Senior Power Electronics Research Engineer, Physical R&D

About Gridware

Gridware exists to enhance and protect the mother of all networks: the electrical grid. The grid touches everything and the consequences can be dire when it fails: wildfires burn, land is destroyed, property is damaged, and lives are lost.

Our team created an advanced sensing system to continuously analyze critical grid behavior. Utilizing high-precision sensor arrays and intelligence, our system identifies and preemptively mitigates faults. The technology has been proven with utilities to bolster safety, enhance reliability, and reduce outages. The demand for power will only increase. We protect the grid of today while we build the grid of tomorrow.

Gridware is privately held and backed by the best climate-tech and Silicon Valley investors. We are headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About the Role

We are seeking a creative, fast-paced power electronics research engineer to join our growing Physical R&D team. You will be responsible for investigating novel sensing technology to expand our product offerings. The ideal candidate will be an expert in electromagnetics theory, power electronics, and the physical experimentation process - from experimental design, to methods development, to analysis and reporting.

This isn't a traditional power electronics design role. You'll conduct collaborative research into novel sensing methods for multi-domain physical phenomena (electromagnetic, mechanical, chemical) related to the electrical grid. As our power electronics SME, you'll be crucial in interpreting and emulating these phenomena. Leading projects from concept to feasibility, you'll iteratively develop new technologies, conduct experiments, create data analysis pipelines, document findings, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive project success.

Responsibilities 

In this role you will:

• Lead projects to investigate and de-risk sensing technologies for the electrical grid.
• Independently design, develop, and execute physical experiments to evaluate new ways of measuring key electromechanical quantities.
• Develop hardware prototypes for hands-on power electronics experimentation.
• Write clean code to analyze experimental results, perform exploratory data analysis, and model physical phenomena.
• Conduct literature reviews on advanced sensing technology.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams, including data scientists, product development engineers, and product managers.

Requirements

To move forward in the application process you should have all of these:

• 4+ years of physical experimental design, development, and execution experience.
• 4+ years of quantitative modeling and analysis experience in a scientific computing language like MATLAB or Python.
• 4+ years of experience with kW-level power electronics.
• Experience using data acquisition systems to acquire time-series measurements of dynamical systems.
• Strong fundamentals in Electromagnetics (E&M).
• Project leadership: can lead and deliver on complex, abstract, cross-functional problems with strict deadlines.

Bonus Skills

We encourage you to apply even if you don’t have the bonus skills listed below. We believe that diverse perspectives drive innovation and growth.

• Hands-on experience with high power AC/DC-AC/DC converters, custom magnetics, ionizing voltages, and breakdown dielectrics.
• Strong fundamentals in applied mathematics (linear algebra, ODEs, numerical analysis, dynamical systems).

This role is most relevant to people with degrees in:

• Electrical Engineering
• Computer Engineering

Benefits

• Health, Dental & Vision (Gold and Platinum with some providers plans fully covered) 

• Paid parental leave 

• Alternating day off (every other Monday)

• “Off the Grid”, a two week per year paid break for all employees. 

• Commuter allowance 

• Company-paid training