Chief Engineer - Power Electronics & Electrified Powertrain

Our client, a global engineering consultancy, is looking for a Chief Engineer – Power Electronics & Electrified Powertrain, to join their team in Leamington Spa. This is a permanent position working 3 days on-site and 2 days at home.

They specialise in rapid engineering and development of sustainable electrified propulsion systems and associated technologies, working directly and collaboratively with automotive, commercial vehicle, off-highway, aerospace and defence OEMs, Tier-1s and industry research bodies through their technical centres in North America, the U.K. and India.

Position Description:

You’ll be applying innovation and initiative daily to design and prototype propulsion and actuation systems for a new age of sustainable technology, within a refreshing and focused team. The systems they develop range from 1 Watt to mega-Watts and power vehicles and applications on land, in the air and on water and enabling their global customer base to do things that have not been done before.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage multi person/cross functional projects to achieve budgeted margin and maintain an excellent relationship with customers, while mitigating technical and commercial risks
• Provide technical leadership and guidance in the design of power electronic solutions within DSD
• Propose innovative R&D projects to the CTO. Use and develop state of the art simulation techniques and design tools to design, develop and prototype power electronic systems, generating market leading solutions
• Check and approve electronics designs to the relevant quality standards.
• Create and improve quality processes to ensure consistent and high-quality output
• Create scope of work, timing, resource and cost estimates in line with customer RFQs.
• Develop and maintain strategic relationships to build revenue streams in your sector.
• Promote DSD through technical and commercial forums, presenting at conferences and authoring white papers
• Taking an active role in the professional development of others within the function

You will need:

• Profound knowledge of power electronics and magnetics technology, ideally gained in power conversion (e.g. inverters, OBC, DC/DC, chargers etc) in at least two main sectors: automotive, aerospace, off-highway, commercial vehicle, defence, clean energy and/or marine, including the design of digital and mixed signal control and interface circuits
• Experience of power electronics design from concept through validation testing to volume production and field application
• Very robust practical knowledge of the application of high voltage, high power switching power devices and power modules, particularly SiC, IGBT and GaN, gate drivers and device protection, double pulse and desat testing
• Sound understanding of component failure mechanisms, validation test methodology and OEM / supplier requirements
• Successful EMC submission (emissions, susceptibility and immunity) of products in at least one of the key sectors
• Demonstrate familiarity with digital control schemes and motor operation for prevalent motor technologies (PM, AFM, IM, SR etc)
• Experienced in the safe use of high power, high voltage test equipment such as high-power battery emulators, PSUs, power analysers, loads, motor test dynos etc within a dedicated high voltage development lab and EDU test facility, up to over 1MW and 1kVdc
• Familiarity with major standards relating to electrical and functional safety, EMC and OEM requirements including insulation systems and creepage / clearance requirements
• Strong expertise in thermal simulation and management for power electronics and electromagnetic systems
• A strong technical reputation, good customer facing skills and cultural awareness when working with a wide range of global customers and suppliers. This is to be combined with an ability to lead technical training and mentoring of colleagues and customer engineers of differing abilities
• A proven record of successfully planning, selling, leading and delivering large, multi-disciplinary product development projects
• A methodical, structured approach to decision making and problem solving (DDR, 8D etc)