S

Salient Motion

Hardware and software electric propulsion systems

Senior Power Electronics Engineer

Power Systems EngineeringConfirmed live in the last 24 hours
Full-timeHawthorne, CA, USA

About the Job

Requirements

  • At least 7 years, or equivalent depth, in power electronics design and product development.
  • Strong experience with power converter and inverter topologies, architecture, device selection, gate-drive design, controller selection, feedback gain, stability margin, protection, and high-voltage, high-current printed circuit board layout practices.
  • Hands-on bring-up and debug experience with high-power hardware, including safe lab practices and oscilloscopes, high-voltage differential probes, current probes, power analyzers, and network or stability analyzers.
  • Ability to take designs from concept through prototype, verification, and production readiness, with clear documentation to meet special and mission-oriented application requirements.
  • Must be a U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent resident to meet customer and regulatory requirements.
  • Must be able to comply with applicable export control laws and access requirements.

Responsibilities

  • Architect and design high-power converters and inverters above 10 kW for aerospace electrical and motion-control products, balancing efficiency, power density, and reliability.
  • Select and apply silicon, silicon carbide, and/or gallium nitride power devices, and design gate drives, controllers, feedback stability, magnetic components including power inductors and transformers, sensing, and protection for short circuits, overcurrent, overvoltage and undervoltage, thermal events, and desaturation.
  • Design topologies and power stages, including DC bus, precharge and discharge, snubbers and clamps, current sensing, and filtering; define safe operating envelopes and derating for specified environments.
  • Drive thermal design with mechanical engineering, including heatsinks, cold plates, airflow, and liquid cooling, and validate junction-to-ambient performance through loss breakdown and thermal analysis.
  • Own electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic compatibility strategy for aerospace environments, including grounding, shielding, layout constraints, conducted and radiated mitigation, filter design, and test readiness.
  • Lead schematic capture and review printed circuit board layout for low-inductance, high-current, high-voltage designs; ensure creepage and clearance, isolation, and safety best practices.
  • Plan and execute prototype bring-up and high-power lab testing using safe procedures; debug failures and perform root-cause analysis.
  • Define verification plans and acceptance criteria, produce review-ready test reports and evidence packages, and support supplier and parts selection and design for manufacturing and design for test as designs transition to manufacturing.

Desired Qualifications

  • Demonstrated work on high-power systems above 10 kW.
  • Aerospace experience, including a qualification mindset, configuration control, and familiarity with relevant test practices and electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic compatibility test workflows.
  • Motor-drive experience, including three-phase inverters for brushless DC or permanent-magnet synchronous motors, sensing, DC bus design, regenerative handling, and protection timing considerations.
  • High-voltage design experience, such as 200–800 VDC systems, including isolation strategy and creepage and clearance design.
  • Power factor, total harmonic current distortion, and electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic compatibility success in shipped products, such as MIL-STD-461 or DO-160 specifications, and ability to design for compliance early.
  • Safety qualification experience, such as leakage current, electrostatic discharge, lightning, and surge testing.
  • Familiarity with circuit simulation tools such as LTspice, PLECS, Simetrix, Simplis, or Simulink for validation and trade-offs.
  • Experience with printed circuit board computer-aided design and layout tools.

About the Company

Salient Motion

Hardware and software electric propulsion systems

Salient Motion builds advanced electric propulsion and actuation systems for aerospace, robotics, drones, and mobility. It combines hardware and software to simplify and improve propulsion performance, with products like motor controllers and propulsion systems that are easy to integrate and come with user-friendly validation software. The company uses proprietary motor control schemes that minimize debugging, and it manufactures using exclusively domestic parts and PCB fabrication in California to ensure fast delivery and high quality. This differentiates Salient Motion from competitors by offering an end-to-end, domestically produced solution with straightforward software tools and reliable performance. The goal is to help engineers and developers deploy dependable, efficient propulsion systems quickly and with less integration effort.

Company size
11-50
Company stage
Early VC
Total funding
$12M
Headquarters
Torrance, CA
Founded
2022

Recently Posted Jobs

Explore more opportunities at Salient Motion

See more jobs