Manufacturing Test Engineer - PCBA

Heron Power•Scotts Valley, CA

69d•Onsite

About The Position

Heron Power is a startup company focused on building cutting-edge power electronics for the 21st-century grid. Their mission is to accelerate the electrification of everything by de-bottlenecking the growth of electricity generation and consumption with scalable, innovative, and less costly hardware solutions. The company's initial goal is to develop superior converters (inverters & rectifiers) for connecting large-scale renewables, storage, and loads to the grid. The leadership team brings extensive experience, having designed and shipped gigawatts of power conversion products. Heron Power fosters a collaborative and enriching environment that supports personal, technical, and career growth, emphasizing first principles engineering, problem-solving, hands-on execution, and continuous learning. As the Manufacturing Test Engineer - PCBA, you will be responsible for building the automated hardware test infrastructure necessary for validating and shipping products at scale. This includes everything from PCBA-level functional circuit testing and subsystem validation to end-of-line system testing and high-volume manufacturing test systems for low-voltage electronics and high-power converter assemblies. You will architect and deliver complete automated test cells, integrating power hardware, instrumentation, control software, and data pipelines to create reliable and repeatable production and engineering tools. The role encompasses the entire lifecycle, from defining test requirements and coverage strategy to test architecture, fixture/bench design, automation software, deployment, sustainment, regression, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechatronics, or equivalent practical experience.
Experience in designing and delivering automated test setups for high-voltage / high-power systems.
Strong fundamentals in circuits and instrumentation.
Hands-on experience with scopes, DMMs, power supplies, electronic loads, DAQs, and digital interfaces (CAN, Ethernet, SPI, I2C, UART).
Demonstrated ownership of a test system from concept through deployment and sustainment.
Ability to work cross-functionally and drive issues to closure.

Nice To Haves

Experience with bi-directional AC/DC or DC/DC power sources and regenerative loads.
Experience with HIL development or embedded firmware validation infrastructure.
Experience with PCBA manufacturing functional test and yield improvement.
Familiarity with production traceability systems and calibration discipline.
Experience developing test systems for medium-voltage or high-power converter products.

Responsibilities

Define functional test coverage for PCBAs, subsystems, and full systems.
Architect test solutions balancing coverage, cycle time, cost, and maintainability.
Partner with design engineering to drive Design-for-Test (DFT): test points, boundary scan, firmware testing, and observability.
Define regression strategy to prevent re-learning the same lessons across builds and firmware releases.
Establish pass/fail criteria grounded in real system performance and reliability goals.
Design and deliver automated bi-directional converter testers for AC/DC and DC/DC systems capable of source and sink operation.
Architect high-power test cells including bidirectional AC/DC sources, regenerative loads, grid simulators (as needed), HV measurement chains, contactors and protection systems, interlocks and safe operating procedures, grounding strategy.
Implement automated test sequences for power cycling, efficiency mapping, transient response, fault injection, protection validation.
Ensure high-voltage testing is safe, repeatable, and production-ready.
Design and build PCBA functional fixtures (bed-of-nails, pogo, interface boards), harness and connector validation fixtures, subsystem and system-level interface racks, and fault-injection rigs.
Specify and integrate instrumentation including power supplies, electronic loads, DAQs, DMMs, oscilloscopes, power analyzers, CAN/Ethernet/RS-485 tools, and sensors.
Deliver stations that are robust, safe, maintainable, and scalable.
Drive rapid debug loops when tests fail.
Improve test observability and diagnostic resolution.
Own station version control, calibration, uptime, and software releases.
Partner with manufacturing to improve yield, reduce escapes, and accelerate learning loops.
Close the loop with design and reliability teams.
Build the automated tester capability from the ground up.
Direct ownership of high-voltage, high-energy automated test systems.