Electrical Engineer - Embedded Solar Hardware & Systems

Optivolt; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity package (pre-IPO)

Health coverage

Unlimited PTO

Job summary

Optivolt in San Francisco, CA is seeking an Electrical Engineer to design and develop hardware for our intelligent solar products. You will own embedded electronics, system architecture, sensing, and power management across the Hub and distributed devices.

You’ll work hands-on with firmware, mechanical, test, and manufacturing teams to bring concepts to production, with ownership, rapid iteration, and a focus on reliability and manufacturability.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of hands-on electrical engineering experience developing physical hardware products.
• Strong analog and digital circuit fundamentals, embedded electronics, and PCB design experience.
• Experience with microcontrollers, communications interfaces, and power-management circuits.
• Proficiency in schematic capture and PCB tools such as Altium.
• Comfort with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies, and board bring-up.
• Knowledge of UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, Ethernet, or similar interfaces.
• Ability to independently deliver validated hardware from requirements through prototype.

Responsibilities

• Own the electronics behind our Hub. Design embedded control boards, communications interfaces, sensing circuits, and power‑management hardware.
• Design the system, not just the board. Own Hub electrical architecture, including microcontrollers, connectivity, battery and power supply interfaces, and controls interfaces to distributed devices.
• Take designs from schematic to working hardware. Develop schematics, select components, lay out PCBs, and lead hardware design reviews.
• Make our devices communicate reliably. Integrate wired and wireless communications, including PLC, Bluetooth, and other relevant protocols.
• Get hands‑on in the lab. Bring up and debug prototypes; investigate hardware, firmware, and system‑level faults.
• Make thoughtful design tradeoffs. Optimize for low power, reliability, thermal performance, cost, and manufacturability.
• Work closely with firmware. Collaborate with firmware and software engineers on interfaces, controls, telemetry, and system integration.
• Prove the hardware is ready for the field. Develop validation procedures and support environmental testing, certification, and manufacturing ramp.

Skills

Shipped hardware

Circuit fundamentals

Embedded electronics

PCB design (Altium)

Bench lab skills

Communication protocols (UART SPI I2C)

Tools

Altium

Job description

Optivolt in San Francisco, CA is seeking an Electrical Engineer to design and develop hardware for our intelligent solar products. You will own embedded electronics, system architecture, sensing, and power management across the Hub and distributed devices.

You’ll work hands-on with firmware, mechanical, test, and manufacturing teams to bring concepts to production, with ownership, rapid iteration, and a focus on reliability and manufacturability.