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Heuristics are cognitive strategies used to efficiently achieve an outcome and are used in the daily practice of many disciplines. Understanding the heuristics used by experts can help researchers and practitioners to better understand an activity and develop systems to support the efficacy and development of novices. While heuristics have been well-documented in psychology, industrial design, and engineering disciplines, they are not as thoroughly understood in the field of instructional design, or engineering course design in particular. This study sought to address that gap by using thematic analysis to identify and group the heuristics used by nine educators redesigning a second-year embedded systems course for electrical, computer, and software engineering students. We collected a variety of data, including audio recordings and written notes from team meetings, design artifacts (including final course materials), interviews with team members, and semi-weekly reflections from the course instructor, to explore heuristics from multiple lenses. We identified 22 heuristics, which were further grouped into 6 categories. The paper describes these heuristics and provides concrete examples of how they were used in practice. These findings indicate the prevalence of heuristics for engineering course design and suggests that additional heuristics can be identified across different educational settings.