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River is hiring a Lead Architect for Power Electronics and Controls to own the control architecture across their power conversion portfolio, including onboard chargers, HV/LV DC-DC converters, bidirectional stationary and traction motor drives, and grid-tied inverters.
This is a hands-on technical leadership role where you will set control strategy, architect and build models with engineers, guide firmware development, and validate designs in the lab. You'll own closed-loop control design end-to-end—plant modelling, loop shaping, digital compensator design, and discrete-time implementation for PFC stages, isolated DC-DC, grid-tied inverters, and field-oriented control (FOC) motor drives.
Key responsibilities include building and maintaining averaged and switching models in MATLAB/Simulink (plus PLECS or Simscape Electrical), driving them through MIL, SIL, PIL, and HIL validation cycles before hardware exists. You will implement control loops in embedded C on real-time targets with correct PWM/ADC synchronisation, deadtime compensation, and fault handling. You'll design grid-interface control for bidirectional supply including PLL and synchronisation, resonant or repetitive current control, droop and grid-forming modes, ride-through and anti-islanding protection.
You will define and execute the controls validation plan—stability margins across operating envelope, transient response, weak-grid and impedance-based stability, efficiency and THD verification. Collaboration is central: you'll work directly with magnetics, PCB layout, thermal, and EMC engineers to ensure control loops account for real-world parasitics, sensing delay, and switching noise. You'll set standards for the team: modelling conventions, autocode practice, code review, and traceability from control requirements to test evidence. You'll mentor a group of engineers and raise the team's depth in control theory and hardware design.
The company is deliberately hiring one person across all four product lines rather than siloing them, because the control fundamentals are shared and scalable.
REQUIREMENTS:
- M. Tech or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, or Control Systems (Bachelor's in Electrical acceptable)
- 8 to 13 years in power electronics controls, with at least two of the four domains (onboard chargers, DC-DC converters, grid-tied inverters, motor drives) shipped to production
- Genuine control systems fundamentals: state-space averaging, small-signal modelling, loop shaping, discretisation effects, sampling and computational delay, digital redesign. Must be able to derive a compensator, not only tune one.
- Strong MATLAB/Simulink, including model-based design workflow and at least one real HIL toolchain (dSPACE, Typhoon HIL, OPAL-RT, Speedgoat)
- Production embedded C on a real-time control MCU or DSP: TI C2000, Infineon AURIX or XMC, STM32G4/H7, or equivalent
- Comfortable with fixed-point and floating-point trade-offs and what fits in a 50 kHz ISR
- Lab competence: can drive a scope, power analyser, and electronic load; trusts measurements over models when they disagree
- Working knowledge of relevant standards: IEC 61851, ISO 15118, CISPR 25 or CISPR 11, IEC 61000, IEEE 1547 or regional grid codes
- Wide bandwith experience preferred: GaN totem-pole PFC or SiC traction inverters
- Bidirectional topologies experience: CLLC, dual active bridge, four-quadrant PCS
- Sensorless motor control, observer design, MTPA and field weakening experience
- Functional safety exposure: ISO 26262 or IEC 61508
- Production autocode via Embedded Coder into a safety-relevant build
