Engineering Program Manager

Heron Power•Scotts Valley, CA

12d•$150,000 - $200,000

About The Position

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 focus 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. Job Overview As Engineering Program Manager for Heron Power’s next-generation power conversion platform, you will own the technical execution of the product roadmap from architecture through manufacturing launch. This role is intentionally hands-on and technically deep. You will work directly with power electronics, firmware/software, systems integration, test, and reliability teams to translate architectural intent into executable plans, surface technical risks early, and ensure tight coordination and execution. You are not just tracking schedules — you are expected to understand converter architectures, firmware control strategies, system-level tradeoffs, and validation requirements well enough to drive meaningful technical conversations, challenge assumptions, and help teams converge on sound decisions. This is a high-visibility role with real ownership, where you will help build Heron Power’s execution model and “no surprises” culture from the ground up.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering (power electronics focus strongly preferred) or equivalent demonstrated technical depth
5+ years leading complex, multidisciplinary engineering programs, ideally involving power electronics, embedded firmware, or tightly coupled hardware-software systems
Strong technical foundation in power electronics systems, with the ability to understand converter architectures, control strategies, and system-level tradeoffs well enough to guide execution
Demonstrated ability to work deeply with firmware/software teams, including understanding control loops, timing constraints, interfaces, and hardware-software dependencies
Experience driving programs from concept through validation and manufacturing launch, including prototype builds and design iterations
Strong grasp of DFM principles and the realities of building, testing, and scaling power electronics hardware
Proven ability to distill complex technical programs into clear risks, decisions, and priorities for both engineering and leadership audiences
Comfortable operating in a fast-moving startup environment, with high ownership, ambiguity, and minimal process overhead
Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence across engineering, operations, and leadership teams

Nice To Haves

Hands-on experience designing, validating, or debugging inverters, rectifiers, or other high-power conversion systems
Experience with power electronics simulation and modeling tools (PLECS, MATLAB/Simulink)
Familiarity with embedded firmware development for power electronics or control systems
Proficiency with BOM ownership, PLM systems, change management, and NPI processes
Experience with UL / IEC compliance for power conversion equipment
Familiarity with Enovia PLM, CATIA, or similar tools
Proficiency with Atlassian tools (Jira, Confluence) or similar technical program management platforms

Responsibilities

Own and drive the end-to-end technical execution of Heron Power’s first product launch, translating system-level goals into structured, engineering-driven milestones across concept, architecture, validation, and launch
Drive deep coordination between power electronics, firmware/software, and systems integration teams, ensuring hardware and control-software roadmaps are tightly aligned and risks at the interfaces are actively managed
Lead program planning and execution across hardware design, embedded firmware, controls, test, reliability, compliance, supply chain, and manufacturing, with a clear plan of record and critical-path ownership
Partner with technical leads to define product requirements, validation strategies, and decision gates, ensuring design tradeoffs are explicitly documented and understood across teams
Facilitate and contribute to technical design reviews, including architecture reviews, design readiness reviews, and validation readiness reviews, with sufficient depth to surface real risks
Own engineering BOM strategy and NPI readiness, working closely with power electronics engineers and supply chain to balance performance, cost, availability, and manufacturability
Establish and track DFMEA-driven risk management, ensuring risks across design, firmware behavior, system integration, and manufacturing are identified, mitigated, and retired
Be the steward of a “no surprises” culture: proactively surface technical and execution risks early, drive clarity, and ensure issues are addressed before they become program-blocking failures
Act as a force multiplier across the organization — increasing engineering velocity, reducing ambiguity at interfaces, and raising the bar on execution discipline without slowing innovation