Lead Engineer - Arc Management and Simulation, Research & Development Engineering

What you’ll do:

Lead the development and deployment of advanced Arc Management & Simulation (AMS) capabilities for electrical power distribution products by leveraging deep expertise in plasma physics, hands-on experimentation, and multiphysics simulation. Drive the execution of arc management & simulation (AMS) technology roadmap through the development of niche simulation methodologies, enhancement of model maturity, and rigorous verification and validation using experimental and product test data. Deploy validated simulation capabilities across new and existing product-development programs to enable simulation-led design decisions, optimize product performance, improve reliability, and reduce physical testing, development cycle time, and overall engineering cost. The role contributes to strategic initiatives within the Global AMS CoE by advancing complex physical and numerical models, supporting AI/ML-enabled simulation workflows, fostering collaborations with universities and research institutions, and strengthening simulation excellence across electrical power distribution technologies. Additionally, the position provides technical leadership and mentorship to engineers while demonstrating strong customer focus, stakeholder engagement, and collaboration skills to successfully drive cross-functional projects, capability-building initiatives, and innovation programs across the AMS CoE.  

"• Develop and drive the Arc Management & Simulation technology roadmap aligned with product and business priorities.
• Identify capability gaps and develop niche simulation methods for arc initiation, motion, cooling, interruption, dielectric recovery, contact erosion, gas flow, and plasma-material interaction.
• Lead plasma experimentation, diagnostics, and characterization to generate validation data for model verification.
• Build coupled multiphysics plasma models (MHD) incorporating fluid-flow, heat transfer, electromagnetics, radiation, and code coupling.
• Improve model maturity through verification, calibration, sensitivity studies, uncertainty assessment, test correlation, validation, documentation, standardization, and reuse.
• Apply state-of-the-art commercial and in-house tools and improve simulation workflows, automation, robustness, and computational efficiency.
• Deploy developed and validated capabilities on new and existing product-development projects and translate results into design recommendations and risk-reduction actions.
• Optimize arc chambers, flow paths, materials, contact systems, and operating parameters to improve product performance, reliability, and manufacturability.
• Demonstrate business impact by reducing physical test iterations, development time, and cost while improving simulation accuracy, first-pass yield, and design confidence.
• Collaborate with global product teams, laboratories, universities, and research institutes to accelerate capability development, validation, and technology transfer.
• Mentor young engineers, review technical work, establish modeling guidelines, and build organizational competency in arc physics and simulation."     

Qualifications:

PhD / Masters in Plasma Physics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Physics, Computational Engineering, or a related field.
7-10 years of relevant industry or research experience in plasma physics, arc physics, experimentation, and modeling and simulation.

Skills:

"• Strong depth in plasma physics, switching arcs, transport phenomena, arc interruption, and plasma-material interaction.
• Hands-on experience in plasma/arc experimentation, diagnostics, test planning, and validation with test data.
• Experience in developing complex simulation capabilities with advanced software development skills (e.g. C/C++, Python/Perl, F90).
• Proven expertise in CFD, FEM, heat transfer, electromagnetics, radiation, MHD, and coupled multiphysics simulation.
• Proficiency in ANSYS, COMSOL, OpenFOAM, or equivalent simulation tools.
• Ability to develop, verify, calibrate, correlate, validate, document, standardize, and deploy complex numerical models.
• Experience applying simulation to new or existing product-development projects, optimizing designs, and reducing test iterations, time, and cost.
• Experience with circuit breakers, switchgear, or other electrical products is an added advantage."
"• Technology-roadmap development and execution
• Technical leadership, coaching, and mentoring of young engineers
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Clear written and verbal communication
• Collaboration across global and cross-functional teams
• Accountability, learning agility, and customer focus"