Sr. Power Electronics Hardware Engineer

Responsibilities

• Architect and design SiC-MOSFET-based motor drives, active rectifiers, and DC/DC converters operating at switching frequencies greater than 20–40 kHz, with focus on power density, efficiency, and reliability for airborne applications.
• Lead schematic capture and PCB layout (Altium, Cadence, or equivalent) for high-voltage, high-current power stages, including controlled-impedance routing, creepage and clearance per aerospace standards, and partitioning of power, signal, and gate-drive domains.
• Design gate-drive circuits tailored to SiC device physics, including isolated drivers, dv/dt and di/dt management, desat and short-circuit protection, miller-clamp strategies, and dead-time selection in coordination with the controls engineer.
• Design magnetic components - DC-link inductors, common-mode and differential-mode chokes, current sensors, and isolation transformers - including core selection, winding strategy, loss budgeting, and saturation analysis for high-frequency operation.
• Develop DC-link architecture and capacitor banks, including ripple-current budgeting, ESR/ESL management, lifetime analysis, and pre-charge/discharge circuitry.
• Lead thermal design of converter assemblies, including heatsink and cold-plate selection, junction-to-coolant thermal stack-up, transient thermal analysis, and coordination with mechanical engineering on cooling integration.
• Design EMI/EMC mitigation at the hardware level - input/output filters, shielding strategy, grounding architecture, and layout-level techniques - to meet DO-160 conducted and radiated emissions requirements.
• Define protection architecture including overvoltage, overcurrent, overtemperature, ground-fault, and arc-fault detection circuitry, and partition responsibilities between hardware interlocks and firmware-level FDIR with the controls team.
• Specify and qualify power semiconductors, magnetics, capacitors, sensors, and connectors; drive component derating analyses, supplier evaluations, and second-source strategies appropriate for aerospace volumes.
• Lead board bring-up, double-pulse testing, and converter characterization on bench and dyno; correlate measured switching behavior, losses, and thermal performance with simulation and iterate the design to close gaps.
• Collaborate with the controls/software engineer to define sensor placement, current/voltage feedback signal conditioning, and ICD-level interfaces; ensure hardware exposes the observability needed for FOC, sensorless operation, and diagnostics.
• Produce deliverables aligned with DO-254, DO-160, and ARP4754B standards, including hardware design specifications, schematic and layout review packages, derating and stress analyses, FMEA/FMECA, and verification evidence.

Requirements

• BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, or related discipline.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience designing high-power motor drives or power converters from concept through hardware bring-up.
• Demonstrated expertise in SiC MOSFET-based converter design, including switching behavior, gate-driver design, dead-time effects, parasitic management, and high-voltage protection.
• Strong proficiency in schematic capture and PCB layout for high-power, high-voltage systems, with hands-on ownership of multilayer power boards through fabrication and assembly.
• Solid magnetics design experience - inductors, transformers, common-mode chokes - including core/winding selection and loss analysis at high switching frequencies.
• Working knowledge of thermal management for power electronics, including conduction, convection, and liquid-cooled architectures, and use of thermal simulation tools.
• Experience with EMI/EMC design and mitigation, including filter design, layout best practices, and pre-compliance testing.
• Hands-on lab proficiency with high-voltage bench work, including double-pulse testing, network analyzers, high-bandwidth oscilloscopes, current probes, and electronic loads, with disciplined high-voltage safety practices.
• Working familiarity with PMSM drive topologies and the control-system requirements they impose on hardware (sensor bandwidth, isolation, latency), sufficient to design hardware that supports FOC, sensorless operation, and flux-weakening.
• Familiarity with SPICE and converter-level simulation tools (PLECS, LTspice, or equivalent) for device-level and circuit-level analysis.

Preferred Qualifications

• Aerospace or eVTOL powertrain experience, with familiarity in FAA/EASA certification processes.
• Experience with DO-254 compliance in a regulated hardware development environment, plus working familiarity with DO-160, ARP4754B, FMEA/FTA, and requirements traceability.
• Experience designing converters for high-speed PMSMs, including multi-three-phase architectures, generator-mode operation, and active-rectifier topologies.
• Hands-on experience with high-power-density liquid-cooled converter assemblies and integration with airframe cooling systems.
• Familiarity with battery-pack interfaces, pre-charge architectures, and contactor/HVIL design for high-voltage DC distribution.
• Experience taking power electronics hardware from prototype through DVT, qualification testing (DO-160 environmental, vibration, thermal), and into low-rate production.
• Working knowledge of CAN, CAN-FD, and Ethernet hardware interfaces, including isolation and signal integrity for noisy power-electronics environments.