Electrical Engineer

Kovari; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Kovari seeks an electrical systems lead for robots, sitting on-site in San Francisco. You will own power architecture, battery management, sensors, and embedded integration, and you’ll design, build, and debug in live field operations.

In this role you’ll face high duty cycles, continuous charging, and harsh environments, delivering reliable hardware and fast iteration in the field with a small, hands-on team.

Qualifications

• Strong fundamentals in power electronics, motor drives, and mixed-signal design.
• Experience with schematic capture and PCB layout in Altium or KiCad.
• Battery system experience: Li-ion packs, BMS, thermal and safety design.
• Hands-on skill: solder, scope, and rework boards on the bench.
• Portfolio of personal builds and a bias toward rapid prototyping.

Responsibilities

• Own electrical architecture: power distribution, battery systems and BMS, charging, protection
• Select, integrate, and tune motor controllers and drives
• Design schematics and PCBs for power, sensing, and I/O
• Design and build wiring harnesses for reliability and serviceability
• Work with embedded and controls on firmware, comms buses (CAN, EtherCAT, RS-485), and bring-up
• Debug electrical failures on deployed robots and drive fixes back into the design
• Manage vendors for PCBs, harnesses, and custom assemblies

Skills

Power electronics

Motor drives

Mixed-signal design

Schematic capture

PCB layout

Soldering

Tools

Altium

KiCad

Job description

Kovari develops frontier technology to transform physical businesses. We partner with established operators to change how they run, and we build and operate businesses of our own through our subsidiaries.

We are a small team of builders, operators, and researchers. We deploy on site, alongside the businesses we serve, and iterate in the field. We have raised over $6M from leading investors.

We are based in San Francisco and work in person.

The Role

You will own the electrical systems of our robots, from power architecture and motor drives to sensors, harnesses, and embedded integration. You design it, build it, bring it up, and debug it on robots running in live operations.

This is not a bench role. Your systems face real constraints: high duty cycles, continuous charging and discharging, noisy environments, and hardware that has to survive the field.

What You'll Do

• Own electrical architecture: power distribution, battery systems and BMS, charging, protection
• Select, integrate, and tune motor controllers and drives
• Design schematics and PCBs for power, sensing, and I/O
• Design and build wiring harnesses for reliability and serviceability
• Work with embedded and controls on firmware, comms buses (CAN, EtherCAT, RS-485), and bring-up
• Debug electrical failures on deployed robots and drive fixes back into the design
• Manage vendors for PCBs, harnesses, and custom assemblies

What You Bring

• Strong fundamentals in power electronics, motor drives, and mixed-signal design
• Schematic capture and PCB layout in Altium or KiCad
• Battery system experience: Li-ion packs, BMS, thermal and safety design
• Hands-on skill: you solder, scope, and rework boards yourself
• Bonus: FIRST, FSAE, combat robotics, or similar build teams
• A portfolio of things you've built on your own time
• Bias toward action: prototype fast, test early, fix what breaks

Values

• Pace of learning trumps everything.
• Relentless refinement of our craft.
• Low ego, high ownership.
• All-in on the mission. We work in person, and this isn't a 9-to-5.