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Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following a $200M Series B valuation at $1.4 billion, the company is expanding teams to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces.
You will own the analog power chain end-to-end across unmanned aerial vehicle (UXV) platforms, from MOSFET commutation simulation through PCB layout to lab validation. Power electronics are the critical bottleneck on next-generation UAS airframes—motor controllers, gate drivers, and DC-DC stages define flight time, payload, thermal envelope, and field reliability. You will be the technical reference on power electronics inside the Lausanne engineering hub, unblocking propulsion, airframe, and embedded teams as the company scales from prototype cadence to multi-platform deployment. This is a builder role focused on shipping hardware, not research.
Key responsibilities include:
- Lead motor-controller and DC-DC topology across fixed-wing, multicopter, and hybrid UXV platforms; translate mission constraints into power-chain specification.
- Own analog switching design: dead-time tuning, gate shaping, and switching-loss vs EMI vs thermal trade-offs.
- Deploy multi-fidelity simulation: analytical loss budgeting, transient SPICE (LTspice), and system-level modeling in PLECS or Simulink.
- Design three-phase inverters with integrated current sensing, protection, and Trapezoidal and FOC-aware hardware interfaces.
- Lead high-power-density PCBA schematic and layout in Altium or KiCad with thermal, parasitics, and EMC engineered from the first revision.
- Drive EMI/EMC pre-compliance, filter design, and root-cause debug under flight-representative loads.
- Take motor-controller PCBAs through revision discipline, DFM, and qualification; close the loop on field returns.
- Execute bench characterization (power analyzers, oscilloscopes, thermal imaging, double-pulse testing) and reconcile against simulation.
- Partner with embedded and propulsion teams on FOC tuning, current-sense calibration, and hardware/firmware compensation boundaries.
- Set the bar via design-decision records and reference designs; mentor 1–2 junior engineers.
REQUIREMENTS:
- MSc or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, or equivalent.
- 5+ years of hands-on R&D experience on motor drives, BLDC/PMSM controllers, or high-power-density power electronics.
- Deep working mastery of MOSFET commutation design: gate-driver selection, dead-time tuning, switching transitions, loss budgets.
- Proven ownership of at least one motor-controller PCBA shipped from prototype through production or pre-production qualification, ideally on drone, robotics, eVTOL, or automotive platforms.
- Fluency in simulation (LTspice, PLECS, or Simulink) and PCB design (Altium).
- Strong, hard-earned intuition for EMI/EMC design and debug.
- Lab-bench discipline: personally debugged what simulation missed.
- Comfort with scale-up iteration speed and end-to-end ownership.
- English fluent (working language); French is a nice-to-have.
Bonus: GaN/SiC experience, safety-critical design exposure, applied control theory implemented in hardware, exposure to defense, aerospace, or UAS programs.
