Principal Power Conversion Control Firmware Engineer

Proper Voltage; Carlsbad (CA); On-site; USD 165,000 - 205,000; Full time

Job summary

Proper Voltage is seeking a Principal Firmware Engineer to lead real-time control firmware for bidirectional DC/DC power conversion stages. This role requires deep control theory, fixed-point implementation, and hardware-in-the-loop validation to ensure robust loop performance and certification readiness.

You will own portable control libraries, drive design from model to hardware, and work on safety-critical energy storage and power conversion technologies.

Qualifications

• BS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or equivalent demonstrated capability.
• Six or more years developing production embedded firmware in C for resource-constrained real-time systems.
• Direct, hands-on experience closing control loops in firmware on switched-mode power converters. You can name the topology, control mode, switching and sampling frequencies, compensator structure, and achieved crossover and phase margin for a converter you personally brought to validated hardware.
• Working command of discrete-time control: s-to-z mapping (bilinear/Tustin, zero-order hold), the effect of sampling and computational delay on phase margin, aliasing, and quantization.
• Fluency with the peripherals that make digital power work: high-resolution PWM, PWM-triggered ADC with programmable sample instants, analog comparators and DACs for fast fault paths, and DMA.
• Fixed-point arithmetic competence — Q-format scaling, range and overflow analysis, saturating behavior — and the ability to justify a fixed-point versus floating-point decision on execution-time grounds.
• Deterministic ISR design under hard timing constraints, including the ability to measure and defend worst-case execution time rather than estimate it.
• Independent lab capability with oscilloscopes, isolated and differential probes, current probes, electronic loads, bidirectional supplies, and a network or frequency response analyzer for loop gain measurement.
• Version control, code review, and a demonstrated track record of writing specifications and test evidence, not only

Responsibilities

• Real-time control loop implementation for four-switch buck-boost power stages and successor topologies, including multiphase interleaved operation and phase current balancing.
• The portable DC/DC control library: compensator implementations, mode arbitration, scheduler and ISR architecture, and the platform abstraction layer.
• Converter protection firmware — cycle-by-cycle current limit, overvoltage and undervoltage, thermal derating, gate-drive fault handling, and safe-state transitions.
• Control loop verification: model-to-measurement correlation, loop gain and stability margin characterization, transient response, and stability across the full operating envelope.
• Normative control specifications and the traceable verification evidence supporting UL 1973, UL 1998, and UL 9540 certification.

Skills

Embedded C

Real-time systems

Control theory

Discrete-time control

Fixed-point arithmetic

ISR design

Loop gain measurement

Version control

Lab bench testing

Education

BS in Electrical/Computer Engineering

Tools

dsPIC33C / dsPIC33CK / dsPIC33CH

MPLAB X / XC16 toolchain

CAN/CANopen

Job description

Proper Voltage is seeking a Principal Firmware Engineer to lead real-time control firmware for bidirectional DC/DC power conversion stages. This role requires deep control theory, fixed-point implementation, and hardware-in-the-loop validation to ensure robust loop performance and certification readiness.

You will own portable control libraries, drive design from model to hardware, and work on safety-critical energy storage and power conversion technologies.