Sr. Electrical Design Engineer III

Join a pioneering team at the forefront of innovation, building next-generation high-speed digital hardware with complex multi-rail power demands. As a trusted partner, Aquent is seeking a visionary Electrical Design Engineer to make a significant impact on the foundational power architecture of cutting-edge products. This is an exceptional opportunity to shape the future of high-performance systems, bringing robust and reliable power solutions to life from concept to characterization.

About the Role

Step into a hands-on role where your expertise will be pivotal in defining and implementing the power backbone for advanced digital hardware. You will own the board power architecture end-to-end, translating complex requirements into elegant and efficient power solutions. This is more than just design; it's about bringing your creations to the bench, debugging, characterizing, and ensuring every rail performs flawlessly. Your work will directly enable the performance and reliability of critical hardware, driving innovation and pushing the boundaries of what's possible.

What You'll Do

• Define comprehensive board power architectures, including rail planning, budgeting, sequencing, and power-state/mode design for FPGA/SoC, memory, and peripheral loads.
• Design and implement DC-DC converters (buck/multiphase), LDOs, and load switches, performing meticulous component selection and margin/derating analysis.
• Develop and analyze robust power distribution networks (PDN) to ensure optimal performance.
• Lead power sequencing and supervision efforts, guaranteeing system stability and integrity.
• Take full ownership of power bring-up processes in the lab, from initial power-on to detailed characterization.
• Debug and characterize power supplies using advanced tools such as power analyzers, electronic loads, oscilloscopes, and thermal instruments.
• Create and execute rigorous power test plans across varying voltage and temperature conditions, documenting results and driving root-cause analysis for any power-related failures.
• Contribute to manufacturing readiness by developing DFM/DFT for power circuits, bring-up procedures, and comprehensive test documentation.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of relevant experience in electrical engineering.
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering (or equivalent) combined with extensive hands-on power/hardware design experience.
• Demonstrated ownership of multi-rail board power designs, from schematic capture through bring-up and characterization.
• Strong foundational knowledge in switching and linear regulator design, magnetics selection, and control-loop/stability principles.
• Practical experience with Power Distribution Network (PDN) design and power integrity analysis.
• Proficiency with power sequencing, supervisors, load switches, inrush current management, and protection schemes like UVLO/OVP/OCP.
• Expertise in schematic capture and PCB design using industry-standard EDM tools such as Siemens Xpedition/EDM, Cadence, or Altium.
• Hands-on lab proficiency, including the use of power analyzers, electronic loads, oscilloscopes, and DMMs, coupled with a structured debug methodology.
• Ability to interpret complex datasheets and device power specifications to create accurate and robust power trees.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with power delivery for FPGAs/SoCs, including core, transceiver-analog, and memory rails.
• Familiarity with power-integrity simulation tools such as Sigrity/PowerSI, HyperLynx, or ANSYS.
• Exposure to battery/solar or spacecraft power systems, or experience with radiation-aware/high-reliability power design.
• Experience with thermal analysis and collaborative co-design with mechanical engineering teams.
• Proficiency in scripting for test automation and data analysis, particularly with Python or similar languages.

What Makes Someone Successful Here

• A comfort with ambiguity, taking a power tree from initial concept through to a fully validated and characterized board.
• A "bench-strong" mentality, enjoying the challenge of debugging rails and meticulously chasing root causes, not just designing on paper.
• A commitment to rigorous documentation and clear, concise communication with cross-functional teams.