Senior Reliability Engineer - Power Electronics

Job Title:  Senior Reliability Engineer - Power Electronics

Location: Milwaukee, WI 

Employment Type: Salaried direct employee with comprehensive benefits 

Industry: Power Electronics 

Compensation: Open 

About the Opportunity:

We are seeking a hands-on Senior Reliability Engineer to establish and execute reliability strategies for advanced power electronics, industrial drives, motor controls, regenerative power conversion systems, battery test equipment, and EV powertrain test systems. Unico's products include high-power and high-voltage systems used for battery cycling, battery emulation, inverter and motor testing, energy storage, variable frequency drives (VFDs), dynamometer test rigs, and industrial applications.

This role selects appropriate reliability methods, develops quantitative life models, designs accelerated tests, monitors testing in-house and at third-party laboratories, and translates test and field data into actionable design recommendations. The position will also coordinate failure analysis activities until a dedicated failure analysis function is established.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is a front-end engineer, strong in failure analysis, that combines strong mathematical and statistical capabilities with practical knowledge of power electronics and laboratory reliability testing. This individual can convert product requirements and operating conditions into defensible reliability models, effective test programs, and actionable engineering recommendations while maintaining a hands-on connection to physical testing and failure analysis.

What You'll Do:

• Develop product and component reliability requirements, plans, test strategies, and acceptance criteria.
• Select and specify appropriate reliability tests based on product architecture, component technologies, use conditions, failure mechanisms, and business risk.
• Design accelerated life, endurance, environmental, thermal cycling, power cycling, highly accelerated life testing, and reliability demonstration programs.
• Provide hands-on setup, monitoring, data review, and technical oversight of testing performed in Unico's laboratory.
• Define statements of work and provide technical oversight for testing conducted by third-party laboratories.
• Develop mission profiles, reliability block diagrams, component stress analyses, life predictions, and system-level reliability models.
• Perform detailed reliability predictions using Telcordia SR-332 and other recognized industry methods to estimate electronic equipment failure rates and support system availability and downtime modeling.
• statistical methods including Weibull analysis, life-data analysis, accelerated life-test modeling, confidence bounds, probability distributions, and reliability demonstration planning.
• Analyze laboratory, manufacturing, warranty, and field-return data to estimate useful life, failure rates, MTBF, confidence levels, and reliability growth.
• Coordinate failure analysis, including investigation planning, evidence preservation, external laboratory support, root-cause determination, and corrective-action verification.
• Facilitate FMEA activities and identify critical components, design weaknesses, dominant failure mechanisms, and reliability risks.
• Work with Product Development, Validation, Compliance, Quality, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain teams to improve product robustness.
• Support component qualification, supplier evaluation, derating guidelines, design reviews, and prototype-to-production transitions.
• Prepare clear technical reports and communicate reliability risks, assumptions, results, and recommendations to engineering and business stakeholders.

About Acara Solutions

Acara is a premier recruiting and workforce solutions provider-we help companies compete for talent. With a legacy of experience in various industries worldwide, we partner with clients, listen to their needs, and customize visionary talent solutions that drive desired business outcomes. We leverage decades of experience to deliver contingent staffing, direct placement, executive search, and workforce services worldwide.

Job Requirements

What You'll Bring:

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Reliability Engineering, Applied Statistics, or a closely related discipline to power electronics.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in reliability engineering of electronics or semiconductors, preferably power electronics, including the following: 
  • Demonstrated experience developing reliability test plans and ing statistical methods to electronic or power electronic products.
  • Strong knowledge of power semiconductor, capacitor, magnetics, PCB, connector, cooling-system, sheet-metal fatigue and corrosion, and electromechanical failure mechanisms.
  • Advanced competency in statistical analysis, life-data modeling, reliability prediction, and technical data interpretation.
  • Experience coordinating structured failure analysis and root-cause investigations.
  • Ability to work safely around high-power electrical equipment, including systems operating at up to 690 Vac three-phase and 2000 Vdc.

What Sets You Apart:

• M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Reliability Engineering, Applied Statistics, or a closely related discipline.
• 7-10 years of experience in reliability engineering in power electronics.
• In-depth experience with Telcordia SR-332, including parts-count, laboratory-data, and field-data prediction methods.
• Familiarity with IEC 61709, FIDES, SN 29500, and similar industry reliability prediction methods.
• Experience with Weibull analysis, accelerated life testing, Arrhenius models, Coffin-Manson models, inverse-power-law models, and reliability growth analysis.
• Experience with industrial drives (VFDs), inverters, converters, battery cyclers, regenerative test systems, renewable energy equipment, and/or EV powertrain systems.
• Familiarity with statistical and reliability software such as ReliaSoft, JMP, Minitab, MATLAB, Python, R, or equivalent tools.
• Experience managing reliability testing through accredited third-party laboratories.

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Aleron companies (Acara Solutions, Aleron Shared Resources, Broadleaf Results, Lume Strategies, TalentRise, Viaduct) are an Equal Opportunity Employer. Race/Color/Gender/Religion/National Origin/Disability/Veteran.

Applicants for this position must be legally authorized to work in the United States. This position does not meet the employment requirements for individuals with F-1 OPT STEM work authorization status.