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Scotts Valley, California, United States
Onsite
Heron Power is a startup company building cutting-edge power electronics for the 21st-century grid. We aim to debottleneck the growth of electricity generation and consumption with scalable, innovative, and less costly hardware solutions, accelerating the electrification of everything.
Our first goal is to build better converters (inverters & rectifiers) to connect large-scale renewables, storage, and loads like datacenters to the grid. Heron Power’s leadership team is made up of seasoned veterans who have designed and shipped gigawatts of power conversion products over the past decade.
We understand that no one individual knows everything. We will all learn a lot together and from each other. We strive to build a collaborative, enriching environment conducive to personal, technical, and career growth. You can expect to work in a dynamic and collaborative environment, driven by first principles engineering, solving difficult problems.
As an Senior/Staff Hardware Design Engineer, you will be responsible for architecting, designing, and integrating the low voltage electrical system within high-performance power converters to meet reliability, EMC, and safety requirements. You will define cabinet-level electrical architecture, manage harnessing and interconnects, and ensure proper distribution of power, signals, and control across subsystems. Your work will span the full product lifecycle—from concept development and component selection to schematic capture, validation, and support through production.
Own the full hardware development lifecycle—from requirements definition and modeling through schematic capture, PCB layout, prototyping, testing, validation, and manufacturing support.
Define and implement the low voltage electrical architecture for cabinet-based systems, including cabinet microprocessors, power supplies, power distribution, interconnects, and signal processing and routing.
Select appropriate LV components such as microcontrollers, interface circuits, fuses, relays, contactors, terminal blocks, and power supplies based on system requirements and reliability targets.
Create system block diagrams, schematics, and harness documentation to support cross-functional development and manufacturing.
Ensure electrical interface integrity across PCBs, sensors, actuators, and communication buses (e.g., CAN, RS-485, Ethernet, LV analog/digital I/O).
Collaborate with mechanical teams on enclosure layout, cable routing, shielding, and grounding strategies for EMI/EMC performance.
Support validation and bring-up of LV systems during prototype and production builds, including DVT and integration testing.
Ensure compliance with safety and regulatory standards such as UL, CE, and IEC for low voltage systems.
Coordinate with firmware, test, and manufacturing teams to ensure proper system behavior, integration, and serviceability.
We’re open to candidates with both mid and senior-career experience. Scope and responsibilities will scale with the right candidate.
Degree in Electrical Engineering or related field.
5+ years of experience in low voltage electrical system design, including cabinet-level LV system architecture and component designs, ideally in energy, automotive, or industrial control applications.
Strong knowledge of cabinet-level LV power distribution and signal architecture.
Experience selecting and integrating LV components (relays, fuses, terminal blocks, etc.) for multi-voltage systems (e.g., 12V, 24V, 48V).
Familiarity with harness design, connector systems, and creating electrical schematics and wiring diagrams.
Understanding of EMC best practices and grounding/shielding techniques.
Proficiency with electrical CAD tools (e.g., Altium).
Hands-on experience with debugging, testing, and validating electrical systems using oscilloscopes, multimeters, and similar tools.
Experience with manufacturing processes, including design for manufacturability (DFM), volume production, and development of manufacturing test procedures and test equipment.
Experience with LV systems in high-voltage environments
Familiarity with fieldbus communication protocols like CAN or industrial ethernet.
Knowledge of control cabinet UL/IEC compliance and wire derating, spacing, and thermal considerations.
Experience in creating wiring harnesses and managing cable assemblies with third-party suppliers.
Exposure to cross-functional design with firmware and mechanical engineering teams.
Experience with failure mode analysis and root cause investigations of LV electrical systems.
Knowledge of safety-critical system design, including interlocks and redundant controls.
If you are passionate about technology and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment, we would love to hear from you. Join us in accelerating the electrification of everything at Heron Power.
Heron Power provides competitive compensation (salary and equity) and benefits. The base salary for this role ranges from $140,000 to $200,000 per year.
