Intern, Power Magnetics Engineer

Department: Engineering

Location: Scotts Valley

Employment Type: FullTime

What to Expect

Heron Power is a startup company building cutting-edge power electronics for the 21st-century grid. We aim to debottleneck the growth of electricity generation and consumption with scalable, innovative, and less costly hardware solutions, accelerating the electrification of everything.

Our first goal is to build better converters (inverters & rectifiers) to connect large-scale renewables, storage, and loads to the grid. Heron’s leadership team is made up of seasoned veterans who have designed and shipped gigawatts of power conversion products over the past decade.

We understand that no one individual knows everything. We will all learn a lot together and from each other. We strive to build a collaborative, enriching environment conducive to personal, technical, and career growth. You can expect to work in a dynamic and collaborative environment, driven by first principles engineering, solving difficult problems.

Job Overview

Heron Power develops advanced power electronics systems to modernize and scale electrical energy infrastructure. As a Power Magnetics Engineer Intern, you will support the design, validation, and characterization of magnetic components used in high-efficiency, high-power, and medium-voltage converter systems.

Magnetic components play a critical role in determining converter performance, efficiency, thermal behavior, and electromagnetic compatibility. In this role, you will work closely with power electronics engineers to validate inductors, transformers, planar magnetics, magnetic current sensors, and EMI filtering components used in high-frequency, resonant, and multi-level converters. You will help characterize magnetic performance, analyze electromagnetic behavior, and correlate experimental measurements with analytical and simulation models.

This role provides hands-on experience working with real power converter hardware and magnetics, supporting engineering efforts from early prototype evaluation through system-level validation.

How You Will Contribute

• Support the validation and characterization of medium-voltage magnetic components including inductors, transformers, planar magnetics, magnetic current sensors, and common-mode chokes

• Assist in developing and executing test plans to evaluate magnetic performance, including inductance, loss, saturation, thermal behavior, and insulation integrity

• Perform laboratory measurements using oscilloscopes, impedance analyzers, LCR meters, power analyzers, and thermal measurement tools

• Analyze switching waveforms to evaluate magnetic performance within power converter systems

• Support EMI/EMC validation efforts, including evaluation of common-mode chokes and filtering components

• Assist with electromagnetic modeling and FEA simulations to analyze magnetic fields, losses, and parasitic effects

• Help evaluate PCB layout and physical implementation to identify parasitic inductance, capacitive coupling, and EMI-related issues

• Assist in building, assembling, and modifying prototype magnetic components and test fixtures

• Collect, analyze, and document experimental data and compare results with design expectations and simulation models

• Collaborate with power electronics, mechanical, and layout engineers to support magnetics integration and performance optimization

What You Will Bring

We have a short list of must-have requirements. We prioritize a strong grip on first principles, hands-on skills, and a sense of initiative.

Must-Have Requirements

• Currently pursuing a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Electrical Engineering or related field

• Strong fundamentals in power electronics, including switching converter operation

• Understanding of electromagnetic and magnetic component fundamentals

• Familiarity with inductors, transformers, and magnetic materials

• Hands-on laboratory experience with oscilloscopes, multimeters, or similar test equipment

• Experience with circuit simulation tools such as LTspice, PLECS, or equivalent

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

• Ability to work in a hands-on hardware development environment

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience testing or characterizing magnetic components

• Familiarity with planar magnetics or PCB-integrated magnetics

• Experience with electromagnetic simulation tools such as ANSYS Maxwell, FEMM, or COMSOL

• Familiarity with EMI/EMC fundamentals and filtering techniques

• Understanding of parasitic inductance, capacitance, and high-frequency effects in power converters

• Familiarity with medium-voltage design considerations

• Experience working with magnetic core materials such as ferrite, nanocrystalline, amorphous, or powder cores

• Understanding of insulation coordination, creepage and clearance, and partial discharge considerations

• Experience with laboratory instruments such as impedance analyzers or power analyzers

• Familiarity with wide-bandgap devices such as SiC or GaN

• Experience with MATLAB or Python for data analysis

• Strong interest in power electronics and energy systems

If you are passionate about technology and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment, we would love to hear from you. Join us in accelerating the electrification of everything at Heron Power.