Head of Power Electronics

American Turbines; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

American Turbines in San Francisco seeks a Head of Power Electronics to own the converter between the generator shaft and the customer bus, architecting a high-voltage DC system designed for distributed power generation. You will define the end-to-end power conversion, make build-versus-buy decisions, and lead a growing power electronics team.

You will collaborate with partners, suppliers, and test stands to prove designs at scale.

Qualifications

• Experience taking converters from schematic through layout, magnetics, thermal and EMC into production.
• Ability to decide between commodity vs differentiator and manage supplier qualification.
• Familiarity with high-voltage EV power conversion architectures.

Responsibilities

• Define end-to-end power conversion system, from generator shaft to customer bus.
• Lead build-versus-buy decisions and defend with numbers.
• Manage partners and suppliers, write specs, qualify hardware, integrate and test.
• Hire and lead the power electronics team as the in-house scope grows.

Skills

High-voltage DC power conversion

Wide-bandgap semiconductors (SiC, GaN)

End-to-end converter/system design

Supplier relationships & qualification

Job description

About American Turbines

The power grid was built for a world that no longer exists. Centralized generation, hundred-mile transmission lines, decade-long permitting cycles. Meanwhile, demand is exploding: AI data centers, industrial electrification, remote operations that need megawatts yesterday and can't wait for utilities to catch up.

American Turbines is designing small modular gas turbines, purpose-built for distributed power generation. Machines designed from a blank sheet to be manufactured at scale, clustered in arrays. Hundreds of units operating in parallel, dynamically matching load like a compute cluster matches demand. We are a seed-stage company backed by the investors behind SpaceX, Boom Supersonic, and Hadrian.

About the Role

The Head of Power Electronics will own everything between the generator shaft and the customer\'s bus. The machine is designed from a blank sheet around a high-voltage DC architecture, that architecture is one of our core bets.

You will define the power conversion system end to end: conversion, protection, controls interfaces, and the schemes that let hundreds of units run as one plant. You will make the build-versus-buy call for every block and defend it with numbers.

Much of this system will be developed with partners and suppliers, the EV and industrial supply chain has spent a decade maturing the hardware we need. You will lead that work: select the partners, write the specs, qualify the hardware, integrate it, and stand behind it on the test stand. As in-house scope grows, you will hire and lead the power electronics team.

What We\'re Looking For

Deep hands-on experience in high-voltage DC power conversion. The EV industry is the natural home for this role: traction inverters, 800 V platforms, onboard chargers, DC fast charging. Design experience with wide-bandgap semiconductors, SiC and GaN, at real power levels. You\'ve taken converters from schematic through layout, magnetics, thermal, and EMC into production, and you know what kills them in the field.

You know when a converter is a commodity to buy and when it\'s a differentiator to build. You\'re comfortable owning supplier relationships, writing source-control specs, and running qualification testing.

Nice to have: experience with electric machine design and with control systems, from converter control loops to embedded platforms.

You move fast between architecture and detail without losing rigor. You\'ve seen hardware run and you know what simulation gets right and what it gets wrong.