Lead Power Electronics Engineer – High-Power Inverter Systems

Learning

Work at the intersection of high-power inverter design, high-speed motor drives, wide-bandgap semiconductors, filtering, liquid cooling, EMC, certification, and high-volume manufacturing.

Impact

Own the technical and commercial tradeoffs that determine inverter efficiency, cost, reliability, manufacturability, thermal performance, and certification readiness for a major data-center-related product platform.

Becoming

Grow into Sapphire’s technical authority for high-power inverter systems, with opportunities to lead platform architecture, power electronics strategy, supplier development, certification, and future product programs.

Requirements

First 90 Days

• Assume ownership of the inverter system architecture, requirements, and major interfaces.
  
• Review the existing power stage, control-board interface, filtering, thermal design, protection strategy, cost structure, and certification requirements.
  
• Define the primary architecture and trade studies, including switching frequency, semiconductor losses, filter size and losses, cooling requirements, packaging, cost, and manufacturability.
  
• Establish a development, validation, and certification plan with internal teams and the certifying body.
  

First 180 Days

• Lead the detailed design, build, integration, and debugging of production-intent inverter hardware.
  
• Validate the power stage, gate drives, sensing, protection, filters, control-board interfaces, and water-cooled thermal system.
  
• Use electrical, thermal, and system-test data to resolve design issues and improve efficiency, reliability, cost, and manufacturability.
  
• Prepare hardware and technical documentation for EMC, electrical safety, and certification testing.
  

First Year

• Deliver a mature, cost-effective inverter system ready for product launch and production scale-up.
  
• Close or formally control major electrical, thermal, EMC, reliability, certification, and manufacturing risks.
  
• Establish critical-to-quality requirements, production-test methods, supplier acceptance criteria, and design-change controls.
  
• Support certification completion and production-line readiness.
  
• Create a cost-reduction and platform-improvement roadmap for future production volumes and product variants.
  

• Serve as Sapphire’s primary technical authority for the inverter system.
  
• Translate system and customer requirements into inverter architecture, technical specifications, and interface requirements.
  
• Lead topology selection and trade studies involving:
  
• Semiconductor technology and switching frequency
  
• Switching and conduction losses
  
• Harmonic performance and filter losses
  
• Efficiency, power density, thermal margin, cost, and manufacturability
  
• Lead the design and validation of power stages, gate drives, DC-link systems, filters, sensing, protection circuits, bus structures, and high-power interconnections.
  
• Define and manage electrical, mechanical, and thermal interfaces, including water-cooled cold plates, coolant requirements, pressure-drop constraints, and component junction-temperature limits.
  
• Develop electrical and thermal models to guide architecture decisions and verify design margin.
  
• Lead schematic development, component selection, layout review, prototype build, laboratory testing, and design verification.
  
• Drive cost reduction through architecture optimization, component standardization, supplier engagement, value engineering, and design for manufacturing and assembly.
  
• Coordinate with Sapphire’s certification engineer and external certifying bodies to ensure compliance requirements are incorporated into the design early.
  
• Support EMC/EMI, electrical safety, environmental, and applicable UL and IEC certification testing.
  
• Define production-test requirements and support new-product introduction, supplier qualification, and manufacturing scale-up.
  
• Support root-cause investigations for production and field issues.
  
• Mentor engineers and manage technical work performed by contractors and external development partners.
  
• Direct firmware development is not a primary responsibility of this position.
  

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Electrical Engineering with emphasis in power electronics; doctorate is a plus.
  
• Eight or more years of industry experience developing medium- or high-power inverters, motor drives, converters, or related industrial electronics.
  
• Demonstrated experience defining power electronics architecture and leading products through design, validation, certification, and production.
  
• Strong understanding of three-phase inverter systems, modulation methods, semiconductor switching behavior, protection, and power quality.
  
• Experience evaluating tradeoffs among switching frequency, semiconductor losses, passive-component size, filter losses, thermal performance, and cost.
  
• Strong circuit-design and debugging skills across power stages, gate drives, sensing, protection, and high-voltage interfaces.
  
• Experience with SiC-based inverter systems; GaN experience is beneficial.
  
• Experience with liquid-cooled power electronics and thermal-interface design.
  
• Proficiency with MATLAB/Simulink, PLECS, LTspice, or comparable simulation tools.
  
• Hands-on experience with oscilloscopes, power analyzers, AC/DC sources and loads, and high-voltage current and voltage probes.
  
• Ability to develop test plans, analyze results, document conclusions, and communicate recommendations to technical and management teams.
  
• Strong technical leadership and cross-functional communication skills.
  

• High-power drives for high-speed permanent-magnet machines
  
• Active-front-end or grid-connected converter systems
  
• Output, input, and common-mode filter design
  
• High-frequency magnetics design and optimization
  
• Altium schematic capture and PCB-layout review
  
• High-density packaging and low-inductance busbar design
  
• Water-cooled cold plates and thermal-system integration
  
• EMC/EMI testing and design for compliance
  
• UL, IEC, CE, or related industrial product certification
  
• Functional-safety and SIL-related product development
  
• Production cost reduction, supplier development, and high-volume manufacturing
  
• Turbomachinery, HVAC, refrigeration, energy, or data-center infrastructure applications
  

• Strong ownership and accountability
  
• Systems-level technical judgment
  
• Hands-on and methodical problem-solving
  
• Ability to balance performance, cost, schedule, certification, and manufacturing needs
  
• Effective leadership of internal teams, suppliers, and contractors
  
• Commitment to delivering reliable, production-quality products
  

• Hands-on laboratory and prototype-development work is required.
  
• Approximately 10% travel may be required for suppliers, certification testing, customers, commissioning, or field support
  

Benefits