Senior Applications Engineer — Grid Power & SST

Heron Power; Scotts Valley (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Heron Power is seeking a hands-on testing engineer to own application testing of the solid state transformer (SST) across data center, BESS, and PV use cases. You will bring up hardware in lab and pilot sites, write scripts to drive test equipment and power converters, and debug performance to meet application demands.

You will collaborate with the Systems Integration team, driving end-to-end validation, integration testing with DAS/SCADA/EMS, and contributing to field deployments with a focus

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on experience in power electronics, energy storage, EV, grid, or a comparable hardware-intensive environment.
• Strong grasp on DC circuit fundamentals: resonances, parasitics, slew rates, and inductive spikes.
• Strong scripting and test-automation skills to drive instruments and power converters and to log and analyze data.
• Working knowledge of power conversion and battery systems: inverters and converters, BMS, DC pre-charge, contactors and protection, and thermal and cooling loops.
• Comfort with lab instrumentation (oscilloscopes, power analyzers, DAQ systems) and comms protocols such as CAN and Modbus TCP.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end application testing of a novel high C-rate battery pack (SuperBBU) with Heron's SST, validating ripple mitigation, backup capability, slew rates, and power-loss profiles.
• Support SST and utility-scale BESS integration testing at pilot sites, covering EMS-to-SST communication, black start and grid-forming coordination, charge/discharge cycling, and round-trip efficiency.
• Support integration testing of the SST with commercial off-the-shelf DAS, SCADA and EMS systems.
• Own Heron's first pilot deployments: review field performance, identify feature gaps, and work with SW/FW teams to turn findings into product improvements.
• Write and maintain Python-based test automation to command power converters, sequence tests, log data, and turn manual procedures into repeatable automated loops.
• Safely operate power converters, chillers, contactors, and protection hardware, and set up cabling, instrumentation, and data acquisition for high-power test runs.

Skills

Power electronics

Scripting

Test automation

Lab instrumentation

CAN/Modbus

First principles

Tools

LTspice

Simscape

PLECS

Job description

Heron Power is seeking a hands-on testing engineer to own application testing of the solid state transformer (SST) across data center, BESS, and PV use cases. You will bring up hardware in lab and pilot sites, write scripts to drive test equipment and power converters, and debug performance to meet application demands.

You will collaborate with the Systems Integration team, driving end-to-end validation, integration testing with DAS/SCADA/EMS, and contributing to field deployments with a focus