Senior Hardware Design Engineer

Sr. HW Design Engineer

Location: Mountain View, CATeam: R&D

The Impact You’ll Make:

We are looking for a talented and innovative Hardware Design Engineer with significant experience in TDR Equipment Design Engineer to join our R&D team. In this role, you will lead the design, development, and validation of Time Domain Reflectometry instruments and systems tailored for renewable energy applications — including solar PV, wind, and battery energy storage systems (BESS). You will work across the full hardware development lifecycle, from concept and schematic design through to prototyping, testing, and production handover. This is a technically deep, hands-on role ideal for an engineer passionate about precision measurement instrumentation and power systems diagnostics.

Key Responsibilities:

• Hardware Design & Development

  • Design and develop TDR hardware including pulse generation circuits, high-speed analog front ends, sampling circuits, and signal conditioning stages
  • Design PCB layouts for high-frequency, low-noise TDR circuits using tools such as Altium Designer, or Cadence
  • Select and evaluate components including ADCs, DACs, op-amps, FPGAs, and microcontrollers suitable for TDR applications
  • Develop impedance matching networks and transmission line interfaces for various cable types (coax, twisted pair, MV power cables)
  • Design power supply and protection circuitry compliant with safety and EMC standards

  Signal Processing & Firmware

  • Collaborate with firmware/embedded engineers to develop DSP algorithms for TDR waveform acquisition, averaging, and fault-distance calculation
  • Define requirements for FPGA or microcontroller-based acquisition systems
  • Develop calibration routines and compensation algorithms to ensure measurement accuracy across temperature and load conditions
  • Contribute to real-time signal processing pipeline design for sub-nanosecond pulse resolution

  Prototyping & Validation

  • Build and test hardware prototypes in the lab — hands-on bench work with oscilloscopes, VNAs, spectrum analyzers, and signal generators
  • Conduct design verification testing (DVT) and design validation testing (DVT) across full environmental and electrical specifications
  • Perform EMC pre-compliance testing and support formal EMC/EMI certification
  • Validate TDR accuracy against reference cables and known fault conditions
  • Support field trials on renewable energy sites to validate performance under real-world conditions

  Standards & Documentation

  • Ensure designs comply with relevant standards including IEC 61010, IEC 61000 (EMC), and ISO 9001 quality requirements
  • Produce detailed design documentation including schematics, BOMs, design rationale, and test reports
  • Maintain version-controlled design files and contribute to IP/patent documentation where applicable
  • Support production engineering during design transfer and manufacturing ramp-up

  Collaboration & Innovation

  • Work closely with software, firmware, mechanical, and product management teams in an agile development environment
  • Engage with customers and field engineers to gather requirements and validate designs against real-world needs
  • Stay current with advances in TDR technology, high-speed analog design, and renewable energy diagnostics
  • Contribute to patent filings and technical publications where appropriate

The Skills You Bring:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or a closely related discipline
• 5+ years of experience in analog/mixed-signal hardware design, ideally in instrumentation or test & measurement
• Strong proficiency in PCB design — schematic capture and layout using Altium Designer, or equivalent
• Solid understanding of high-speed analog circuit design — signal integrity, transmission line theory, impedance matching
• Hands-on experience with lab instruments: oscilloscopes, VNAs, spectrum analyzers, signal generators
• Familiarity with TDR principles — pulse generation, reflection analysis, fault-distance calculation
• Experience writing or reviewing hardware test plans and design verification reports

Nice to Have:

• Direct experience designing TDR, OTDR, or reflectometry-based instrumentation
• FPGA design experience (Xilinx / Intel) for high-speed data acquisition
• Knowledge of cable types used in renewable energy — DC string cables, MV AC feeders, armored underground cables
• EMC design experience and familiarity with IEC 61000 / FCC Part 15 test processes
• Experience with SPICE simulation tools (LTspice, or similar)
• Familiarity with IEC 61010 safety standard for electrical test & measurement equipment
• Exposure to ISO 9001 or IEC 62443 (industrial cybersecurity for instrumentation)
• Master's degree or PhD in relevant electronics/instrumentation field

Benefits and Perks:

• Competitive Compensation Package

• Health Insurance: We offer 100% coverage of employee premiums under a Gold-level PPO plan. Dental & Vision Insurance: 50% of employee premiums are covered.

• Retirement Plan: A 401(k) plan with a 6% employer match.

Additional Information:

Minimum salary of $190,000 to maximum salary of $225,000 + equity + benefits.

The range provided is 1AP’s reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role. The actual amount will be based on job-related and non-discriminatory factors such as location, experience, training, skills, and abilities. Consult with your Recruiter during the initial call to determine a more targeted range based on these job-related factors.

About 1st Avenue Power:

At 1st Avenue Power, we are on a mission to deliver simple, fast-to-deploy, customer-centric and intelligent power systems leveraging the abundance of solar to provide inexpensive and reliable clean energy to global customers from data centers to energy starved communities around the world. We envision a future where every community, business, and nation thrives on the limitless potential of clean energy, united in a shared commitment to a sustainable and equitable world.

You will be working with Dr. Tom Buttgenbach, one of the most successful clean energy technology innovators and entrepreneurs who has been a driving force in making solar-based energy solutions the cheapest and most reliable energy option. Tom founded and led Avantus (formerly known as “8minute Solar Energy“), to become one of the largest and most profitable solar and energy storage companies in the United States and the largest in California, including delivering over 17% of Los Angeles’ power.  

When Tom sold his interest in Avantus’ development business  to KKR in mid-2024, it had delivered over $1 billion in profit and secured over $10 Billion in power purchase agreements and project financings with a pipeline of over 30 GW of solar and 90 GWh of energy storage, capable of powering the homes of more than 20 million Americans day and night. 

Tom’s family office investment firm, 1st Avenue Capital, is building teams for the next generation of advanced solar power system architecture and AI to aggressively drive down the cost of and equitable access to clean and reliable energy.[1] 1st Avenue’s advanced large scale power systems are addressing the increasing inadequacy of the grid to meet the massively growing power demands of the digital economy, while its intelligent distributed solar utilities are leapfrogging the grid to provide equitable access to inexpensive, clean and reliable power to underserved communities around the world.

1AI Energy, the employing entity for 1st Avenue Power, and 1st Avenue Power are committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee based on race (inclusive of traits associated with race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles), color, religion, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding), age, veteran or military status, marital status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, reproductive decision-making, or any other legally recognized protected class under federal, state, or local law.  We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.. Applicants with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), and local laws. A reasonable accommodation is a change in the way things are normally done which will ensure an equal employment opportunity without imposing undue hardship on 1AI Energy or 1st Avenue Power. Please inform the company's personnel representative if you need assistance completing an application or to otherwise participate in the application process. 

Join our team and make a real difference in the world.

[1: Additionally, 1st Avenue is in the business of acquiring projects where there has been a final notice-to-proceed or financial close.]