Senior Specialist - Data Center and Distributed Energy

What you’ll do:

Eaton’s Research Labs (ERL) is a global research team and has an exciting and rewarding position for a Power Electronics Engineer seeking a challenging career in the Energy industry.

As a Senior Specialist in Power Electronics, you will lead technology development initiatives within Eaton’s Energy Systems and Power Electronics team. You will drive innovation in power conversion systems, various converters, and solid‑state protection technologies for data center and distributed energy applications. This role blends deep technical expertise with strategic leadership to shape Eaton’s next‑generation product portfolio.

This position empowers the selected candidate to spearhead the development of cutting‑edge technologies, enhance existing product platforms, and secure both internal and external funding opportunities. This role involves engaging with technology leaders, presenting strategic initiatives to Eaton business units and ERL leadership, and driving innovation across the data center and distributed energy applications.

Success in this role requires a strong blend of technical expertise and business insight. The candidate will collaborate closely with engineering teams and interface with cross‑functional groups across global Eaton locations.

We are seeking a Senior Specialist Engineer to lead research initiatives in Renewable Integration, with a focus on power electronics, control systems, protection mechanisms, and health monitoring technologies.

• Act as a technology leader within the Energy Systems and Power Electronics team, overseeing multiple strategic technology themes and driving long‑term roadmaps aligned with business objectives.
• Lead the development of next‑generation electronic products, managing all phases of design, prototyping, and validation.
• Architect and engineer advanced power conversion systems—including AC/DC, DC/DC, and DC/AC topologies—as well as solid‑state circuit breakers and transformers.
• Design and validate power delivery architectures tailored for data center workloads and distributed energy systems.
• Integrate power electronics expertise with power systems engineering, fault physics, data acquisition, analytics, and simulation tools to enhance system reliability, cost‑effectiveness, and sustainability.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to optimize system performance, thermal management, miniaturization, and cost efficiency.
• Perform hardware‑in‑the‑loop simulations, system‑level modeling, and engineering analytics to validate design performance.
• Drive multidisciplinary research initiatives in partnership with internal Centers of Excellence (COEs), Eaton business units, universities, and industry consortia.
• Contribute to Eaton’s intellectual property portfolio through patent filings and technical publications.
• Mentor junior engineers and actively support talent development within Eaton Research Labs (ERL).

Ph.D. (15–18 years) or Master’s (18–20 years) in Electrical/Electronics/Power Systems/Controls Engineering or equivalent.

• Power converter design and control
• Grid‑tie inverters and DC systems
• Solid‑state protection devices
• Distributed energy resource management and microgrids
• Smart‑grid technologies and asset health monitoringd.

Sound understanding of emerging data center workloads, applications to drive the most effective system power architecture choices. Lead design of power delivery architecture for data center applications.

Possess strong expertise in design, validation and testing of power electronic systems (AC/AC, AC/DC, DC/DC, DC/AC converters, solid‑state circuit breakers and solid‑state transformers).

Analyze, guide and support thermal management solutions and trade‑offs.

Experience with wide‑bandgap devices (SiC/GaN).

Collaborate with multi‑disciplinary team to drive improvements in performance, efficiency, miniaturization and cost optimization.

Working experience in developing prototypes, algorithms, performing engineering analytics, system modeling and hardware‑in‑loop studies to validate system performance is a must.

Hands‑on experience in electrical power systems, distributed energy resources, VPP, aggregator…