(Senior) Applications Engineer

Vertical Semiconductor•Somerville, MA

4d•Onsite

About The Position

Vertical Semiconductor is hiring an Applications Engineer to help customers design in vertical gallium nitride (GaN) power devices rated from 100 V to 2300 V and translate device performance into system-level benefits. This hands-on position involves building and testing power-converter hardware, running simulations, characterizing fast-switching wide-bandgap devices, and supporting customers directly. The engineer will work closely with the Principal Applications Engineer and Device Engineering team. As they ramp up, they will take on increasing ownership of customer engagements, evaluation hardware, and technical content. The position is based onsite in Somerville, Massachusetts, with occasional travel of less than 20% to customer sites and industry events. Vertical Semiconductor is a venture-backed MIT spin-out developing vertical GaN power semiconductors as a foundational power layer for next-generation computing and AI. The company seeks an engineer who learns quickly, enjoys bench and simulation work, and is comfortable contributing to the day-to-day execution of a startup in a collaborative environment.

Requirements

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (Power Electronics) or a closely related field; recent graduates are welcome, or an M.S. in Electrical Engineering with substantial, specific hands-on power-converter work from a thesis, lab, or industry project.
Solid understanding of power-converter design, including switching-loss mechanisms, thermal characteristics, magnetics, layout and parasitics, and gate drive.
Hands-on bench experience building and testing power-electronics hardware.
Working proficiency with SPICE and/or PLECS for simulating power circuits.
Working proficiency with PCB design and fabrication EDA tools such as Altium Designer, Eagle, or OrCAD.
Familiarity with parasitic-aware layout and EMI considerations for fast-switching power stages.
Clear written and verbal technical communication skills and comfort working directly with customers.
Willingness to contribute to the day-to-day execution of a startup and work collaboratively.

Nice To Haves

Two to five years of additional industry experience in applications engineering, power-converter design, or power-semiconductor characterization.
Lab experience with high-voltage or high-current wide-bandgap (SiC or GaN) devices.
Interest in tackling complex engineering challenges, learning quickly, taking initiative, problem-solving, and creating transformative technology.

Responsibilities

Support customer design-in activity through simulations, bench testing, troubleshooting, and performance optimization.
Translate customer specifications into device and circuit requirements, working with senior applications staff on strategic accounts.
Take technical ownership of selected customer engagements and present results and recommendations to customers.
Build and run SPICE and/or PLECS simulations of vertical GaN devices in realistic converter environments, including switching behavior, parasitics, loss and thermal estimates, and gate-drive tradeoffs.
Correlate simulations with bench measurements and help maintain reusable models and topology templates.
Contribute to evaluation boards, demo boards, and reference designs, including schematic and layout work, BOMs, bring-up, test plans, and characterization reports.
Perform system-level bench testing and debugging, and propose design optimizations based on measured performance.
Conduct system-level characterization of fast-switching wide-bandgap devices, including switching waveforms, thermal performance, parasitic-sensitive measurements, and robustness testing.
Help develop practical customer design rules for gate drive, layout and loop inductance, protection, and measurement techniques.
Write or contribute to application notes, design guides, test reports, and training material.
Document customer requirements, test results, and failure-mode learnings, and share them with Device Engineering and Product teams.