Test Automation Intern: Power Electronics & Systems

Heron Power Inc.; Scotts Valley (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Heron Power Inc. is seeking an on-site Test Engineer to design, build, and operate test infrastructure for grid-tied converters. You will own test bench design, automation, data workflows, and reliability campaigns to uncover design and process failures through physical tests and automated workflows.

The role emphasizes first-principles thinking, practical skills, and a bias toward hands-on execution. You will collaborate across hardware and software to push robust testing on high-power systems.

Qualifications

• Pursuing a BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or related field.
• Hands-on experience designing, building, or operating electrical test setups for power electronics.
• Comfort with bench power equipment and measurement methods: scopes, DMMs, power analyzers, electronic loads, DAQ, sensors.
• Ability to design safe test systems for high-power hardware: interlocks, protection, grounding, SOPs.
• Strong debugging instincts and ability to drive root-cause closure with engineering partners.
• Programming experience in Python—including instrument control or data automation.

Responsibilities

• Design and build electrical reliability test benches for power electronics hardware—inverters, DC/DC converters, bi-directional power stages.
• Specify, procure, and integrate lab equipment: programmable power supplies, electronic loads, DAQ systems, sensors, protection hardware, interlocks, and cabling.
• Own the bench system design: grounding, measurement integrity, EMI-aware instrumentation, protection strategy, safe operating procedures, and maintainability.
• Contribute to our software test infrastructure for system integration and reliability testing — test architecture, hardware abstraction layers, and result reporting pipelines.
• Write software tests that interact directly with hardware and firmware over CAN, UART, Modbus, TCP/IP — debugging signal integrity, protocol failures, and firmware edge cases.
• Write concurrent, fault-tolerant software for our next-generation manufacturing test platform: Firmware Flashing, FCT, EOL stations running autonomously on the factory floor.
• Build AI agents that manage test execution across facilities — initiating runs, monitoring anomalies, implementing test script and firmware changes in response to failures, and routing issues to humans.
• Translate test goals and suspected failure mechanisms into test plans, stress profiles, instrumentation plans, and pass/fail criteria.
• Execute reliability campaigns—burn-in, power cycling, thermal stress, and abuse tests—and evolve them as we learn where the real failure cliffs are.
• Drive fast debug loops during excursions: isolate, instrument deeper, reproduce, and verify that corrective actions eliminate the failure.

Skills

Python programming

Root-cause analysis

Firmware test automation

Education

BS/MS in Electrical Engineering or related field

Tools

Bench power equipment

Job description

Heron Power Inc. is seeking an on-site Test Engineer to design, build, and operate test infrastructure for grid-tied converters. You will own test bench design, automation, data workflows, and reliability campaigns to uncover design and process failures through physical tests and automated workflows.

The role emphasizes first-principles thinking, practical skills, and a bias toward hands-on execution. You will collaborate across hardware and software to push robust testing on high-power systems.