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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 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.
The Systems Team at Heron unite the systems engineering, integration, reliability, testing, and failure analysis into a cohesive group across the design lifecycle of our products. Our goal is to be the technical conscience of the product — mastering how it works, why it works, and how it can fail — and setting new standards for architecture, integration, and validation in our industry.
As a System Integration Engineer, you will carry the system through integration milestones and own the full system end-of-line test that proves it, from first article bring-up through every release, including compliance with grid requirements.
This role owns the loop from: integration build → full system end-of-line test → failure analysis → firmware and hardware fix → firmware regression on every release → grid compliance and site commissioning.
Integration
Define the integration milestones (first article build, interface freeze, release readiness) and drive resolution of schedule risk.
Carry the system through integration milestones: track how mature each subsystem and each release is, and what stands between today's build and a shippable one.
Full System End-of-Line Testing
Define the full system end-of-line test spec, with pass and fail criteria that trace back to product requirements.
Build and run the full system end-of-line test setups and automate the test equipment so every run is repeatable.
Work with the firmware team on FW regression: run it on every release, own the results, and triage failures back to firmware or hardware.
Grid Interface
Partner with compliance team on the grid interface requirements, build them into the validation plan, and run grid compliance regression as part of the full system test.
Drive firmware development for grid compliance with the firmware team.
What Makes This Role Different
This role owns the question of how ready the system really is. You build and run the full system end-of-line test yourself, you carry the system through each integration milestone, and you drive the firmware and hardware changes that close the gaps, all the way through grid compliance and site commissioning. If you want direct ownership over whether a unit or a release is proven end to end, this role is built for that.
We prioritize first principles thinking, hands-on skill, and initiative over keywords. Domain-specific experience will help determine the career level for each hire.
Must-Have Requirements
BS in Electrical Engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Experience integrating and debugging complete power electronics or electromechanical systems, from first article bring-up through release.
Experience defining and running full system functional or end-of-line test on hardware you help build, not just handing it off.
Experience with firmware regression testing: running it against a release and triaging failures with the firmware team.
Experience automating test equipment such as power supplies, grid simulators, power analyzers, and data acquisition systems.
Ability to write test and regression reports that firmware engineers can act on.
A track record of driving firmware and hardware changes to close findings, and verifying the fix through re-test.
Comfort owning integration milestones and release readiness across hardware, firmware, and test.
Familiarity with IEEE 1547, IEEE 2800, and IEC grid requirements.
Nice-to-Haves
Experience with site commissioning and site-level protection coordination for grid-connected equipment.
Experience with UL 1741 or similar grid-interface certification testing.
Experience with grid simulators or power hardware-in-the-loop setups.
Exposure to utility interconnection requirements and processes.
Background in inverter, converter, or solid state transformer control.
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 salary for this role ranges from $160,000 to $190,000 per year
