Senior Electrical Design Engineer - Gridware

Gridware exists to enhance and protect the mother of all networks: the electrical grid. The grid touches everything, and when it grinds to a halt, the consequences can be dire: wildfires burn, land is destroyed, property is damaged, progress stops, and lives are lost.

Our team engineers an advanced sensing system to continuously analyze both the electrical and mechanical behavior of grid assets. Utilizing high-precision sensor arrays, the system identifies and allows preemptive mitigation of faults. The technology has been proven with utilities to bolster safety, reliability, and reduce customer outage durations. The demand for power will only increase. We protect the grid of today while we build the grid of tomorrow.

Gridware is privately held and backed by the best climate-tech and Silicon Valley investors. We are headquartered in the Bay Area in northern California.

Role Description

Gridware is seeking an independent and mission driven electronic engineer to join our growing team. At Gridware, you will be responsible for evaluating and developing the electronics underlying complex, low power, high reliability products. The ideal candidate will possess deep knowledge of low power analog/digital circuit design, sensor selection, wireless networking and RF. We're looking for hands-on people who can go from problem to design, pick the best parts to use, test and debug the device and work with the manufacturing and test teams to make sure it'll last 10-15 years in the field.

Responsibilities 

This is what you’ll be doing:

• Select components and sensors
• Design, characterize and debug boards for several types of devices. This is a hands-on role, so this ranges from Altium work to circuit analysis and test to light rework and assembly.
• Root cause failures in field and production line units and recommend fixes and improvements
• Help build test infrastructure, hardware-in-the-loop test fixtures, etc.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams, including firmware engineers, mechanical engineers, manufacturing test and test & reliability engineers

Required Skills

To move forward in the application process you should have all of these:

• 6+ years of professional experience with printed circuit board design at the schematic and analysis level, including digital and analog circuits, sensors, and wireless chips
• 2+ years of experience with low power and/or battery powered devices
• Great at reading data sheets and app notes, meticulous at applying required design rules and paying attention to
• Hands-on debugging skills with DVMs, Oscilloscopes, Logic Analyzers. You don't need to be a professional technician, but should be able to do basic rework and solder on test leads, replace components down to 0402, etc.

The following bonus skills are highly desirable, although you do not need to have them all:

• Experienced with Altium for design, Arena
• Knowledge of RF and Wireless Networking
• Board layout skills
• Knowledge of battery behavior and measurement
• Deep knowledge of different types of sensors
• Experience working with a contract manufacturer to produce a medium-high volume product
• PCBA lifetime testing, conformal coating, and environmental effects
• Electronic simulation experience (e.g. Spice)
• Experience with version control (git)

Application

Although we do not require candidates to submit a cover letter, candidates who wish to have their application stand out are invited to write a cover letter outlining one or all of the following things in a bullet-point format:

• Where you have acquired the required skills
• Which (if any) of the bonus skills you have and where you acquired them
• Why you are interested in this role

Benefits

We offer competitive benefits that help employees to thrive and grow. These benefits include:

• Flexible starting hours to reduce commute
• Health Insurance = We cover 100% of Gold and Platinum health insurance plan premiums and up to $800 of plan premiums for dependents.
• Dental & Vision = We also cover 100% of the premiums of an excellent Dental and Vision Plan and 100% of the premiums for one dependent.
• Paid Parental Leave
• 401K
• Free parking and a commuter allowance

Gridware is an equal-opportunity employer. We want applicants of diverse backgrounds and hire without regard to color, gender, religion, national origin, citizenship, disability, age, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Gridware is currently located in Walnut Creek but will be headquartered in San Francisco starting January 2025.