Heron Power is a startup company building cutting-edge power electronics for the 21st-century grid. We aim to de-bottleneck the growth of electricity generation and consumption with scalable, innovative, and less costly hardware solutions, accelerating the electrification of everything.
Our first goal is to build better converters (inverters & rectifiers) to connect large-scale renewables, storage, and loads to the grid. Heron's leadership team is made up of seasoned veterans who have designed and shipped gigawatts of power conversion products over the past decade.
Lead Materials Engineer, Electrical Insulation at Heron-power
Job Overview
This is a role for someone who can connect electric field stress, thermal cycling, material behavior, manufacturing process, and long-term reliability into one engineering problem-and solve it.
How You Will Contribute
Develop and qualify insulation systems for high-power-density, medium-voltage power electronics intended for scale production
Define material selection criteria, screening methods, and qualification plans for dielectric materials, interfaces, and insulation assemblies
Characterize and evaluate dielectric strength, partial discharge behavior, dielectric loss, thermal performance, adhesion, environmental robustness, and long-term aging behavior
Lead technical investigations into insulation-related failure modes including partial discharge, breakdown, delamination, voiding, treeing, tracking, contamination, and thermomechanical degradation
Drive design decisions across materials, interfaces, creepage and clearance strategy, field management, and process selection to improve product reliability and manufacturability
Develop robust processes for potting, molding, encapsulation, coating, and assembly in partnership with Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain
Support DFMEA and PFMEA activities by identifying key insulation-related design and process risks and driving mitigation plans
Partner with test and reliability teams to define accelerated test methods, interpret results, and close the loop between failure analysis and design improvement
Help establish internal standards, design rules, and validation approaches for insulation systems as Heron scales its product platform
What You Bring
We value strong fundamentals, practical engineering judgment, curiosity, and a high level of ownership. Domain depth and demonstrated execution will help determine level.
Must-Have Qualifications
5+ years of experience designing, selecting, or qualifying solid dielectric materials or insulation systems for medium- or high-voltage products such as transformers, bushings, sensors, capacitors, cables, power modules, or adjacent equipment
Strong understanding of polymer dielectrics and their interfaces with metals, ceramics, semiconductors, and other dissimilar materials
Deep knowledge of high-voltage fundamentals, including electric field stress, partial discharge, dielectric breakdown, and insulation degradation mechanisms
Hands-on experience with one or more of the following: potting, casting, molding, coating, encapsulation, impregnation, or insulation assembly for medium- or high-voltage hardware
Experience performing or leading failure analysis for insulation-related issues in fielded or prototype hardware
Experience translating material behavior and failu
Heron-power · Scotts Valley