Staff Hardware Engineer - Inverter
Role details
Job location
Tech stack
Job description
The Enphase Modeling and Controls team, part of the Office of the CTO, defines prototypes, and supports next-generation control solutions for Enphase inverter products. The team is an integrated group of highly specialized power electronics and controls engineers that is fast-moving, working closely with multi-disciplinary teams across the organization, and looking for motivated individuals that can contribute and collaborate closely with the team to deliver innovative solutions. As a member of the Modeling and Controls team, you will solve some of the most exciting problems in the distributed energy space and help shape the control algorithms that govern the dynamic performance of our inverter products., * Design and implement firmware, primarily in C and C++, for real-time operation and control
- Apply unit testing, software simulations, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and prototype testing to ensure firmware meets functionality and performance requirements
- Hands-on bring up of inverter hardware and power electronics systems with embedded firmware
- Optimize product solutions with firmware/hardware control co-design
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to test and troubleshoot prototype designs
- Mentor junior staff, As a Staff Hardware Engineer, you will contribute to inverter development alongside other hardware and embedded firmware engineers for MW/MWh-scale utility Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) serving data centers, spanning outdoor cabinets and containerized platforms.
This role requires deep, hands-on expertise in inverter system design, thermal engineering, advanced simulation, and BESS safety compliance. You will work closely with thermal, site controls, sensor/safety, and manufacturing teams to ensure the product meets performance, reliability, manufacturability, serviceability, compliance, and cost targets - delivering production-ready designs from concept through deployment while optimizing BOM cost, CAPEX, and long-term OPEX.
What you will do
- Develop new products and variants of power electronic converters across the full product lifecycle.
- Work in cross-functional teams of system integration, test automation, and thermal engineers.
- Specify, design, verify, and debug complex circuits across various inverter topologies.
- Generate high-value ideas and transform them into platform-level designs.
- Support system architecture, cost-reduction proposals, and failure root-cause analysis.
- Engage with internal technical communities and contribute to cross-team knowledge sharing.
- Mentor and grow junior engineers; provide guidance to PCB layout and compliance engineers.
- Lead efforts to meet grid code requirements and certifications (UL and IEC) for BESS applications serving data centers.
- Define engineering requirements, develop test plans, and deliver proofs of concept (POCs).
- Champion technical excellence, rigorous documentation, and scientific discipline.
- Serve as a subject matter expert for current and next-generation platforms.
Requirements
- BS/MS/PhD Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related discipline
- BS and 8+ years / MS and 6+ years / PhD and 3+ years' experience in a similar (non-academic) role as an embedded software or firmware engineer
- Expert level C, C++, and Assembly software fundamentals, including substantial algorithm development, code modularity, code maintainability, and data structures proficiency
- Significant real-time operating systems and multithreaded experience
- Expertise in both bare metal and small real-time operating systems
- Able to understand and implement digital signal processing concepts
- Familiarity with ARM Cortex-M4/M7 architectures
- Ability to troubleshoot firmware-related issues within complex systems and drive solutions
- Experience testing code and hardware both with and without external test equipment such as oscilloscopes, protocol analyzers, etc.
- Knowledge of microcontroller peripherals such as ADC, GPIO, PWM, and SPI
- Familiarity with development tools such as GCC, GDB, VS Code, GNU Make, CMake, etc.
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines and containerized build environments using tools such as Docker, Bitbucket Pipelines, or GitHub Actions
- Experience with version control tools such as GIT, Subversion, Mercurial, etc.
- Ability to take ownership of development tasks and drive them to completion in a timely manner and with high quality to support team success
Additional Desired Skills
- Zephyr development experience
- Familiarity with control loops and PID controllers
- Experience adopting AI-assisted development tools and workflows, including LLM-integrated coding environments
- Experience with industrial communications protocols such as Controller Area Network (CAN)
- Desktop and embedded Linux experience
- Familiarity with AC grid simulators and programmable loads, Candidates must be authorized to work in the US., * B.E. in Electrical Engineering with 8+ years of relevant industry experience, or a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering with 6+ years of relevant industry experience.
- Proven track record developing high-power, high-voltage power electronics solutions from concept to market launch in commercial/industrial settings.
- Experience developing device models for IGBTs, MOSFETs, and diodes, with accurate loss estimation using simulation tools.
- Expertise in magnetic design and optimization, balancing cost and performance across product applications.
- Proficiency in tolerance analysis, worst-case analysis (WCA), DPPM, DFMEA/AFMEA, and root-cause analysis for field failures.
- Strong knowledge of circuit schematics, multi-layer PCB layout, EMI mitigation, and related simulation tools.
- Working knowledge of inverter standards such as UL1741 and IEC 62109.
- Hands-on experience with simulation tools such as LTspice, MATLAB/Simulink, and PLECS.
- Experience with product lifecycle management (PLM) tools such as Arena or Agile for ECO, DEV, and ECR releases and Bill of Materials (BOM) management.
- Demonstrated power electronics hardware design, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills.
- Hands-on experience with Python and embedded software for inverter controls development, within a test automation environment.
- Strong system-level understanding of PCS architectures, battery rooms, DC- vs. AC-coupled systems, and thermal coordination with BMS, site energy management systems, and PCS derating logic.
- Demonstrated technical leadership: leading projects, influencing architecture decisions, and mentoring engineers.
Benefits & conditions
The base pay range for this position is $110,000 to $151,000. This salary range may be modified in the future. The successful candidate's starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, education or training, work location, and market conditions. This position is also eligible for bonus, equity, and benefits., Subject matter expertise in two or more of the following:
- Power electronics circuits, power supply, and inverter topologies.
- End-to-end electronics design and development for high-volume manufacturing.
- Field quality improvement and cost reduction through Value Analysis/Value Engineering (VAVE).
- Resonant converter topologies, control techniques, and GaN devices.
Work Location
This role requires being on-site at our Austin, Texas office 5 days per week.
The base pay range for this position is $100,000 to $151,000 per year. This salary range may be modified in the future. The successful candidate's starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, education or training, work location, and market conditions. This position is also eligible for bonus, equity, and benefits.