Senior Magnetics Engineer, Electro-Permanent Magnets

Gram Games; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

GRAM in El Segundo is seeking an Electro-permanent Magnet (EPM) engineer to own the device from magnetic-circuit architecture through pulse-waveform requirements, integration, and life testing. You will ensure holding force, release behavior, and energy use meet specifications across varying conditions.

Responsibilities include designing magnetic circuits, coils, interfaces, and drive electronics; building measurement fixtures; and validating performance with hardware and test data to drive

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in a relevant engineering field.
• Designed, built, and characterized a permanent-magnet circuit or magnetic latch.
• Built a nonlinear magnetic model and validated with hardware data.
• Hands-on with gaussmeters, oscilloscopes, and data acquisition.
• Documented results and used feedback to improve designs.

Responsibilities

• Translate load cases into holding-force, air-gap, energy, and thermal requirements.
• Design magnetic circuits, pole pieces, switching coils, and sensors.
• Use reluctance models and finite-element analysis to predict flux and force.
• Build fixtures to measure force, flux, waveforms, and coupling.
• Conduct cycling, vibration, and thermal tests to isolate failure modes.

Skills

Permanent-magnet circuit design

Magnetic latch concepts

Reluctance modeling

Python/MATLAB data analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace, Applied Physics, or related field

Tools

Gaussmeters

Oscilloscopes

Current probes

Programming for data acquisition (Python/MATLAB)

Job description

The Mission

GRAM is a self-replication company creating machine labor for the physical economy.

Our first research frontier is self-preservation: the base case of physical self-replication. We are building a new class of machines called insectoids that can survive, coordinate, and recover without humans. We believe scalable machine labor requires more than single-agent task generality or machines shaped in our image.

About the role

You will own GRAM's electro-permanent magnet device from magnetic-circuit architecture through pulse-waveform requirements, mechanical integration, characterization, and life testing. You will make holding force and release behavior predictable across air gaps, surface condition, geometry, temperature, switching history, and manufacturing variation.

You will define magnetic requirements, device performance, interface constraints, and acceptance limits, then prove them through measured, manufacturable hardware with known energy use, thermal limits, degradation, and failure behavior.

What you will do

• Translate machine load cases into EPM holding-force, shear, air-gap, switching-time, energy, thermal, residual-flux, mass, and lifetime requirements.

• Design magnetic circuits, pole pieces, permanent-magnet arrangements, switching coils, flux returns, sensors, mechanical interfaces, and drive-electronics requirements.

• Use analytical reluctance models and finite-element analysis to predict flux density, saturation, leakage, force, demagnetization risk, eddy-current effects, and temperature sensitivity.

• Build fixtures that measure normal and shear force, flux, current and voltage waveforms, switching repeatability, release behavior, and performance across representative materials and gaps.

• Run cycling, shock, vibration, thermal, contamination, and off-nominal tests; isolate magnetic, electrical, mechanical, and interface failure modes.

• Release EPM designs through drawings, material specifications, magnetization controls, supplier qualification, assembly procedures, and acceptance tests.

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical, mechanical, aerospace, applied physics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

• Designed, built, and characterized a permanent-magnet circuit, magnetic latch, electromagnetic actuator, motor magnetic circuit, or comparable nonlinear magnetic device.

• Built a nonlinear magnetic model in Ansys Maxwell, COMSOL, JMAG, FEMM, or equivalent using measured or supplier B-H data, and compared predicted flux or force against hardware measurements.

• Hands‑on experience with gaussmeters or Hall probes, oscilloscopes, current probes, programmable power equipment, load cells, and automated acquisition in Python or MATLAB.

• Delivered measured force, flux, switching, thermal, or lifecycle results and used the discrepancy between model and test to close a hardware failure or revise a released design.

Preferred experience

• Electro‑permanent magnets, switchable permanent magnets, magnetic latching, low‑coercivity alloys, or magnetization processes.

• Pulsed‑power electronics, coil design, magnetic sensing, contact mechanics, or precision force‑test fixtures.

• Magnetic component sourcing, material traceability, environmental qualification, or production acceptance testing.

Compensation

The annual base salary range for this El Segundo position is $160,000–$200,000. An offer within this range will reflect the position's approved scope and the candidate's demonstrated role‑relevant skills and experience.

Working at GRAM

This role is based on‑site in El Segundo. You will spend substantial time building magnetic hardware, instrumenting fixtures, inspecting interfaces, and testing on the robot.