Principal Engineer - Acoustics

HARMAN’s engineers and designers are creative, purposeful and agile. As part of this team, you’ll combine your technical expertise with innovative ideas to help drive cutting-edge solutions in the car, enterprise and connected ecosystem. Every day, you will push the boundaries of creative design, and HARMAN is committed to providing you with the opportunities, innovative technologies and resources to build a successful career.

A Career at HARMAN

As a technology leader that is rapidly on the move, HARMAN is filled with people who are focused on making life better. Innovation, inclusivity and teamwork are a part of our DNA. When you add that to the challenges we take on and solve together, you’ll discover that at HARMAN you can grow, make a difference and be proud of the work you do everyday.

About the Role

We are looking for a Speaker Driver Design Engineer (T4) to lead the design and development of high-performance speaker drivers for consumer audio products. This role requires deep expertise in electro-acoustic transducer design, strong understanding of driver component materials, and solid experience across the full product lifecycle—from concept, simulation, prototype build, and validation to mass production and quality control.

Your Team

The Speaker Driver Design Engineer will work closely with acoustics, mechanical, quality, and supplier teams to develop world-class speaker driver solutions for consumer audio products. This role will contribute as a key technical expert, driving transducer innovation and ensuring successful execution from early concept through production ramp.

What You Will Do

• Lead the design and development of speaker drivers for consumer audio applications, including Subwoofer, Woofer, Mid-Range, Full-range, Tweeter.
• Own the full driver development process, including concept definition, modeling, simulation, prototyping, tuning, design verification, and mass production support.
• Drive deep technical evaluation and selection of driver key component materials, including diaphragm, surround, spider, voice coil, adhesive, magnet.
• Optimize driver performance across key parameters such as SPL, frequency response, distortion, excursion, power handling, thermal behavior, reliability, and cost.
• Work with cross-functional teams to ensure driver design integration into full acoustic systems and end products.
• Collaborate with suppliers to develop components, improve manufacturability, and resolve issues related to process capability, consistency, and yield.
• Support DFMEA, tolerance analysis, and pilot builds to ensure smooth transition from engineering build to mass production.
• Lead root-cause analysis and corrective actions for design, production, and field quality issues.
• Research and develop new driver technologies, materials, structures, and processes to create competitive product differentiation.
• Build proof-of-concept prototypes and demonstrate innovative transducer solutions to internal stakeholders.
• Possess a strong understanding of industry standards in speaker driver design and testing.
• Document design rules, technical learnings, and best practices to strengthen organizational capability.

What You Need

• Bachelor’s degree or above in Acoustics, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related field.
• Strong hands-on experience in speaker driver design.
• Deep understanding of driver component materials and their impact on acoustic performance, reliability, and manufacturability.
• Strong knowledge of speaker driver structure, motor design, suspension design, diaphragm behavior, and nonlinear performance.
• Proven experience with the full driver development cycle from concept to mass production.
• Good understanding of production processes, supplier management, process control, and manufacturing quality requirements for speaker drivers.
• Experience with acoustic and electro-mechanical simulation, and analysis tools.
• Familiarity with driver test and validation methods, such as Klippel, SoundCheck, Audio Precision, or similar platforms.
• Experience in failure analysis, reliability improvement, and quality issue resolution during NPI and mass production.
• Proven record of innovation, including development of new driver technologies, structures, materials, or patents.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to balance sound performance, reliability, cost, and schedule.
• Good communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Proficient in spoken and written English.

What is Nice to Have

• Experience with FEM / FEA tools for magnetic, structural, thermal, or acoustic simulation.
• Experience in consumer audio categories such as portable speakers, partybox speakers, soundbars, home audio products.
• Golden Ears certification.

What Makes You Eligible

• Be willing to travel as needed to suppliers, manufacturing sites, and development partners.
• Be willing to work in an office in Shenzhen.

HARMAN is proud to be an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard torace, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.