disposal of used needles and filled blood tubes, the presentation of bandages for pick-up, and the delivery of contact liquid and vacuum that makes that pick-up possible. You manage these functions end-to-end translating feature requests and system-level requirements into function and sub-system requirements and concept design, integrating them into the wider device, and following up with improved designs, informed by field performance data, through to end-of-life. It is a broad, integration-heavy mechatronic role spanning mechanical structure, fluidics, actuation, sensing, and cable/harness design. As we scale from first customers to volume production, you will be central to maturing these designs for manufacturability, reliability, and cost, while leading multi-disciplinary design work and coaching discipline engineers through technical excellence.

First months at Vitestro

In your first months, you get to know the functions you own and the teams around them. You dive into the requirements, interfaces, and open issues for your functions, and start translating feature requests and system-level requirements into function and sub-system requirement breakdowns with clear acceptance criteria. You work closely with fellow systems engineers to detail the interfaces between functions, and start coordinating mechanical, electrical, software, and industrialization colleagues on the design work ahead. You get hands-on with the design-for-manufacturability challenges across sheet metal, formed and molded plastics, machining and additive manufacturing, and begin building relationships with the suppliers behind your functions.

This is what success looks like

After 12 months, the functions you own are performing reliably in the field, and their requirements, interfaces and verification status are clearly documented and understood by the wider team. You have led at least one multi-disciplinary design project from requirements through to design transfer, and discipline engineers you've coached are visibly growing in quality and best practice. You are the go-to person for your functions, trusted by mechanical, electrical, software and industrialization colleagues, and by our suppliers, to make the right calls on reliability, manufacturability and cost.

You thrive at the intersection of mechanical, fluidic, electrical and software engineering, and enjoy translating ambiguous system-level needs into concrete, verifiable designs. You bring a pragmatic, can-do mentality, and you're comfortable moving between CAD, requirements documents, and the physical hardware on the bench.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead multi-disciplinary design projects across your functions — coordinating and delegating work across mechanical, electrical, software and industrialization disciplines to ensure effective, efficient design outputs that meet the requirements of various stakeholders
• Steer, coach and technically manage discipline engineers (e.g. mechanical and/or software), setting high standards for quality and best practices and helping colleagues grow
• Translate system-level requirements and feature requests into function and sub-system requirement breakdowns, establish acceptance criteria, and co-work with fellow systems engineers to detail the interfaces between functions
• Take your functions through design, integration, verification and design transfer to production — designing for manufacturability across sheet metal and weldments, formed and molded plastics, machining, and additive (SLS/FDM), and selecting the right process for each part
• Design and integrate electromechanical, fluidic/pneumatic and sensing content — pumps, valves, manifolds, tubing and sealing, stepper actuation, optical/capacitive sensing, and cable harnesses — with attention to serviceability, reliability and manufacturability
• Define and lead (and where needed co-execute) verifications and validations at function and system level
• Contribute to the refinement of design and supplier management processes — including reviewing the supplier and parts quality control plan — and work together with suppliers to implement design and/or process improvements, including cost-down and design-for-assembly optimization across a largely bought-in set of functions
• Monitor function performance across the lifecycle using field data, guard requirements and standards compliance, and troubleshoot issues at both function and system level

What You’ll Bring

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, mechatronics or a similar background
• >5 years working experience in design and development of mechatronic devices
• Experience with industrialization / design-for-manufacturing of actuated (dynamic, moving) systems, and hands-on design experience across manufacturing techniques such as sheet metal, formed/molded plastics and machined part
• Experience leading multi-disciplinary design projects and steering or coaching discipline engineers to deliver design outputs that meet stakeholder requirements

Nice to have

• Experience with the design of medical devices
• Experience in preparing devices for series-production
• Experience with fluidics/pneumatics (valves, manifolds, tubing, sealing)
• Experience with cable-harness and grounding/EMC design
• Experience collaborating with and managing external suppliers, including reviewing supplier and parts quality control plans and driving design-for-assembly optimization
• Experience in detailed design, using CAD software (SolidWorks preferred) in a PDM-controlled environment
• Experience in prototyping software (e.g. Python, Arduino)

How We Work

At Vitestro, ownership is not a slogan - it is an expectation. People are trusted to take responsibility, make decisions, and drive work forward.

Breakthroughs happen when talented people combine dedication, accountability, and teamwork. That means:

• Taking initiative rather than waiting for direction
• Focusing on execution and delivering results
• Proactively removing blockers and helping each other succeed
• Challenging ideas, not people
• Continuously learning, improving, and raising the bar
• Celebrating team success over individual heroics

Vitestro moves fast, but thoughtfully. Quality matters deeply because the technology ultimately impacts patients and healthcare professionals.

If you are looking for an environment where you can make a significant contribution, take ownership of meaningful work, and be surrounded by highly motivated colleagues, this role offers that opportunity.

What we offer

• Competitive salary including pension plan
• 25 days of annual leave based on a full-time position
• Hybrid work model
• Working together in a high-skilled team with the home base in Utrecht
• Frequent out-of-work activities with the team, and annual company weekend away
• Training budget
• Opportunity to be a key shaper of a new global industry niche: autonomous medical robotics

We’re big fans of working from the office – this is where team spirit comes alive. At the same time, we offer flexibility, allowing up to two (out of 5) days of working from home for those who prefer it.