Senior Transformer Design Engineer (Electrical)

Refactor.; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Referral bonus

Job summary

Refactor. in Pittsburgh is seeking a Senior Transformer Design Engineer to own the development of a new transformer product family from concept through testing and full production.

You will design cores, coils and insulation, perform electromagnetic and thermal analyses, and drive certification and manufacturing readiness. This hands-on role offers equity and the chance to build a small, capable engineering team.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on transformer or wound magnetic equipment design experience.
• Ownership from initial engineering through to finished product.
• Experience with design for production, testing and certification.

Responsibilities

• Design transformers, reactors or similar wound magnetic equipment with core, coil, winding and insulation focus.
• Develop engineering calculations and validate designs via prototype and testing.
• Collaborate with manufacturing, vendors and teams to enable buildable designs.
• Lead through prototype development, type testing and manufacturing release.

Skills

Transformer design

Core & coil knowledge

Winding insulation systems

FEA experience

IEEE/UL standards knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering

Tools

FEA software

Engineering design tools

Job description

Senior Transformer Design Engineer (Electrical) | Pittsburgh | Up to $190k + Equity

I'm looking for a seriously strong Transformer Design Engineer to join a venture-backed startup building new American manufacturing capacity for critical electrical equipment.

This is not your typical engineering role.

You'll be joining at the founding stage, working directly with the founder and experienced industry advisors to take a new transformer product family from initial design through testing, certification and into full production.

The business is funded, the first product family is defined, and they're now building out their engineering and manufacturing capability in Pittsburgh.

This is a founding-team opportunity with genuine technical ownership.

We're particularly interested in engineers with 5+ years of hands-on transformer or wound magnetic equipment design experience.

You might currently be a Transformer Design Engineer, Senior Electrical Design Engineer, Product Design Engineer or Power Transformer Engineer.

Your title isn't particularly important.

What matters is that you've actually designed the equipment itself.

We want someone who understands core and coil design, winding arrangements, insulation, electromagnetic calculations, thermal performance and the engineering decisions that go into producing a reliable transformer.

Experience with transformer manufacturing, coil winding, FEA, IEEE/UL standards, new product development or third-party certification would be particularly valuable.

Most importantly, we want a builder.

Someone who wants to see what they design actually being wound, assembled, tested and shipped from a factory floor.

No sitting purely behind specifications. No simply selecting transformers for a wider electrical system. No designing something and throwing it over the wall to manufacturing.

You have genuine ownership from the initial engineering through to the finished product.

And while this is a hands-on role initially, there's real opportunity to develop into broader technical leadership and help build the engineering team as the company grows.

We want an engineer who can:

• Take genuine ownership of transformer electrical design, not just equipment selection or specification
• Design transformers, reactors or similar wound magnetic equipment, with strong knowledge of cores, coils, windings and insulation systems
• Work confidently across electromagnetic design, impedance, losses, short-circuit forces, dielectric performance and thermal behaviour
• Develop detailed engineering calculations from first principles, using FEA or equivalent design tools where appropriate
• Understand high-voltage insulation, dielectric withstand, impulse testing, partial discharge and temperature-rise requirements
• Design to relevant IEEE, UL and federal transformer efficiency standards
• Take designs through prototype development, type testing, certification and manufacturing release
• Work closely with winding teams, manufacturing, equipment vendors and material suppliers to make sure designs can actually be built
• Help shape and grow the engineering function as the business scales

$140,000 to $190,000 base

Meaningful founding-team equity

Transformer Design | Core & Coil | Wound Magnetics

Product Design Through to Manufacturing

We offer a $2,000 referral fee for a successful placement!