Hardware Engineer - Power Distribution Unit

Who you are:

- A power electronics hardware expert who thinks in thermal dissipation, transient response, power density, and safety margins under high peak dynamic motor currents.

- Hands-on: you design schematic/PCB layouts, select high-efficiency switches, build test benches, and validate board-level power systems under full dynamic loads in the lab.

- Meticulous about electrical safety, EMC/EMI mitigation, and power fault containment in high-voltage DC mobile robotic platforms.

- A strong collaborator across battery management, joint actuation, harness, and system embedded firmware teams.

Responsibilities:

- Own the full life-cycle design of the Power Distribution Unit (PDU) hardware, including DC-DC conversion, dynamic load switching, power sequencing, and fault protection.

- Design robust transient surge protection, over-current, over-voltage, reverse-polarity, and inrush current limiting circuits tailored for high-torque BLDC joint actuation.

- Execute multi-layer high-current PCB layout (heavy copper, thermal vias, optimized loop inductances) in compliance with strict mechanical footprint constraints.

- Integrate smart power monitoring (voltage, current, temperature sensing) via EtherCAT (main protocol), CAN, or PMBus interfaces for dynamic telemetry feed into the main compute system.

- Perform thermal modeling, derating analysis, and loss calculation for power switches, MOSFETs, and magnetics under continuous and peak burst operating conditions.

- Conduct board-level bring-up, signal integrity measurement, power integrity optimization, and environmental stress testing.

- Collaborate with harness and mechanical teams to define connector pinouts, busbars, pass-through features, and structural thermal interfaces.

- Lead power safety qualification and EMC/EMI compliance testing (ISO 13849, IEC 61508, IEC 61000) for mobile robot power distribution systems.

Requirements:

- B.Sc. or M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, Mechatronics, or related technical disciplines.

- 5+ years of experience in high-density DC-DC converter design, power electronics, or PDU development for robotics, electric vehicles, or aerospace systems.

- Proficiency in Altium Designer, Cadence Allegro, or KiCAD for schematic capture and multi-layer high-current PCB design.

- In-depth understanding of MOSFET/GaN/SiC power switches, gate drivers, current sensing topologies, and power supervisory ICs, with embedded system capabilities to independently complete full-board hardware and software design.

- Hands-on experience with hardware debugging using oscilloscopes, electronic loads, power analyzers, and thermal cameras.

- Solid knowledge of power system safety clearances, creepage/clearance rules, and thermal dissipation strategies.

- Strong problem-solving skills and experience conducting root-cause failure analysis (8D/FMEA) on power hardware.

- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment and iterate hardware designs rapidly.

Advantages:

- Direct experience designing PDUs or power electronics for humanoid robots, quadrupeds, or electric vehicles.

- Familiarity with ISO 26262 or IEC 61508 functional safety design requirements for power distribution systems.

- Experience with embedded firmware for power management ICs and communication protocols (EtherCAT as primary, CAN-FD, PMBus, SMBus).

- Comfortable communicating technical topics in English with international teams.