Lead Power Electronics Engineer Power Inverter Systems

Position Summary

Sapphire Technologies is seeking a Lead Power Electronics Engineer to lead the architecture, development, validation, and production launch of advanced inverter systems for high-speed rotating machinery.

The role will support a major new product platform serving rapidly growing data‑center infrastructure applications. The system integrates high‑power electronics, high‑speed electric machines, active magnetic bearings, liquid cooling, controls, and precision electromechanical hardware and is expected to undergo a significant production scale‑up.

This is a hands‑on technical leadership role with primary responsibility for inverter system architecture, power‑stage design, cost reduction, design for manufacturing, thermal integration, validation, and certification readiness. The successful candidate will work closely with mechanical, controls, manufacturing, supply chain, certification, and Calnetix engineering teams.

Learning

Work at the intersection of high‑power inverter design, high‑speed motor drives, wide‑bandgap semiconductors, filtering, liquid cooling, EMC, certification, and high‑volume manufacturing.

Impact

Own the technical and commercial tradeoffs that determine inverter efficiency, cost, reliability, manufacturability, thermal performance, and certification readiness for a major data‑center‑related product platform.

Becoming

Grow into Sapphire’s technical authority for high‑power inverter systems, with opportunities to lead platform architecture, power electronics strategy, supplier development, certification, and future product programs.

Core responsibilities are summarized below.

• Assume ownership of the inverter system architecture, requirements, and major interfaces.
• Review the existing power stage, control‑board interface, filtering, thermal design, protection strategy, cost structure, and certification requirements.
• Define the primary architecture and trade studies, including switching frequency, semiconductor losses, filter size and losses, cooling requirements, packaging, cost, and manufacturability.
• Establish a development, validation, and certification plan with internal teams and the certifying body.

• Lead the detailed design, build, integration, and debugging of production‑intent inverter hardware.
• Validate the power stage, gate drives, sensing, protection, filters, control‑board interfaces, and water‑cooled thermal system.
• Use electrical, thermal, and system‑test data to resolve design issues and improve efficiency, reliability, cost, and manufacturability.
• Prepare hardware and technical documentation for EMC, electrical safety, and certification testing.

• Deliver a mature, cost‑effective inverter system ready for product launch and production scale‑up.
• Close or formally control major electrical, thermal, EMC, reliability, certification, and manufacturing risks.
• Establish critical‑to‑quality requirements, production‑test methods, supplier acceptance criteria, and design‑change controls.
• Support certification completion and production‑line readiness.
• Create a cost‑reduction and platform‑improvement roadmap for future production volumes and product variants.

• Serve as Sapphire’s primary technical authority for the inverter system.
• Translate system and customer requirements into inverter architecture, technical specifications, and interface requirements.
• Lead topology selection and trade studies involving semiconductor technology and switching frequency, switching and conduction losses, harmonic performance and filter losses, efficiency, power density, thermal margin, cost and manufacturability.
• Lead the design and validation of power stages, gate drives, DC‑link systems, filters, sensing, protection circuits, bus structures, and high‑power interconnections.
• Define and manage electrical, mechanical, and thermal interfaces, including water‑cooled cold plates, coolant requirements, pressure‑drop constraints and component junction‑temperature limits.
• Develop electrical and thermal models to guide architecture decisions and verify design margin.
• Lead schematic development,…