Staff Power Electronics Engineer

CesiumAstro•Austin, TX

22h

About The Position

CesiumAstro is seeking a Staff Power Electronics Engineer to join its spacecraft payload development team. The position contributes across the full development lifecycle of power electronics hardware for satellites and space power systems payloads, including power system architecture and trade studies, circuit design and simulation, PCB layout, verification and integration testing, production transition, and manufacturing support. The role also leads project execution for a small team and mentors less experienced engineers. Applicants must meet U.S. Government Space Technology Export Regulations 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 the 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 9 years of experience designing analog and power electronics.
Experience with electrical power systems and subsystems, including developing power architectures and requirements, conducting size, weight, power, and cost optimization trade studies, selecting converter topologies, and defining power management and control blocks.
Experience modeling and controlling DC-DC converters and designing power stages for isolated and non-isolated converters, including linear regulators, Buck, Boost, Buck-boost, Flyback, Forward, Half-bridge, Full bridge, and Resonant converters.
Experience designing custom signal and power magnetics and power filters for low noise and electromagnetic compatibility.
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 such as 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 with soft-switching and resonant power converter topologies such as LLC, CLLC, series resonant, phase-shifted full bridge, and dual active bridge.
Experience designing power stages 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 feedforward, constant on-time, V2 constant on-time, 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.
Knowledge of maximum power point tracking for solar power applications, battery sizing and battery management systems, electric propulsion power conversion, and spacecraft power conditioning, management, and distribution units.
Experience designing and testing power electronics units to meet standards and requirements in automotive, industrial, space, or military markets, such as FCC, CISPR, UL safety, ECSS, NASA, or MIL standards.

Responsibilities

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