Senior Power Electronics Hardware Engineer

Sonnen Gmbh - Atlanta, GA

Full-time - Senior

Atlanta, GA

About the position

We are looking for passionate individuals who believe in their abilities and the impact they can make on the products they work on. As a Senior Power Electronics Hardware Engineer, you will join the Power Electronics (PWX) Hardware development group, where you will be responsible for the design and development of power converters from inception to production. This role involves validating designs, creating engineering specifications, and producing engineering documents. You will be engaged in topology selection, conducting design reviews, designing schematics, selecting components, creating layouts in Altium, and preparing release documentation for production. Additionally, you will conduct reliability studies and assessments while supporting product manufacturing and testing. This position is based in-person at the Innovation Hub located in Stone Mountain, Georgia. The ideal candidate will be agile, professional, and comfortable in a rapidly changing environment. Trustworthiness and a strong work ethic are essential, as you will be expected to work diligently even when not under direct supervision. In this role, you will design single-phase and three-phase bidirectional inverters with a focus on achieving maximum efficiency and cost-competitive designs. You will need to understand marketing specifications to select appropriate topologies that meet cost, efficiency, and performance targets. Your responsibilities will also include high voltage power semiconductor selection, understanding switching behavior, calculating losses in converter/inverter systems, and performing reliability and cost analyses with various semiconductor technologies. You will need to have a good understanding of relevant standards such as UL1741, IEC62019, and IEC 60730, and apply this knowledge to ensure compliance during the design process. You will also be responsible for designing with both isolated and non-isolated topologies, with a major focus on non-isolated designs, and implementing active and passive cooling systems. Ownership of power layout techniques to reduce noise, EMI, and EMC will be crucial, as will your ability to conduct pre-compliance testing in-house and at EMI EMC laboratories. A deep understanding of magnetics and the ability to design and build magnetics for prototype evaluation will also be required. Testing and troubleshooting complex problems under pressure while providing feasible short- and long-term solutions will be part of your daily tasks. Good communication and documentation skills are essential, as is the ability to work both independently and as part of a small interdisciplinary team.

Responsibilities

• Design of single phase and 3 phase bidirectional inverters with aim to gain maximum efficiency and cost competitive design.
• Understand the marketing specification and derive/chose proper topology to meet the cost, efficiency and performance targets.
• High voltage power semiconductor selection, switching behaviour and what to expect before the test knowledge, able to calculate all the losses in the converter/inverter system, perform reliability, cost analysis with Si/SiC/GaN MOSFET's, Diodes systems, deep knowledge on gate drive and protection circuit design.
• Derive individual converter Spec from Master spec and estimate power budget of individual converter.
• Good understanding of UL1741, IEC62019 and IEC 60730 and applying it on design.
• Understand the product certification process and know how on design level to make the compliance testing smoother (UL, CSA, FCC, etc.).
• Design with isolated and non-isolated topologies- major focus on non-isolated designs.
• Design with active and passive cooling systems.
• Ownership of power layout and techniques for reduction of noise, EMI EMC reduction and other parasitic and taking product to EMI EMC laboratories and Inhouse pre compliance testing.
• In Depth understanding of magnetics and ability to design and build magnetics for prototype evaluation.
• Testing and troubleshooting to solve complex problems under pressure and provide feasible solutions in the short and long term.
• Good communication skills and documentation skills.
• Self-driving must be able to work as a team in small interdisciplinary groups and independently.

Requirements

• Must have designed hard switching bidirectional AC/DC, DC/DC & DC/AC (Single, 3 Phase) topologies.
• Five or more years of first-hand experience on medium to high power converter (up to 15KW) design and development.
• Electrical/Electronics/Power Engineering degree or higher specialization degrees with power electronics major.
• Experience with high voltage up to 1000V or more and high-power levels >2KW.
• Strong knowledge of power electronics systems working principles, including AC/DC, DC/AC, DC/DC, AC/AC conversion and grid-connected converters.
• Experience conducting test on multi-converter module systems, verifying individual converter module functionality as well as system-level/converter stack operation.
• Strong hands-on testing and troubleshooting experience.
• Must have a strong sense of development ownership, responsibility and working commitment.

Nice-to-haves

• Strong understanding of power electronics system including Inverters, Converters, 4-wire, 3-Wire AC systems, Single phase, Two phase and Three phase systems, unbalanced operation, grounding schemes, Leakage current etc.
• Strong knowledge of safety procedures working with hazardous current and voltage levels.
• Ability to understand complex schematics and board layouts (Altium).
• Strong understanding of signal integrity, noise issues, signal processing for power electronics environments.
• Direct experience and involvement in designs using IGBT/MOSFET/GAN or other switching devices and Gate driver design, selection, characterization.
• Good understanding of digital control for power electronics, DSP and microcontrollers.
• Familiar with PV, Energy Storage Systems, DC fast charging equipment, and generators, Grid simulators operation.
• Outside-the-box thinker eager to work on new power conversion technologies and willing to derive innovative testing solutions for advanced power electronics.
• Ability to work in a dynamic, diverse, multicultural, and cross-functional team.