Power Electronics Test Engineer

Power Electronics Test Engineer at Lightyear

Do you thrive on understanding how hardware, embedded software, and control algorithms work together? Would you enjoy translating complex test results into insights that improve next-generation power converters?

Join us on our mission!

Summary

At Lightyear we are working on a family of power converters to convert solar energy from PV panels on vehicles to their batteries. The converter range consists of LV variants, HV variants and a multi-port variant that is able to convert energy from multiple solar panels to both LV and HV batteries. By intelligently combining several functions, this topology allows for a reduction in component count and improvement in efficiency.

What will you do as a Power Electronics Test Engineer?

As a Power Electronics Test Engineer, your core responsibility is to ensure the reliability and performance of our power converters through rigorous validation. In this role, you will also build a strong system-level understanding of how hardware, embedded software, and control algorithms interact, enabling you to act as a key technical link between these domains during testing and troubleshooting. You will design and build custom test setups that simulate demanding real-world conditions, write robust automation software to streamline data acquisition, and perform in-depth tests to characterize system behavior, including efficiency, tracking performance, EMC, transient behavior, and control-related system dynamics.

You don't just run tests, you own the insights. When anomalies occur, you are the investigator who dives into the data to identify the root cause. You develop the system-level understanding required to distinguish whether an issue originates from the hardware, embedded software, or control logic. You do not need to be the primary control expert, but you should be able to understand control concepts well enough to challenge test results, recognize control-related behaviour, and effectively coordinate with domain experts to implement lasting solutions. You thrive in the lab, turning complex technical problems into clear, actionable results that move our technology forward.

A day as a Power Electronics Test Engineer

You start the day with a quick stand-up to align on project status, progress, and any technical blockers. Following this, you shift your focus to the lab, where you’re in the middle of validating a new customer specific feature. You’ve already prepared the setup and are finishing some last testing scripts. You start testing, but you quickly realize that the power converter does not behave in line with the customer requirements. You spend some time trying to pinpoint the issue and once you have some idea of what the problem might be you consult with the relevant experts to work out a solution. During debugging, you do not only check whether the converter passes or fails; you try to understand why it behaves the way it does. You compare measured behavior against expected control behavior, review relevant software signals or logs, and discuss your findings with the control, embedded software, and hardware engineers to narrow down the root cause. While you’re waiting for a software update that should fix the issue, you continue with developing test automation software for the end of line test.

What do we expect from a Power Electronics Test Engineer?

In order to succeed in the dynamic world of Lightyear; pro-activity, professionalism, communication and adaptability are crucial. We are looking for someone with an ambitious attitude who learns from the past but who is especially open to transforming new developments or ideas into the ‘tried and tested’ of the future!

Who You Are

Over time, you will become a secondary knowledge holder for control-related test behaviour: understanding how control choices influence converter performance, stability, protection behaviour, and customer-specific features. This makes you an important bridge between the control engineer, hardware engineers, and embedded software engineers.

You bring

• Bachelor’s in Electronics Engineering or similar
• Knowledge of power electronics fundamentals
• Experience with hardware debugging and instrumentation
• Experience with PCB and system level troubleshooting
• Experience with embedded software (C, C++ or Rust) debugging
• Experience with electronics certification (ISO 16750, CISPR25, R10) is a plus
• Scripting/automation
• Basic understanding of control systems, preferably in the context of power electronics, motor drives, battery systems, or similar dynamic systems
• Ability to interpret control-related converter behavior such as stability, transient response, tracking performance, protection behavior, and interaction with hardware limits
• Able to act as a technical bridge between hardware, embedded software, and control engineering during test definition, debugging, and issue resolution
• Experience with model-based development, control tuning, or MATLAB/Simulink is a big plus

What can you expect from Lightyear?

In addition to a challenging role we also offer:

• A high degree of freedom and independence in your role
• A role within a multidisciplinary team consisting of highly motivated, inquisitive and talented people with a broad diversity of experience
• Participation in a good pension scheme
• 40 vacation days per year (based on a 40 hour contract)