About the position
This role requires expertise in designing circuits around embedded controllers and microprocessors, including their associated power delivery, communication interfaces, and clocking schemes. You will be responsible for addressing critical hardware challenges such as signal integrity, power integrity, and thermal management, including the design or specification of heat sinks and thermal interfaces where needed. We are looking for a hands-on, detail-oriented engineer with a passion for circuit and PCBA hardware design. You will collaborate closely with firmware engineers, mechanical engineers, and manufacturing teams, ensuring the hardware design is robust, manufacturable, and meets performance, reliability, and safety requirements. Your ability to deliver innovative design solutions that meet or exceed project targets will be critical to success. This role offers an exciting opportunity to apply your circuit design and PCB layout expertise to cutting-edge energy management solutions, directly impacting the functionality and performance of our HEMS products and contributing to the future of vehicle electrification and next-generation energy management solutions. As a HEMS PCBA Hardware Design Engineer, you will be a key contributor to developing the core electronic hardware for our Home Energy Management System (HEMS), which integrates with our next-generation electric vehicles. You will be directly involved in the detailed design, simulation, layout, testing, and validation of complex electronic circuits and Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) that form the backbone of the HEMS.
Responsibilities
- Design and develop electronic circuits for the HEMS, including schematic capture, component selection, and analysis (e.g., power, analog, digital, mixed-signal as applicable).
- Translate system and board-level requirements into detailed circuit designs and PCB specifications making informed decisions on component technology choices (e.g., through-hole vs. SMT) based on factors like performance, size, cost, and manufacturing requirements.
- Design and implement complex, multi-layer PCB layouts from schematics, with careful attention to component placement (especially for controllers and power components), routing of interfaces and critical signals, power delivery networks, stackup definition, impedance control (where necessary for specific interfaces), and effective thermal management strategies.
- Perform circuit simulations, including SPICE, Signal Integrity (SI), Power Integrity (PI), and potentially thermal simulations, to validate design choices and optimize performance.
- Manage and maintain the ECAD component library within Altium Designer, ensuring accuracy and adherence to standards.
- Generate comprehensive manufacturing documentation (Gerber files, drill files, assembly drawings, Bill of Materials - BOM) and work closely with PCB fabrication and assembly vendors, ensuring designs adhere to Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) principles.
- Bring up, test, and debug new PCB designs using laboratory equipment (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies, spectrum analyzers, etc.).
- Develop and execute detailed board-level test plans and procedures to validate hardware functionality and performance against specifications.
- Lead hardware debugging and root cause analysis efforts for issues identified during development, validation, and production.
- Ensure hardware designs comply with applicable electrical codes, industry standards, and regulatory requirements (e.g., related to charging, grid interconnection, safety).
- Collaborate closely with firmware engineers for successful board bring-up and hardware/software integration.
- Collaborate with mechanical engineers on enclosure constraints, thermal dissipation, and mounting.
- Participate in and lead detailed hardware design reviews (schematic reviews, layout reviews).
Requirements
- Expertise in circuit design and PCB layout.
- Experience with embedded controllers and microprocessors.
- Knowledge of power delivery, communication interfaces, and clocking schemes.
- Ability to address hardware challenges such as signal integrity, power integrity, and thermal management.
- Experience with circuit simulations (SPICE, SI, PI).
- Proficiency in using Altium Designer for ECAD component library management.
- Experience in generating manufacturing documentation (Gerber files, BOM).
- Hands-on experience with laboratory equipment for testing and debugging.
- Familiarity with electrical codes and industry standards.
Nice-to-haves
- Experience with energy management systems.
- Knowledge of vehicle electrification technologies.
- Familiarity with EMC design principles.
- Experience in collaborating with firmware and mechanical engineers.
