Power Electronics / Electrical Systems Engineer

This is the core technical role for Lucid Bots' power tether program, one of the company's most critical new product development efforts. You will own the drone tether power system end to end, responsible for reliably delivering approximately 7,000 W continuously (with transient peaks up to 10,000 W) from the ground power source, down the tether, and into the drone's propulsion and avionics. You'll work alongside a team of talented electrical, mechanical, firmware, and test engineers, and your output will show up in hardware that ships to real customers in the real world. This is not a 'design it and hand it off' role; you'll own it from architecture through validation.

Responsibilities

• Design the high-voltage DC power transmission architecture for the tether, including selection of transmission voltage to minimize conductor mass and resistive loss over tether length.
• Design and specify DC-DC conversion stages (step-up at the ground station, step-down onboard the drone), targeting high efficiency at 7 kW continuous load.
• Size tether conductor gauge, insulation, and connectors for continuous current plus 10 kW peak inrush, with appropriate derating and safety margin.
• Define current limits, protection thresholds, and coordinate over-current and fault behavior with the onboard power distribution.
• Own thermal management of converters, connectors, and cabling across the full load range.
• Integrate the power system with the drone's ESCs and flight controller, ensuring stable behavior during peak transients and load steps.
• Coordinate with mechanical engineering on the tether reel, strain relief, and cable routing, and with safety and compliance staff on high-voltage standards, grounding, and arc-flash mitigation.
• Produce schematics, power budgets, test plans, and design documentation for design reviews.

Requirements

• You hold a Bachelor's or Master's in Electrical Engineering, or you have equivalent hands-on experience that tells the same story.
• You've shipped multiple electronics products to production. That's how we think about seniority here: not years on a resume, but hardware you've taken from concept to the real world.
• You have proven experience designing power electronics in the multi-kilowatt range, including DC-DC converter design. You've owned the design, not just contributed to it.
• You have working knowledge of high-voltage DC systems, conductor sizing, and thermal management from real systems you've built and validated.
• You've integrated power systems with three-phase motor drives and ESCs, and you understand how those interfaces behave under load.
• You're comfortable with electrical safety standards, grounding design, and protection design.

Nice to have

• Experience with tethered drones, UAV power systems, or long-cable power delivery
• Familiarity with EMI/EMC design and mitigation
• Hands-on prototyping, bring-up, and bench validation of power hardware
• Background in EV motor controller design or high-voltage DC power routing

Benefits

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• 3% retirement match
• 15 days of paid time off (PTO)
• 3 sick days
• 11 paid holidays, with 3 of those being floating holidays
• Employee stock option plan