Senior/Staff Hardware Design Engineer
- Salary
- $140,000 - $200,000 per year
- Level
- Staff
- Work type
- On-site · Scotts Valley
Not stated in the posting: visa.
Open. First seen 3 November 2026.
About the role
What to Expect
Heron Power's standard text
Heron Power is a startup company building cutting-edge power electronics for the 21st-century grid. We aim to debottleneck the growth of electricity generation and consumption with scalable, innovative, and less costly hardware solutions, accelerating the electrification of everything.
Our first goal is to build better converters (inverters & rectifiers) to connect large-scale renewables, storage, and loads like datacenters to the grid. Heron Power’s leadership team is made up of seasoned veterans who have designed and shipped gigawatts of power conversion products over the past decade.
Heron Power's standard text
We understand that no one individual knows everything. We will all learn a lot together and from each other. We strive to build a collaborative, enriching environment conducive to personal, technical, and career growth. You can expect to work in a dynamic and collaborative environment, driven by first principles engineering, solving difficult problems.
Job Overview
As an Senior/Staff Hardware Design Engineer, you will be responsible for architecting, designing, and integrating the low voltage electrical system within high-performance power converters to meet reliability, EMC, and safety requirements. You will define cabinet-level electrical architecture, manage harnessing and interconnects, and ensure proper distribution of power, signals, and control across subsystems. Your work will span the full product lifecycle—from concept development and component selection to schematic capture, validation, and support through production.
How You Will Contribute
- Own the full hardware development lifecycle—from requirements definition and modeling through schematic capture, PCB layout, prototyping, testing, validation, and manufacturing support.
- Define and implement the low voltage electrical architecture for cabinet-based systems, including cabinet microprocessors, power supplies, power distribution, interconnects, and signal processing and routing.
- Select appropriate LV components such as microcontrollers, interface circuits, fuses, relays, contactors, terminal blocks, and power supplies based on system requirements and reliability targets.
- Create system block diagrams, schematics, and harness documentation to support cross-functional development and manufacturing.
- Ensure electrical interface integrity across PCBs, sensors, actuators, and communication buses (e.g., CAN, RS-485, Ethernet, LV analog/digital I/O).
- Collaborate with mechanical teams on enclosure layout, cable routing, shielding, and grounding strategies for EMI/EMC performance.
- Support validation and bring-up of LV systems during prototype and production builds, including DVT and integration testing.
- Ensure compliance with safety and regulatory standards such as UL, CE, and IEC for low voltage systems.
- Coordinate with firmware, test, and manufacturing teams to ensure proper system behavior, integration, and serviceability.
What You Will Bring
We’re open to candidates with both mid and senior-career experience. Scope and responsibilities will scale with the right candidate.
Must-Have Requirements
- Degree in Electrical Engineering or related field.
- 5+ years of experience in low voltage electrical system design, including cabinet-level LV system architecture and component designs, ideally in energy, automotive, or industrial control applications.
- Strong knowledge of cabinet-level LV power distribution and signal architecture.
- Experience selecting and integrating LV components (relays, fuses, terminal blocks, etc.) for multi-voltage systems (e.g., 12V, 24V, 48V).
- Familiarity with harness design, connector systems, and creating electrical schematics and wiring diagrams.
- Understanding of EMC best practices and grounding/shielding techniques.
- Proficiency with electrical CAD tools (e.g., Altium).
- Hands-on experience with debugging, testing, and validating electrical systems using oscilloscopes, multimeters, and similar tools.
- Experience with manufacturing processes, including design for manufacturability (DFM), volume production, and development of manufacturing test procedures and test equipment.
Nice-to-Haves
- Experience with LV systems in high-voltage environments
- Familiarity with fieldbus communication protocols like CAN or industrial ethernet.
- Knowledge of control cabinet UL/IEC compliance and wire derating, spacing, and thermal considerations.
- Experience in creating wiring harnesses and managing cable assemblies with third-party suppliers.
- Exposure to cross-functional design with firmware and mechanical engineering teams.
- Experience with failure mode analysis and root cause investigations of LV electrical systems.
- Knowledge of safety-critical system design, including interlocks and redundant controls.
Heron Power's standard text
If you are passionate about technology and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment, we would love to hear from you. Join us in accelerating the electrification of everything at Heron Power.
Heron Power provides competitive compensation (salary and equity) and benefits. The base salary for this role ranges from $140,000 to $200,000 per year.
What this role asks for
Particular to this role
Altium
Rare in Heron Power's other 42 open postings.
Standard for embedded / hardware roles
Embedded Systems
Common in embedded / hardware postings at any company.
82% of this description is written for the role. The rest is Heron Power's standard text, folded away below.
Compared with Heron Power's other open jobs.
The team: Engineering HIRES STEADILY
This role is one of 31 open in Engineering. 12 were posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in February: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.
WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS
Embedded Systems (18 of 31), Python (15 of 31), MATLAB (10 of 31), Simulink (9 of 31), Test Automation (9 of 31), PCB Design (8 of 31), CATIA (6 of 31)
OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM
- Power Electronics Controls Engineer posted Nov 4
- Senior/Staff Embedded Software Engineer posted Nov 4
- Senior Compliance Test Engineer posted Nov 3
- Electronics Design Engineer posted Oct 29
- Intern, Firmware Engineering posted Oct 19
- Senior/Staff Mechanical Engineer, Power Electronics posted Oct 15
- Senior/Staff Power Electronics Engineer posted Oct 13
- Senior/Staff Electronics Design Engineer posted Oct 13
- Senior/Staff Manufacturing Engineer posted Oct 9
- Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Connected Systems posted Oct 9
- Intern, Power Electronics Controls Engineer (Spring /Summer 2027) posted Oct 7
- Intern, Medium Voltage Test Engineering posted Sep 30
- Intern, Electrical Engineering (Compliance) - Spring 2027 posted Sep 29
- Electrical Engineer - Manufacturing Test posted Sep 26
- Hardware Validation Systems Developer posted Sep 25
- Test Engineer – Power Electronics posted Sep 25
- Electrical / Electronics Design Engineer - PCBA Test Automation posted Sep 25
- R&D Engineering Technician posted Aug 27
- Technical Program Manager - Power Electronics posted Aug 25
- Software Engineer/Senior Software Engineer posted Aug 13
- Senior/Staff Mechanical Engineer, Industrial Enclosures posted Aug 6
- Intern, Automation Controls Engineer (Spring 2027) posted Jul 31
- Staff Engineering Program Manager posted Jul 29
- Staff/Senior Staff Software Engineer posted Jul 13
- Intern, Power Electronics Engineer, Spring/Summer 2027 posted Jun 12
- Intern, Mechanical Engineer (Spring/Summer 2027) posted Jun 1
- Intern, System Integration & Test Automation (Spring 2027) posted May 11
- Engineering Technician posted Apr 23
- Intern, Power Electronics Engineer, Power Magnetics, Spring 2027 posted Feb 24
- Staff/Senior Staff Compliance Engineer posted Feb 24
From the team and dates on Heron Power's own job board.
Similar jobs
- Senior Hardware Design Engineer at Fairchild Imaging, Inc.
Shares 3 skills: Altium, PCB Design, Embedded Systems · same country - Senior Hardware Design Engineer at 1 Arc Power
Shares 3 skills: Altium, PCB Design, Embedded Systems · same country - Hardware Board Validation Engineering, Director at Astera Labs
Shares 3 skills: Altium, PCB Design, Embedded Systems · same country - Sr Digital Design Electrical Engineer at Axon
Shares 3 skills: Altium, PCB Design, Embedded Systems · same country - Embedded Hardware Engineer III at EquipmentShare
Shares 3 skills: Altium, PCB Design, Embedded Systems · same country - Power Electronics Controls Engineer at Heron Power
Also at this company
More jobs like this
Is this your posting? Email info@careerholo.com to have it removed.