Power Electronics Hardware Design Lead

General Motors; Warren (MI); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

General Motors is seeking a Power Electronics Hardware Design Lead to drive the development of high‑voltage power electronics including DC-DC converters, inverters, and onboard chargers for electrified vehicles. You will translate system requirements into verifiable hardware solutions and lead design from concept through release, balancing efficiency, thermal performance, EMC, cost, and manufacturability.

You will own architecture and topology choices, lead DFMEA and reliability analyses, and

Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in electrical/electronics power engineering or related field.
• 8+ years hands-on experience in design and industrialization of power converters for high-voltage automotive systems.
• Experience with converter topology trade studies, efficiency, thermal, EMC, and manufacturability.

Responsibilities

• Interpret system requirements and translate to hardware functions and interfaces for high-voltage power converters.
• Define converter architecture, topology, control and protection strategies, interfaces, and diagnostics.
• Lead design reviews, perform worst-case analyses, and drive trade-offs to release hardware.
• Perform electrical, thermal, and magnetic analyses and correlate with bench/vehicle data.
• Lead design of power stage, magnetics, switches, gate drives, sensing, and high-voltage PCB layout.
• Collaborate with controls, mechanical, thermal, and validation teams through product lifecycle.

Skills

Power electronics

HV systems

Thermal analysis

Root-cause analysis

System-level thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering

Tools

LTspice

PSpice

MATLAB/Simulink

FEM tools

PCB design tools (Mentor/Altium)

Job description

Job Description

General Motors is seeking a Power Electronics Hardware Design Lead for the development and release of high-voltage power electronics including DC-DC converters, inverters and on-board chargers, and related energy-conversion hardware for electrified vehicle programs.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role responsible for receiving and translating system requirements, planning the design and verification approach, executing the hardware development, and personally contributing to the design and release of high-voltage power-electronics hardware. The successful candidate will apply advanced knowledge of power electronics and own design decisions from architecture and topology selection through validation, production, and launch support—balancing efficiency, power density, thermal performance, EMC, reliability, cost, manufacturability, and timing. The Hardware Design Lead will influence architecture and design decisions, develop practical mitigation strategies, lead root-cause investigations, and partner with internal engineering teams, suppliers, test organizations, and program leadership.

Role Responsibilities

• Receive and interpret system requirements, allocate them to hardware functions and interfaces, and translate them into verifiable automotive-grade high-voltage power converter solutions.
• Define converter architecture, topology, operating modes, control and protection strategies, communication interfaces, diagnostics and key electrical requirements.
• Drive best in class design solution from concept through release by sequencing technical activities, assigning ownership, removing technical blockers, and making timely engineering trade-off decisions.
• Perform electrical, thermal, and magnetic analyses. Perform worst-case analyses across normal and fault conditions assessing stresses, losses, margins, tolerances, parasitics and derating.
• Correlate analytical predictions and simulations with bench and vehicle test data
• Lead design of power stage, magnetics, power switches, gate drives, sensing, capacitors, filters, connectors, cooling interfaces, and high-voltage PCB layout.
• Make layout and packaging decisions covering stack-up, current paths, power loops, creepage and clearance, grounding, parasitics, thermal paths, signal integrity, and manufacturability.
• Lead hardware design reviews in accordance with GM standard process, including design description, worst-case analysis (WCA) through Monte Carlo, EVA or other approved methods, and verifying through measurements.
• Lead reliability and lifetime analysis using mission profiles, electrical and thermal loading, component derating, aging mechanisms, and accelerated-life testing.
• Own assigned hardware throughout product lifecycle, from requirements definition and schematic development through design review, release, validation, production readiness, and launch; provide authoritative technical direction and resolution for design-related questions and issues.
• Lead DFMEA, DRBFM, FMEDA, and DFA to identify failure modes, design risks, and mitigation actions according to ISO 26262:2018
• Lead system-level interaction analyses to assess interfaces among power electronics, controls, mechanical, thermal, and vehicle systems.
• Supervise and provide technical direction for design-for-reliability, design-for-manufacturing, and design-risk reduction activities.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with controls, mechanical, thermal, systems, validation manufacturing, supplier, and program-management teams to align requirements, interfaces, technical decisions, timing and risk mitigation through the product lifecycle.
• Direct supplier technical execution, including architecture, component selection, simulations, design evidence, test plans, and corrective actions.
• Lead validation and correlation across electrical performance, protection, thermal, EMC, environmental, reliability, and vehicle-level integration testing.
• Lead data-driven root-cause investigations and PRTS closure using measurements, simulation, fault-tree analysis, design of experiments, and engineering judgment.
• Communicate technical risks, trade-offs, decisions, and recommendations to engineering and program leadership; mentor engineers and strengthen reusable design practices.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, electronics engineering, power electronics, or a related discipline.
• Eight or more years of hands-on experience in design and industrialization of power converter products, validating, or launching high-voltage, automotive power electronics, DC-DC converters, onboard chargers, inverters, or related electrified-vehicle systems.
• Demonstrated experience with converter architecture and topology trade studies, operating modes, control/protection strategy, efficiency, power density, thermal performance, EMC, cost, and manufacturability.
• Hands-on experience with designing magnetics; power switches and gate drives; high-voltage, high-current PCB design; filters and EMI/EMC mitigation; and electrical/thermal analysis.
• Solid understanding of switching waveforms, semiconductor loss mechanism and experience with loss modeling
• Experience with laboratory measurement, hardware debugging, simulation-to-test correlation, structured root-cause analysis, and corrective action.
• Experience with LTspice, PSpice, MATLAB/Simulink, FEM or thermal tools, Schematic Capture and PCB Design tools such as Mentor Graphics or Altium and GM processes such as PRTS, DFMEA, DRBFM, ECRs, and vehicle development milestones.
• Working knowledge of EMC, signal and power integrity, high-voltage safety, electrical transients, and vehicle electrical integration.
• Ability to lead technical work, influence suppliers and cross-functional teams