Manufacturing Engineer – Surface Treatment

Heron Power•Scotts Valley, CA

1d•$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 goal is to build better converters (inverters & rectifiers) to connect large-scale renewables, storage, and loads to the grid. Heron’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 a Manufacturing Engineer - Welding (Advanced Processes), you will be responsible for developing, testing, deploying and scaling high volume manufacturing for our power electronics assemblies. This role will be responsible for some of our most exciting and complex manufacturing technologies and will lead process and equipment development for advanced automation/robotics, chemical handling systems associated with thermal interface materials and thermal gap fillers, plastics/metals assembly, and surface treatments. You will work closely with product, mechanical and electrical design teams early and often through DFM, design processes from a first principles approach and close the feedback loop to ensure both the product and the lines that make it are robust. You will collaborate closely with external suppliers and equipment partners to land scalable, reliable and highly repeatable equipment lines and processes, owning them from concept to production ramp.

Requirements

Bachelor’s in Mechanical, Materials, Manufacturing, Chemical, or Electrical Engineering
7+ years in industrial surface treatment or preparation processes
Hands-on experience with automation, robotics, PLCs, and inline inspection
Knowledge of material surface science, adhesion, plasma/chemical processes
Experience with PFMEA, DoE, SPC, and precision assembly

Nice To Haves

Experience in power electronics, EV, or aerospace manufacturing
Supplier industrialization and equipment qualification experience

Responsibilities

Develop and optimize surface treatment processes: plasma, corona, chemical cleaning, solvent prep, adhesion preparation
Specify and commission automated surface treatment equipment
Integrate surface treatment steps into automated lines with robots, conveyors, and inline QA
Conduct DoE, PFMEA, SPC, and process validation for repeatable quality
Troubleshoot contamination or adhesion issues and implement robust fixes
Collaborate closely with mechanical, electrical, and manufacturing teams, and suppliers