Project behind schedule
Milestones are slipping, responsibilities are unclear or decisions remain blocked.
Independent consultant
Technical & R&D Director
On a fractional basis
I support industrial SMEs and startups that need senior technical leadership, an architect’s perspective and hands-on experience taking products from design to production, without hiring a full-time technical director.
Khalid EL AKEL
PhD, Eng
Systems Architect · R&D Leadership
Systems Architect · R&D Leadership
30+years of experience
10+patents & publications
$3MR&D budget managed
360°design to production
The right level of expertise, at the right pace
Senior technical leadership, without the rigidity of a full-time hire.
You retain control of your company and your teams. I bring the perspective, structure and experience needed to secure decisions, schedules and the transition to industrialization.
The goal is not to replace your teams, but to help them move faster, with clearer trade-offs and lower risk.
Prototype to industrialize
The product works, but its robustness, cost or manufacturability still need to be secured.
Team without senior technical leadership
Engineers need structure, clear decisions and experienced guidance.
Architecture to secure
A hardware, system or technology choice needs to be challenged before committing the project.
Engagement formats
A response tailored to your situation.
01Recurring engagement
Fractional Technical & R&D Direction
Lead without hiring full-time.
- Roadmap, priorities and R&D governance
- Technical trade-offs and risk management
- Coordination of teams and partners
- Milestone tracking through to production
1 to 2 days per week · 3 to 6 months
02Technical expertise
Hardware architecture & embedded systems
Secure critical technical choices.
- Electronic and system architecture
- ASIC, FPGA, MCU and hardware/software interfaces
- Design reviews and technology choices
- Validation, robustness and industrialization
Targeted assignment · Audit · Architecture review
View this expertise in detail →
03One-off engagement
Project audit & recovery
Quickly restore a clear trajectory.
- Technical and organizational assessment
- Analysis of delay or cost-overrun root causes
- Product maturity and architecture review
- 30 / 60 / 90-day action plan
2 to 5 days · debrief included
04Support & knowledge transfer
Consulting, mentoring & industrialization
Strengthen the team and secure the move to production.
- Mentoring for technical managers and project leaders
- Preparation for reviews and critical decisions
- Supplier and subcontractor support
- Experience transfer and team autonomy
Regular sessions or on-demand support
Engagement examples
Practical, results-driven interventions.
Move from prototype to series production
Assess product maturity, secure key choices and prepare repeatable production.
Get a troubled project back on track
Identify root causes, clarify responsibilities and rebuild a realistic roadmap.
Secure an architecture or supplier
Provide an independent view before an investment, outsourcing decision or technology change.
Support an R&D manager
Prepare trade-offs, structure reviews and progressively strengthen autonomy.
Clarifycontext, objectives, constraints
Diagnoserisks, causes, maturity
Prioritizedecisions and roadmap
Transfermethods and autonomy
Industrial experience
A complete perspective, from architecture to production.
More than thirty years in electronics, embedded systems, optics and industrial product development. My background combines deep technical expertise, complex project leadership and coordination of multidisciplinary teams.
Career highlights
2022–2024
Senior Consultant (Freelance)
Architecture, engineering and support for industrial projects.
1996–2022
Honeywell / Intermec
Principal Engineer, hardware architect and R&D project manager.
1990–1995
PhD & teaching
Research in electronics and networks at the University of Bordeaux.
Innovation & intellectual property
Patents & publications.
Practical innovation stemming from industrial projects and research work in electronics, optoelectronics, image acquisition, actuators and positioning systems.
10+
patents
3
scientific publications
Publications
3 scientific publications
Academic and technical work resulting from doctoral and research activities in electronics and networks. Titles are not listed here so that the site presents only references that are currently documented.
Selected patents
A representative selection from more than ten patents.
US 6,328,214 B1
Opto-electronic device for acquisition of images of codes in one and two dimensions
US 6,687,403 B1
Detection of straight-line segments in a stream of digital data representative of an image
US 6,732,930 B2
Optoelectronic device and process for acquiring symbols using a two-dimensional sensor
US 7,035,466 B2
Detection of straight-line segments in a stream of digital data representative of an image
US 7,412,097 B2
Process and device for detection of straight-line segments in digital image data
US 8,531,790 B2
Linear actuator assemblies and methods of making the same
US 8,976,368 B2
Optical grid enhancement for improved motor location
US 9,853,575 B2
Angular motor shaft with rotational attenuation
GB2561309A
Positioning an object with respect to a target location
Professional recognition
Expertise recognized by teams and managers.
These recommendations reflect technical depth, the ability to solve complex problems and the leadership demonstrated in multidisciplinary R&D environments.
4recommendations shown
20+years of collaboration mentioned
Khalid is an experienced engineer and technologist with detailed knowledge of hardware and embedded software engineering. He was able to apply this to very different engineering problems and help create new products and new IP.
I have known Khalid for over twenty years and have been impressed by his technical knowledge and ingenuity from the very first day. He has always been the go-to person for electro-mechanical challenges.
I worked with Dr. Khalid for over seven years. He is professional and expert in different fields, helping the team build strong capability in hardware design and FPGA development.
Khalid worked as a system engineer and EE lead for my optical engine R&T and NPI products. I was impressed by his architecture design skills, precise daily work and EE team leadership. He always kept customer needs in mind across electrical, mechanical, optical, firmware and software design quality and timing.
Initial conversation
Let’s discuss your situation.
An initial conversation quickly determines whether your needs call for a one-off audit, fractional support or targeted technical expertise.
khalid.elakel@elkonsulting.com
Occitanie · France · Remote assignments