Senior Magnetics Engineer, Electro-Permanent Magnets

GRAM; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Generous equity

On-site in SF Bay Area

Job summary

GRAM seeks a Senior Magnetics Engineer to own the electro-permanent magnet device from circuit architecture to life testing. You will ensure holding force and release behavior across air gaps, temperature, and manufacturing variation, defining magnetic requirements and acceptance limits with measurable hardware results.

You will build and test fixtures, analyze flux and force with FE tools, and drive the design from concept through release, in a San Francisco Bay Area on-site role.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical, mechanical, aerospace, applied physics, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience designing and characterizing magnet circuits or nonlinear magnetic devices.
• Experience with gaussmeters or Hall probes and data acquisition in Python or MATLAB.

Responsibilities

• Translate load cases into holding-force, air-gap, switching-time, energy, thermal, and life‑cycle requirements.
• Design magnetic circuits, pole pieces, magnetization schemes, coils, and sensors.
• Use analytical and FE models to predict flux, saturation, force, and temperature effects.
• Build fixtures to measure force, flux, waveforms, and repeatability across materials.
• Run cycling, vibration, thermal, and contamination tests; identify failure modes.
• Document and release EPM designs with specs and acceptance tests.

Skills

Magnetic circuits

Reluctance modeling

Finite-element analysis

Hardware testing

Python / MATLAB

Measurement instruments

Gaussmeters / Hall probes

Electro-permanent magnets

Manufacturing knowledge

Education

Bachelor’s degree in electrical, mechanical, aerospace, applied physics

Tools

Ansys Maxwell

COMSOL

JMAG

FEMM

Job description

Senior Magnetics Engineer, Electro-Permanent Magnets

The Mission

GRAM is a self replication company creating populations of insectoids for the physical economy.

Our first research frontier is self-preservation: the base case of physical self-replication. Our machines will 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.
• - 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.
• - Magnetic component sourcing, material traceability, environmental qualification, or production acceptance testing.

The annual base salary range for this San Francisco Bay Area position is $160,000–$200,000. Health coverage, benefits, and generous equity come with the role. This role is on‑site in the San Francisco Bay Area. We review what you’ve shipped; if it’s the caliber we seek, interviews take about a week, start to finish. We treat your work and conversations with discretion.