Sr. Power Electronics Controls Engineer

Our Mission  

SPAN develops products that accelerate the rapid adoption of renewable energy in the home. The flagship SPAN Smart Panel is the first true evolution for the traditional home electric panel, harnessing enhanced technology for metering, monitoring, and control. An expanded product suite of intelligent, integrated solutions radically lowers the cost and complexity of energy upgrades–including solar, batteries and EVs–empowering homeowners to be active, resilient and informed players in the energy market. 

The Role 

We are seeking an experienced and driven power electronics controls engineer to lead the development of new technologies for home electrification. As the power electronics controls engineer, you will rely on your past experience to lead research and to optimize controls in the application to maximize overall system performance. You will lead the development of a power electronics controls platform, implement controls for future products and create building blocks and packages to bring them to market pairing them with Span’s Panel. Further, you will be tasked with guiding and mentoring team members to support the development of this exciting product.

In this role, you will:

• Create a control strategy for power electronic systems and sub-systems.

• Define system architecture and create engineering requirements for components and systems.

• Conduct circuit and power system modeling and use the results to optimize performance and guide design decisions.

• Collaborate with electronics design and firmware engineering teams to successfully design, validate and manufacture power converters.

• Collaborate with internal and external teams.

• Build prototype components and assemblies, optimizing components to meet system requirements.

About You

Required Qualifications

We are seeking a seasoned electrical engineer who has:

• Ph.D. or Master in Electrical Engineering

• Proficient in developing linear and nonlinear control strategies for Power converters.

• Solid knowledge of controls theory.

• Create models of the power electronic controls for use by power systems engineers for system performance evaluation and analysis, including power quality and system stability studies.

• Solid understanding of the theory and application of magnetics (inductors, transformers) and capacitors (Electrolytic, film, and Ceramic).

• Proficient in Matlab/Simulink and circuit simulation tools.

• Experience with high voltage power semiconductor characteristics (Si/SiC/GaN MOSFET’s, diodes), gate drive, and protection circuit design.

• Hands-on approach, whether it be building a prototype or performing testing.

• Experience with embedded programming or code generation, including working with / guiding firmware developers.

Bonus Qualifications

We would love to hire someone who has:

• Ph.D. with 1 year of Industry Experience

• Master with 2-3 Years of Industry Experience

• Experience in Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) and Software in the Loop (SIL) simulation platforms.

• Experience specifying embedded controllers for power electronics – i.e. choosing between FPGA, microcontroller, hardware accelerated gate drive, etc.

• Experience of implementing a model-based design.

• Demonstrated implementing power electronics controls in large systems, optimizing for load and source interaction in a single and three-phase systems.

• Knowledge of national and international safety and EMC requirements relevant to the design of power converters such as UL, IEEE, National Electric Code(NEC), IEC, and ISO.

• Demonstrated success working in a cross-disciplinary, multi-cultural environment.

• Experience developing performance validation, environmental testing, and reliability testing.
  
  

The U.S. base salary range for this position is $122,000 - $167,000 plus benefits, equity and variable compensation for Sales-related roles. This range represents SPAN’s good faith estimate of competitively-priced salary for the role based on national, real-time industry data from companies of a similar growth stage. This range reflects minimum and maximum new hire salaries for the role across US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by location and individual factors including relevant skills, experience and education or training. This range correlates to the relative level of the candidate we believe we need for the role and may require an adjustment for candidates o