Senior Power Electronics Application Engineer

Cactus Materials, Inc. is a dynamic, fast-growing Power and Photonic semiconductor startup company based in Tempe, Arizona. Our Power Division specializes in the cutting-edge design and manufacturing of next-generation Silicon Carbide (SiC) power semiconductors. As this wide-bandgap technology transforms the global power landscape into a more efficient critical power infrastructure, we engineer high-voltage SiC solutions designed for the world’s most demanding environments.

We move fast, solve hard engineering problems, and collaborate closely across device design, manufacturing, and customer integration to bring disruptive technologies tailored to specific customer needs. Our innovations enable global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to build next-generation equipment that power critical infrastructures, including AI datacenters, smart grids, solar farms, energy storage facilities, electrical transportation charging hubs and other power intensive industrial processes.

We are seeking a Senior Power Electronics Application Engineer to serve as the critical technical bridge between our semiconductor R&D team and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners. Your mission will be to help major global customers deploy our SiC technology into next-generation hardware for high-power applications by designing and testing power electronics building blocks.

Key Roles and Responsibilities

• Customer Enablement & Solution Design: Drive the integration of Cactus Materials' SiC power devices into complete field ready solutions using power electronics building blocks (PEBB). Directly support our customers, leading global industrial OEMs, in adopting SiC technology for high-power systems.

• Modular Hardware Development: Design, model, and validate scalable, cost-effective, and manufacturable Power Electronics Building Blocks (PEBBs) and technology platforms. These standardized hardware building blocks will serve as the foundation for OEMs to rapidly develop and deploy their own high-power conversion equipment. Ensure all layouts feature pristine signal integrity, optimal gate-drive loops, proper high-voltage isolation, and strict adherence to creepage and clearance requirements.

• Semiconductor Characterization: Lead hands-on high-voltage laboratory testing to characterize SiC devices and power modules. Perform rigorous evaluation including Double Pulse Testing (DPT), Safe Operating Area (SOA) validation, short-circuit immunity, and ruggedness testing.

• Advanced Topologies: Optimize device performance within advanced power conversion and protection architectures. Run device-level and system-level thermal and electrical simulations using industry-standard tools (such as PLECS, SIMetrix, or MATLAB/Simulink) to predict performance, efficiency gains, and reliability.

• Collateral Creation: Author high-quality technical documentation to accelerate client design cycles, including detailed application notes, user manuals and white papers.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with internal R&D, fabrication, and product management to translate customer feedback into future product roadmaps and next-generation device requirements.

Minimum Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering with a specialty in Power Electronics.

• Experience: 5+ years of hands-on experience in power electronics design, semiconductor application engineering, or power laboratory validation.

• Circuit Design & Layout: Strong proficiency in power electronics schematic capture and multi-layer PCB layout design, with a solid grasp of EMI/EMC mitigation strategies and high-voltage safety practices.

•Simulation Tools: Working knowledge of simulation platforms such as PLECS and LTSPICE for modeling power electronics topologies and semiconductor switching characteristics. 

• Lab Skills: Master-level hands-on laboratory experience utilizing high-voltage power supplies, oscilloscopes, differential probes, power analyzers, and electronic loads safely and accurately.

• Communication: Good verbal and written communication skills, with a proven ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly and write polished technical reports.

Preferred Requirements

• Advanced Degree: Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with a dedicated research focus on SiC power semiconductor applications.

• Power Systems : Technical knowledge of power system level constraints for converter topologies used in grid infrastructure, renewable energy integration, or heavy industrial electrification (e.g., power quality, reliability of modular multilevel converters, bidirectional DC-DC converters, LLC, and DAB topologies).

• Control Systems: Familiarity with digital control techniques, microcontrollers (MCUs), FPGA, DSPs used for the design of gate drivers and other controls in advanced power conversion hardware.

Why Join Cactus Materials?

At Cactus Materials, you won’t spend years optimizing a legacy corporate roadmap or navigating endless layers of bureaucratic approval. Instead, you will help architect the next generation of wide-bandgap power technology from the ground up. This is a rare engineering environment where physics is challenging, the development cycles are fast, and the work genuinely matters. 

As a technical leader in our agile environment, your decisions will directly shape our device architecture, process development, and strategic direction. You will have true end-to-end technical influence spanning materials, devices, packaging, and system-level performance, directly defining the products, patents, and future of our company. 

Located at the center of Arizona’s booming semiconductor ecosystem, we offer competitive compensation and a collaborative culture built for innovators. If you are looking for a career-defining opportunity to design technology that reshapes the global power infrastructure for decades to come, Cactus Materials is where you belong.