Motor / Electromechanical Applications Engineer, Vandrel

Department: Portfolio Companies

Location: New York

Employment Type: FullTime

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Vandrel is rebuilding America's high-performance magnet wire supply chain. We design and manufacture PEEK-insulated copper conductor in modular micro-factories, producing the wire that goes into the motors, transformers, and power systems that matter most: defense and aerospace platforms, EV traction, and grid and stationary storage.

Today, insulated magnet wire is produced by a short list of European and Asian suppliers. That is a problem for every US program that needs higher voltage, higher temperature, or higher power density. Our team is small, senior, and hands-on, and we are closing that gap.

WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING

• Bridge Material to System: Translate Vandrel wire’s material properties (dielectric strength, temperature rating, thinner insulation, higher slot fill) into motor-level performance deltas customers care about: continuous torque, peak power, thermal headroom, bus voltage, eLiciency, partial discharge life.

• Run Customer Engineering: Work directly with design teams at defense drone and autonomy primes, aerospace motor programs, EV OEMs, industrial drives, and gridscale power electronics to get Vandrel wire designed into their systems.

• Build Performance Models: Quantify the gain Vandrel wire delivers in a given motor topology through thermal, electromagnetic, and dielectric modeling.

• Drive Winding Design Conversations: Own the technical dialogue on slot fill, insulation system compatibility, and hairpin versus distributed winding tradeoLs with customer engineering teams.

• Define Vandrel’s First SKUs: Shape the initial product line based on real customer use cases: conductor size, insulation thickness, build class, and temperature class. Feed requirements into the process and materials roadmap.

• Own Qualification and Test: Support customer qualification (HIPOT, partial discharge, thermal aging, fluid compatibility, thermal shock, vibration). Partner with process engineering to reproduce failures and harden the product.

• Own the Technical Story: Build and present the narrative for why Vandrel wire wins at the chemistry, motor, and system levels. Represent Vandrel at customer reviews, technical conferences, and design-in sessions.

REQUIRED SKILLS

• 5+ years in motor design, electrical machines, power electronics, or traction drive engineering.

• Fluency in winding design and insulation systems (magnet wire, enamel, impregnation, slot liner, phase paper).

• Strong grasp of thermal and dielectric constraints in high-power motors.

• Comfort across the interface between material, motor, and system: you move easily between polymer chemistry and bus voltage.

• Customer-facing chops: you can run a technical review with a customer’s chief motor engineer and walk out with a next step.

• Experience with defense or aerospace motor programs, 800V+ systems, or highspeed motors (above 20,000 rpm) is a plus.

• Bias toward shipping.

COMPENSATION AND EQUITY

Compensation is benchmarked to senior motor and electrification talent at venture backed hard tech companies. Base salary is competitive and equity is material; both scale with experience and scope of ownership.

For candidates with deep motor and systems credibility and the appetite to own Vandrel’s commercial-technical surface from day one, we are open to structuring this as a cofounder-level package: co-founder equity, commensurate title, and the authority that comes with it.