Electrical Engineer, Power Distribution & Controls

The mandate: The responsible engineer for most of the circuit boards in the system. Ben's whiteboard shows the scope: Linux PCBs, safety PCBs, boards inside the power distribution boxes, and boards inside the charging units. It's a lot to own. It's one headcount for now, and Ben will carry some of the work himself.

Product context: Surge Hub integrates batteries, generators, and inverters and is moving from off-the-shelf components to in-house designs. This hire is central to that vertical integration.

Must have:

• PCB design and layout. Altium experience; KiCad is a plus.
• Power distribution, contactors and protection.
• Voltage and current sensing and metering.

Tooling note: The company runs on KiCad. Candidates will ask about the tool stack, so lead with that.

How Ben judges depth: Not by layer count. A 12 to 14 layer power board can be mostly ground plane for thermal and current reasons. An 8 layer RF board can be far harder. He wants demonstrated excellence in at least one subdomain:

• RF design: any RF boards.
• High-speed digital: Gigabit Ethernet and above, PCIe, LVDS, and MIPI-style high-speed layout.
• Power: GaN (gallium nitride) switching designs. Anyone who has laid out GaN boards understands parasitic inductance and capacitance in switching loops, which is a big plus.

Reporting: Works directly with Ben, whose own background is RF and electrical. Expect a technically deep hiring manager and extreme ownership.

Sourcing notes: In screens, ask for the hardest board they designed and why it was hard, not the layer count. Probe for GaN, RF, or high-speed work specifically.

Electrical Engineer: Power Distribution & Controls

The Role

• Design the command and control PCBAs that orchestrate MESH: generator start and stop, contactor and relay control, interlocks, and I/O.
• Design power distribution from the genset and battery through to the loads: busbars, contactors, breakers, fusing, and protection.
• Design the current and voltage sensing and metering the firmware reads, at the accuracy the mission needs.
• Own schematic capture, drive PCB layout, DFM, bring-up, and test.
• Partner with power electronics, battery, and firmware on interfaces, protection, and safety.

What You'll Do

• Take analog and digital board design from schematic through bring-up, on hardware that ships.
• Build power distribution and protection that holds up at real current and voltage.
• Go deep on sensing and instrumentation: current shunts, hall sensors, isolated measurement, ADC front ends.
• Work in a modern EDA tool such as Altium or KiCad, and directly with fab and assembly houses.

What We're Looking For

• Experience with high-voltage DC, battery systems, or genset controls.
• A background in functional safety, protection coordination, or EMC design.
• Exposure to maritime or defense hardware.

Compensation

$100,000–$250,000 base + founding-team equity sized for the role + benefits. If you're an outlier, we'll pay like it.

ITAR requirement

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations (ITAR/EAR), applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). Candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance; active clearance not required.