Director of Engineering - Special Projects, Validation & Test

Responsibilities

• Lead and build a multidisciplinary engineering organization spanning electrical, mechanical, firmware, system integration, validation, and test disciplines — hiring and developing a team of 15+ from the ground up.
• Own the full scope of special projects, validation, and test functions — establishing strategy, processes, and execution frameworks across all workstreams, with particular emphasis on power electronics validation and test.
• Drive high-priority, time-sensitive special projects that fall outside standard product development tracks — including advanced power electronics development for Solid State Transformer systems — partnering with senior leadership to scope, resource, and deliver end to end.
• Apply deep power electronics expertise to guide topology selection, magnetics design, device selection, and controls architecture across the team's programs.
• Establish and own the validation and test strategy across hardware and software systems, including test infrastructure, validation frameworks, and integration test environments.
• Oversee system integration efforts ensuring seamless interplay between electrical, mechanical, firmware, and software subsystems.
• Define org structure, roles, and career development paths; mentor and grow engineers across multiple disciplines.
• Develop frameworks for work breakdown, requirements decomposition, and design acceptance criteria.
• Partner closely with Controls and Software engineering leadership to align on shared milestones and cross-functional dependencies.
• Drive continuous improvement of test efficiency, coverage, and automation.
• Lead complex root-cause investigations across hardware, firmware, sensing, and validation domains.

Qualifications

• PhD in power electronics or a closely related field strongly preferred; Master's degree in electrical engineering or power electronics required.
• 12+ years of engineering experience with at least 5 years in a people leadership role managing multidisciplinary teams.
• Deep power electronics background — hands-on expertise in power conversion design, topology optimization, magnetics, device selection, and controls.
• Proven experience building engineering teams from scratch in a high-growth or startup environment.
• Strong track record in validation, test strategy, and systems integration in a hardware/software power electronics environment.
• Demonstrated ability to develop frameworks for requirements decomposition, design acceptance criteria, and program execution.
• Exceptional cross-functional communication skills — comfortable working with both IC-level engineers and senior executives.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with a bias toward informed action and the ability to lead new initiatives with limited resources.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Willingness and ability to travel up to 10%, including internationally.

Please note: This role requires working on-site 5 days a week. We do not offer hybrid or remote options.