Power Electronics / Electrical Systems Engineer

Lucid Bots•Charlotte, NC

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

Lucid Bots is seeking a Power Electronics / Electrical Systems Engineer to join their team. This is a core technical role for the company's power tether program, a critical new product development effort. The engineer will own the drone tether power system end-to-end, ensuring reliable delivery of approximately 7,000 W continuously (with transient peaks up to 10,000 W) from the ground power source, down the tether, and into the drone's propulsion and avionics. The role involves working alongside a team of electrical, mechanical, firmware, and test engineers, with output directly impacting hardware shipped to customers. This is a hands-on role, owning the system from architecture through validation.

Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's in Electrical Engineering, or equivalent hands-on experience.
Shipped multiple electronics products to production.
Proven experience designing power electronics in the multi-kilowatt range, including DC-DC converter design.
Owned the design, not just contributed to it.
Working knowledge of high-voltage DC systems, conductor sizing, and thermal management from real systems built and validated.
Experience integrating power systems with three-phase motor drives and ESCs, and understanding how those interfaces behave under load.
Comfortable with electrical safety standards, grounding design, and protection design.

Nice To Haves

Experience with tethered drones, UAV power systems, or long-cable power delivery.
Familiarity with EMI/EMC design and mitigation.
Hands-on prototyping, bring-up, and bench validation of power hardware.
Background in EV motor controller design or high-voltage DC power routing.

Responsibilities

Design the high-voltage DC power transmission architecture for the tether, including selection of transmission voltage to minimize conductor mass and resistive loss over tether length.
Design and specify DC-DC conversion stages (step-up at the ground station, step-down onboard the drone), targeting high efficiency at 7 kW continuous load.
Size tether conductor gauge, insulation, and connectors for continuous current plus 10 kW peak inrush, with appropriate derating and safety margin.
Define current limits, protection thresholds, and coordinate over-current and fault behavior with the onboard power distribution.
Own thermal management of converters, connectors, and cabling across the full load range.
Integrate the power system with the drone's ESCs and flight controller, ensuring stable behavior during peak transients and load steps.
Coordinate with mechanical engineering on the tether reel, strain relief, and cable routing, and with safety and compliance staff on high-voltage standards, grounding, and arc-flash mitigation.
Produce schematics, power budgets, test plans, and design documentation for design reviews.