Sr. Power Electronics Hardware Engineer

ODys; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Odys Aviation in Long Beach, CA, is seeking a Sr. Power Electronics Hardware Engineer to design and deliver a SiC-based propulsion power electronics stack for the Laila UAV and Alta programs.

Your role focuses on hardware design, schematic capture, PCB layout, thermal management, EMI mitigation, and DO-254/DO-160 aligned hardware development to meet aerospace requirements.

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, or related discipline.
• Minimum 5 years designing high-power motor drives or power converters from concept through hardware bring-up.
• Expertise in SiC MOSFET-based converter design, including switching behavior and high-voltage protection.
• Schematic capture and PCB layout for high-power, high-voltage systems with HV safety.
• Solid magnetics design experience – inductors, transformers, chokes, and loss analysis.
• Thermal management for power electronics, including conduction, convection, and cooling integration.
• EMI/EMC design and mitigation, including filters and layout best practices.
• Hands-on high-voltage lab proficiency with safety practices.
• Familiarity with PMSM drive topologies, FOC, and sensorless operation.
• SPICE and converter-level simulation tools (PLECS, LTspice).

Responsibilities

• Architect and design SiC-MOSFET-based motor drives, active rectifiers, and DC/DC converters for airborne applications.
• Lead schematic capture and PCB layout for high-voltage power stages with impedance control and routing discipline.
• Design gate-drive circuits and protection schemes (desat, short-circuit, dead-time).
• Design magnetic components, including DC-link inductors and chokes, with loss budgeting.
• Develop DC-link architecture, capacitors, and pre-charge circuitry.
• Lead thermal design of converter assemblies and cooling integration.
• EMI/EMC mitigation at hardware level to meet DO-160 requirements.
• Define protection architecture and interlocks with hardware and firmware teams.
• Specify and qualify power semiconductors, magnetics, and capacitors; perform derating analyses.
• Lead board bring-up, testing, and characterization with measurements.
• Collaborate with controls engineers on sensor placement and interfaces for FOC/diagnostics.
• Produce DO-254/DO-160/ARP4754B aligned design artifacts.

Skills

Power electronics design

Thermal management

EMI/EMC mitigation

High voltage safety

FOC and sensorless control knowledge

Education

Bachelor's/Master's/PhD in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Altium

Cadence

PLECS

LTspice

Job description

About Odys

At Odys, we’re mobilizing power, with Hybrid Power Systems developed for aerospace and in-demand everywhere. It’s the kind of mission diversity that demands a fresh way of thinking.

We began with an early bet on hybrid, when the mobility industry was focused on batteries. We designed, tested, and validated our first 1 MW high-speed generator in 12 months. And then we pushed further, developing systems with greater power density in less time. Today, our Hybrid Power Systems offer outputs ranging from 20 kW to 4 MW, with applications in the air or on the ground.

One of those applications is Laila, an unmanned drone designed for critical logistics and defense missions. With its 100 kW-class onboard Hybrid Power System, Laila can support medical cold-chain transport or serve as an aerial platform for counter-UAS measures.

The market interest has been overwhelming: Over 30 inbound requests from leading US and global manufacturers, and 14+ DoD contracts.

Our team comes from deep tech and aerospace, with backgrounds spanning drone and aircraft development, high-volume production, and electrified mobility.

We operate with urgency and ownership at every level. We validated high-speed generator technology faster than our peers, not because we skipped steps, but because we've been doing this long enough to know which ones matter most.

Creating the future of power, in the air and on the ground, is a challenge we’ve been training our entire lives for. If that sounds like you, this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.

Odys Aviation is at the forefront of developing hybrid-electric aircraft to enable sustainable regional air travel. As the Sr. Power Electronics Hardware Engineer, you will be responsible for the design and development of our SiC-based propulsion power electronics – motor drives, active rectifiers, and DC/DC converters – supporting both the Laila (UAV) and Alta (Hybrid-electric VTOL) programs.

This role focuses on hardware design and physical realization. You will be tasked with architecting and delivering high-power-density SiC converter stages from concept through flight hardware, including schematic capture, PCB layout, magnetics, gate-drive and protection circuitry, thermal management, and EMI mitigation. Control algorithms, embedded firmware, and HIL infrastructure will remain with peer engineers; your responsibility is to deliver hardware that meets electrical, thermal, mechanical, and certification targets, and that enables the control system to extract full performance.

The primary deliverable is a propulsion power electronics stack that achieves aerospace-grade reliability, hits aggressive power-density and efficiency targets, and is manufacturable, testable, and robust under the full envelope of flight conditions.

Responsibilities

• Architect and design SiC-MOSFET-based motor drives, active rectifiers, and DC/DC converters operating at switching frequencies greater than 20–40 kHz, with focus on power density, efficiency, and reliability for airborne applications.
• Lead schematic capture and PCB layout (Altium, Cadence, or equivalent) for high-voltage, high-current power stages, including controlled-impedance routing, creepage and clearance per aerospace standards, and partitioning of power, signal, and gate-drive domains.
• Design gate-drive circuits tailored to SiC device physics, including isolated drivers, dv/dt and di/dt management, desat and short-circuit protection, miller-clamp strategies, and dead-time selection in coordination with the controls engineer.
• Design magnetic components – DC-link inductors, common-mode and differential-mode chokes, current sensors, and isolation transformers – including core selection, winding strategy, loss budgeting, and saturation analysis for high-frequency operation.
• Develop DC-link architecture and capacitor banks, including ripple-current budgeting, ESR/ESL management, lifetime analysis, and pre-charge/discharge circuitry.
• Lead thermal design of converter assemblies, including heatsink and cold-plate selection, junction-to-coolant thermal stack-up, transient thermal analysis, and coordination with mechanical engineering on cooling integration.
• Design EMI/EMC mitigation at the hardware level – input/output filters, shielding strategy, grounding architecture, and layout-level techniques – to meet DO-160 conducted and radiated emissions requirements.
• Define protection architecture including overvoltage, overcurrent, overtemperature, ground-fault, and arc-fault detection circuitry, and partition responsibilities between hardware interlocks and firmware-level FDIR with the controls team.
• Specify and qualify power semiconductors, magnetics, capacitors, sensors, and connectors; drive component derating analyses, supplier evaluations, and second-source strategies appropriate for aerospace volumes.
• Lead board bring-up, double-pulse testing, and converter characterization on bench and dyno; correlate measured switching behavior, losses, and thermal performance with simulation and iterate the design to close gaps.
• Collaborate with the controls/software engineer to define sensor placement, current/voltage feedback signal conditioning, and ICD-level interfaces; ensure hardware exposes the observability needed for FOC, sensorless operation, and diagnostics.
• Produce deliverables aligned with DO-254, DO-160, and ARP4754B standards, including hardware design specifications, schematic and layout review packages, derating and stress analyses, FMEA/FMECA, and verification evidence.

Requirements

• BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, or related discipline.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience designing high-power motor drives or power converters from concept through hardware bring-up.
• Demonstrated expertise in SiC MOSFET-based converter design, including switching behavior, gate-driver design, dead-time effects, parasitic management, and high-voltage protection.
• Strong proficiency in schematic capture and PCB layout for high-power, high-voltage systems, with hands-on ownership of multilayer power boards through fabrication and assembly.
• Solid magnetics design experience – inductors, transformers, common-mode chokes – including core/winding selection and loss analysis at high switching frequencies.
• Working knowledge of thermal management for power electronics, including conduction, convection, and liquid-cooled architectures, and use of thermal simulation tools.
• Experience with EMI/EMC design and mitigation, including filter design, layout best practices, and pre-compliance testing.
• Hands-on lab proficiency with high-voltage bench work, including double-pulse testing, network analyzers, high-bandwidth oscilloscopes, current probes, and electronic loads, with disciplined high-voltage safety practices.
• Working familiarity with PMSM drive topologies and the control-system requirements they impose on hardware (sensor bandwidth, isolation, latency), sufficient to design hardware that supports FOC, sensorless operation, and flux-weakening.
• Familiarity with SPICE and converter-level simulation tools (PLECS, LTspice, or equivalent) for device-level and circuit-level analysis.

Preferred Qualifications

• Aerospace or eVTOL powertrain experience, with familiarity in FAA/EASA certification processes.
• Experience with DO-254 compliance in a regulated hardware development environment, plus working familiarity with DO-160, ARP4754B, FMEA/FTA, and requirements traceability.
• Experience designing converters for high-speed PMSMs, including multi-three-phase architectures, generator-mode operation, and active-rectifier topologies.
• Hands-on experience with high-power-density liquid-cooled converter assemblies and integration with airframe cooling systems.
• Familiarity with battery-pack interfaces, pre-charge architectures, and contactor/HVIL design for high-voltage DC distribution.
• Experience taking power electronics hardware from prototype through DVT, qualification testing (DO-160 environmental, vibration, thermal), and into low-rate production.
• Working knowledge of CAN, CAN-FD, and Ethernet hardware interfaces, including isolation and signal integrity for noisy power-electronics environments.