FIRST ORDER EFFECTS
Power Electronics Engineer
Infrastructure for the Autonomous Era · First in. First up.
On-site · Austin, TX
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MESH is a power plant in a box, and power electronics is its heart. Your job is to design the inverter we build ourselves, and to own the conversion stage end to end. If you have taken switching converters from a blank schematic to hardware humming under real load, this is the machine you get to own.
Who We AreFirst Order Effects (FOE) is building America's Infrastructure Prime for the robotic era. Autonomous ships, drones, and robots are rewriting how the world moves, fights, and builds - but none of them work without infrastructure to power them, connect them, and launch and recover them. That's what we build.
Our team comes from SpaceX, Anduril, Saronic, Lockheed Skunk Works, Forterra, and Fuse Energy. Before founding FOE, we built satellite ground stations that closed a national comms gap in days, deployed multi-megawatt power systems at commercial speed, and shipped autonomous surface vessels into Navy fleet production. We've built infrastructure at lightspeed before - now we're applying that playbook to an entire company.
Architect and design the in-house inverter and DC/DC stages for MESH: topology, device selection across MOSFET, GaN, and SiC, gate drive, magnetics, and thermal.
Take converters from schematic and simulation through prototype, bring-up, and test under real load.
Design for the field: efficiency, EMI, ruggedization, and thermal survival in maritime and expeditionary conditions.
Define the control approach for the power stage, working shoulder to shoulder with firmware on the loops.
Own component selection, protection, and safety margins, and lead the design and selection of power electronics.
What You'll Do
Drive power electronics design across the full cycle, carrying converters all the way to working hardware.
Get hands-on with switching design in MOSFET, GaN, or SiC, including gate drive and magnetics.
Solve the thermal, EMI/EMC, and layout problems that come with high-power, high-frequency switching.
Work the bench with scopes, probes, and power analyzers, debugging your own boards.
Design from first-principles.
Experience with converters from kilowatts to hundreds of kilowatts, battery inverters, or grid-forming and grid-tied systems.
A background in LFP battery systems, diesel gensets, or microgrids.
Familiarity with UL, IEEE, or MIL power standards.
$100,000–$250,000 base + founding-team equity sized for the role + benefits. If you're an outlier, we'll pay like it.
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.
FOE is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with FOE is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Sovereignty is built, not declared — come build it with us.
Skills Required
- Experience with converters from kilowatts to hundreds of kilowatts, including battery inverters or grid-forming/grid-tied systems
- Background in LFP battery systems, diesel gensets, or microgrids
- Familiarity with UL, IEEE, or MIL power standards
- Ability to take switching converters from schematic and simulation through prototype, bring-up, and test under real load
- Hands-on experience with MOSFET, GaN, or SiC device selection, gate drive design, magnetics, thermal design, EMI/EMC mitigation, and PCB layout
- Experience using oscilloscopes, probes, and power analyzers for bench debugging and bring-up
- Designing for ruggedization and thermal survival in maritime and expeditionary conditions
- Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual and eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance (ITAR requirement)
What We Do
First Order Effects (FOE) is building infrastructure for the autonomous era, serving the United States and its allies. The company develops and deploys physical systems that power, connect, launch, and recover autonomous ships, drones, and robots. Its work includes MESH Box and SURGE systems and draws on experience in satellite ground stations, power systems, autonomous surface vessels, and defense-oriented engineering.
