BMS Design Engineer

Location: Denver, CO

Reports To: Senior Battery Engineer

About AZAK  

AZAK is transforming how the world moves. We are a startup in defense technology, empowering people with everything they need to move, achieve, and do more with the world's most efficient, powerful, and structurally adaptable electric mobility systems.

AZAK’s patented technology places all of the drive components needed to operate an electric vehicle inside and below the center point of the wheel. This simple but groundbreaking mechanical innovation helps us create vehicles with the lowest center of gravity, that are more energy efficient, and that have modular properties that provide optionality, space savings, and freedom of frame design.

About the Role  

We are looking for a hands-on Battery Management System (BMS) Engineer to help us design, build, and test our next-generation BMS entirely in-house. Reporting directly to our Senior Battery Engineer, you will partner closely with product leadership to execute the schematic capture, layout, firmware development, and thermal protection strategies for our custom battery packs.

While you won't be flying solo, you will own critical blocks of the design—specifically tailoring our hardware for high-voltage, high-current, and extreme high-temperature environments. You will ensure our systems perform reliably in rugged, real-world, and high-stress combat or field conditions. This is a role for a true builder who wants to see their custom BMS designs move out of CAD, off the bench, and onto the dirt.

What You’ll Do

• In-House BMS Development: Partner with the Senior Battery Engineer to design and develop custom Battery Management Systems from the ground up, including schematic capture, high-density PCB layout, and low-level embedded firmware for real-time cell monitoring, active/passive balancing, and fault protection.
• Firmware Architecture & Implementation: Design, write, and optimize bare-metal or RTOS-based embedded firmware in C/C++ for STM32, TI, or similar automotive-grade microcontrollers, implementing high-speed SPI/I2C/CAN communication protocols, DMA transfers, and interrupt-driven safety routines.
• High-Temperature Engineering: Engineer robust thermal management and high-temperature circuit designs capable of maintaining precision and reliability under severe thermal loads, managing derating, and selecting AEC-Q200 qualified components for harsh environmental conditions.
• Safety & Compliance: Implement rigorous safety mechanisms, including hardware-backed and firmware-monitored over-voltage, under-voltage, over-current, and short-circuit protections meeting strict defense and mobility standards.
• Cell Integration & State Estimation: Assist in developing, testing, and flashing advanced algorithms for State of Charge (SoC), State of Health (SoH), and extended Kalman filter state estimators tailored to our specific high-performance chemistry.
• Whole-System Testing: Design and execute punishing hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and environmental chamber tests alongside the battery team, utilizing debuggers, logic analyzers, and protocol analyzers to push prototype boards to failure.
• Collaborative Execution: Work closely with the power electronics, mechanical, and software teams to integrate the BMS and its firmware seamlessly into our ~60V in-wheel vehicle architecture.

Culture Fit

• A True Tinkerer: You love to build things. Whether it's a custom pack in your garage, custom PCB bring-up, or a complex firmware project—you build stuff because you can’t help yourself.
• Devotion to Excellence and Attention to Detail: You care about creepage and clearance distances, precise temperature sensing placement, signal integrity on communication lines, and meticulous schematic and code documentation.
• Great Work Ethic & Low Ego: You take your work seriously, but not yourself. You are collaborative, reliable, and great to work with in a fast-paced environment.
• Drive mastery in the minimal: Actively strip away the non-essential to deliver high-performance, elegant solutions that are sophisticated yet inherently understood.

Requirements

• BMS & Firmware Specialist: Proven, hands-on experience designing custom Battery Management Systems from schematic capture and layout to custom embedded firmware deployment and board bring-up.
• Embedded Software Expertise: Strong proficiency in embedded C/C++ programming for 32-bit microcontrollers, with deep knowledge of register-level configuration, timers, ADCs, and communication buses (CAN, SPI, I2C).
• Thermal & Hardware Expert: Deep practical knowledge of designing electronics, selecting high-temperature AEC-qualified components, and managing high-current power paths and analog front-ends (AFEs).
• The Tester & Debugger: Skilled in hardware/software verification, using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, thermal chambers, and programmable loads to isolate firmware bugs from hardware faults.
• Must be based in or willing to relocate to Denver, CO.

Preferred Skills

• Advanced Firmware Capabilities: Experience implementing safety-critical RTOS architectures, bootloaders, and MISRA C coding standards for embedded systems.
• Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or equivalent field.
• Experience with functional safety standards (e.g., ISO 26262, IEC 61508) and high-growth defense or robotics environments.
• Minimum 3 to 5 years of professional hardware and firmware design experience.

Compensation & Benefits

• Cash compensation is targeted between $110,000 - $140,000+ equity package.
• Offers are strictly commensurate with experience.
• 100% company-paid premiums for medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and dependents.
• Paid time off and fully subsidized supplemental benefits for unexpected medical events.
• Competitive parental leave and on-site meals three days a week.

AZAK is reinventing the wheel, and revolutionizing mobility.

AZAK is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.