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Power Electronics Engineer

ESS

ESS

Wilsonville, OR, USA · Oregon, USA
Posted on Jul 1, 2024

ESS cares about your health and safety therefore strongly encourages all our employees to get vaccinated and remain current with your COVID vaccine. Learn more at cdc.gov/coronavirus.

Catalyzing a cleaner future.

At ESS (NYSE: GWH), our mission is to accelerate global decarbonization by providing safe, sustainable, long-duration energy storage that powers people, communities, and businesses with clean, renewable energy anytime and anywhere it’s needed. As more renewable energy is added to the grid, long- duration battery energy storage systems (BESS) are essential to providing the reliability and resiliency we need when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing.

Our technology uses earth-abundant iron, salt, and water to deliver environmentally safe solutions capable of providing up to 12 hours of flexible energy capacity for commercial and utility-scale energy storage applications. Established in 2011, ESS Inc. enables project developers, independent power producers, utilities, and other large energy users to deploy reliable, sustainable long-duration energy storage solutions. For more information visit www.essinc.com.

ESS is seeking an experienced and dynamic Power Electronics Engineer with a strong background in low to medium voltage AC and DC applications and a willingness to perform hands-on development and testing. The role will focus on development and integration of inverter and converter products in the ESS battery storage systems. The successful candidate will design, develop and test ESS systems while working with multifunctional teams on critical projects.

The ideal candidate will have a passion for sustainability and the environment, will thrive in a fast-paced entrepreneurial setting, be self-motivated, and have an interest in disruptive, cutting-edge technology.

What you’ll do at ESS.

  • Become the subject matter expert of the power controls hardware in ESS’ products and be responsible for the design, modeling, specification, and testing of low to medium voltage electrical power systems and equipment.
  • Develop improvements and new product integration through research, design, technical evaluation, and documentation utilizing engineering principles.
  • Develop test plans, build test fixtures, and execute tests to assess the functionality & performance of inverters and converters implemented in flow batteries used for grid-forming, grid-following applications, and DC microgrids.
  • Develop functional requirements documents, build hardware prototypes, and perform analysis and testing to confirm equipment compliance to applicable specifications.
  • Interface with suppliers, manufacturing, sales, and marketing in the product development process.
  • Utilize Autocad Electrical to prepare schematics and single line diagrams of electrical systems.
  • Conduct research to test or analyze the design, operation, and performance of equipment.
  • Prepare performance requirements for equipment and systems.
  • Ensure compliance to UL, CSA, IEC, IEEE, EU and EN requirements.
  • Ensure engineering design and standards documentation is complete, accurate and sufficient in support of manufacturing and quality assurance activities, and compliant with customer specifications and regulations.
  • Actively communicate specific work requirements or needs to internal functions, such as purchasing and manufacturing to ensure expectations are understood as defined by engineering specifications.

What you bring to the table.

Minimum Requirements:

  • BS Engineering in Electrical Engineering.
  • 5 years’ experience in a Power Electronics Engineering role.
  • Fundamental understanding of various control strategies and conversion topologies.
  • Experience with PCB design with working voltages up to 1kV using industry standard tools (Altium Designer, Eagle, OrCAD, etc).
  • Experience in power electronic PCB layout and building hardware prototypes.
  • Proven proficiency in 2‐D CAD systems (i.e., AutoCAD) for design, documentation, and fabrication.
  • Expert knowledge of AC (multi-phase) and DC power, power conversion techniques & principles, motor drive, and UPS battery management systems.
  • Experience designing and building test stands for power electronics.
  • Ability to work in a cross-functional and geographically dispersed team environment and across departments: R&D, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain.
  • Experience proving durability and reliability of products through design and implementation of dedicated testing.
  • Experience designing products at high volume. Proven DFM and DFR track record.
  • Strong communication and presentation skills, affable, with demonstrated maturity and professionalism.
  • Self-starter who can follow tasks through to completion with little guidance.
  • Ability to multi‐task several projects and prioritize workload to meet business specific deadlines.
  • Ability to lift 50 lbs. unassisted.
  • Ability to follow job required Standards and Safety Protocols, per pre-defined processes.
  • Must be able to wear Personal Protection Equipment according to OSHA rules and regulations.

We’d love to see:

  • Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering.
  • Experience in new-product technologies introduction and scale to manufacturing.
  • Experience commercializing new products in a production environment.
  • Experience in battery, fuel cell technologies or power generation systems.
  • Proficient in DC/DC bidirectional converter topologies and DC/AC bidirectional active front end PFC grid tied inverters.
  • Experience in GaN and/or SiC technology.
  • Understanding of AC and DC Microgrid ESS Battery Storage principles and applications.
  • Understanding of UL 1741SA and IEEE 1547 Smart Inverter GRID Codes and utility scale applications.
  • Experience with the protection of power systems per grounding system type (TT. IT & TN).
  • Some experience working with embedded system engineers or experience with embedded programming.
  • Basic understanding of CAN Communication Protocol (CAN 2.0A/2,0B).
  • Basic understanding of MODBUS Communication Protocol (RS485, TCP/IP).

Benefits of working at ESS.

In addition to the value of working with and helping grow a global reaching clean technology, ESS offers a Company assisted Health insurance, Approved PPE Reimbursement, Medical & Dental; Flex spending account; 8 paid holidays; 401K, and a competitive PTO accrual.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are open to considering every qualified candidate who is eligible and legally authorized to work in the United States on a full or part-time basis, without a need for sponsorship.

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.