Senior Power Electronics Engineer

CesiumAstro•El Segundo, CA

About The Position

CesiumAstro is seeking a Senior Power Electronics Engineer to join its growing spacecraft payload development team. The role contributes across the full development lifecycle of next-generation power electronics hardware for satellites and space power systems payloads, from defining power system architectures and conducting trade studies through circuit design, simulation, PCB layout, verification and integration testing, production transition, and manufacturing support. The position involves hands-on design and analysis of analog and power electronics, leadership of verification and qualification activities, and mentoring of less experienced engineers. Applicants must satisfy applicable U.S. government space technology export-control eligibility requirements: be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, conditional resident, asylee, or refugee (a protected individual under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)), or be eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Requirements

Bachelor of Science degree or higher in Electrical Engineering or a related field from an accredited university.
At least 5 years of experience designing analog and power electronics.
Experience with electrical power systems and subsystems, including power architecture and requirements development, size, weight, power, and cost (SWAP-C) trade studies, power converter topology selection, and defining power management and control blocks.
Experience designing power stages for common DC-DC converter topologies, such as discrete linear regulators, buck, boost, buck-boost, flyback, and forward converters.
Experience modeling and characterizing voltage-mode and peak-current-mode control for DC-DC converters.
Knowledge of control theory and power electronics stability, including laboratory characterization of control loops and impedances.
Experience designing power filters for low-noise outputs and power-line electromagnetic compatibility (EMC).
Experience developing design verification test plans, requirement compliance matrices, system integration and qualification test plans, and production acceptance test plans.
Experience performing worst-case circuit analysis, stress analysis, failure modes and effects analysis, and reliability analysis for power supplies.
Extensive hands-on experience testing and troubleshooting electronics and power converters with laboratory instruments, including oscilloscopes, impedance analyzers, spectrum analyzers, electronic loads, and signal generators.
Experience with electronics schematic capture and PCB layout tools such as Altium, OrCAD, Allegro, or Xpedition.
Experience with analysis and simulation tools such as SPICE, LTspice, SIMetrix/SIMPLIS, PLECS, Simulink, MATLAB, MathCAD, ANSYS Q3D and SiWave, or HyperLynx.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Nice To Haves

Master of Science or PhD in Electrical Engineering with a research focus in power electronics.
Experience designing high-reliability analog and power electronics for automotive, space, or defense applications.
Knowledge of space radiation environments and radiation effects in electronics.
Experience with power electronics applications using GaN or SiC wide-bandgap power semiconductor devices.
Experience running board-level power integrity simulations using tools such as Ansys SiWave or HyperLynx.
Experience designing custom signal and power magnetics, and power filters for low noise and electromagnetic compatibility.
Knowledge of soft-switching and resonant power converter topologies, such as LLC, CLLC, series resonant, phase-shifted full bridge, and dual active bridge.
Knowledge of power-stage design for inverters and motor drives.
Knowledge of modeling and control of inverters and motor drives.
Experience with advanced DC-DC converter control schemes, such as voltage mode with feedforward control, constant on-time control, V2 constant on-time control, phase-shift modulation, and average-current-mode control.
Experience with isolation and grounding, failure mode effects analysis and fault-tolerant design, and thermal management of power electronics.
Programming skills for hardware testing and data processing, such as Python or MATLAB.

Responsibilities

Define electrical power system architecture and derive power subsystem requirements.
Design DC-DC power converters, power conditioning, power management, and control circuits from concept through production release.
Perform detailed designs of low- to high-complexity analog and power electronics circuits, from single DC-DC converters to multi-output power supply modules.
Model and analyze analog and power electronics designs, including worst-case circuit analysis, stress analysis, small-signal modeling, failure modes and effects analysis, reliability analysis, and power integrity analysis.
Develop design verification test plans, requirement compliance matrices, system integration and qualification test plans, and production acceptance test plans for power converters and power supplies.
Lead board bring-up and design verification testing of power electronics circuits and modules.
Lead system integration and qualification campaigns, and release analog and power electronics designs into production.
Mentor junior engineers and foster knowledge sharing.
Research and monitor power electronics industry trends to drive innovation and generate intellectual property.