Job at a glance
Job Description Applicants for this position must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Renesas is unable to sponsor applicants for work visas for this position now or in the future. Hybrid - This role may sit in San Jose, CA; Phoenix, AZ; or Chandler, AZ (local candidates to these cities preferred - no relocation) This role sits within our Low-Voltage GaN Marketing & Systems Group, acting as a Sr Staff System Engineer to define the future of our power semiconductor portfolio.
In this strategic role, you will not simply support existing products—you will be the technical authority responsible for driving next-generation IC product definition, silicon architectures, and long-term roadmap strategy. By leveraging deep expertise in low-voltage (<400V) BLDC and PMSM motor control, you will identify market gaps across high-growth applications (robotics, humanoids, e- mobility, power tools) and translate complex system-level challenges into actionable silicon-level requirements to deliver highly differentiated, system-optimized products.
Key Responsibilities • Product Definition & Specs: Translate system-level application requirements into detailed IC specifications (e.g., Rds-on targets, gate drive source/sink strength, dead-time control, protection features like OCP/OTP, packaging thermal constraints, and monolithically integrated features). • Architecture & Strategy: Develop and influence future chip architectures based on system-level understanding of GaN-based power stage and driver IP and sensing topologies.
Drive the multi-year technology roadmap aligned with emerging market trends. • Silicon & Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate closely with IC Design, R&D, and Marketing teams to ensure silicon implementation matches application realities. Balance system performance, silicon die area, cost targets, and time-to- market. • Prototype & Reference Design Development: Design, schematic-capture, layout, and validate high-power-density system-level prototypes and evaluation boards (EVBs) to showcase GaN's superior switching performance under real- world operating conditions.
• System Analysis: Perform rigorous technical trade-off analyses, worst-case circuit simulations, and competitive benchmarking to quantify GaN’s value proposition at the system level. • Customer & Ecosystem Engagement: Support key tier-1 customer engagements at the architecture level, co-designing and influencing their future system topologies rather than merely troubleshooting legacy designs.
Required Hardware, Software & Technical Domain Expertise 1. Hardware Requirements · Experience designing integrated circuits with power drivers and related circuitry like slew rate control, current sensing, short circuit protection, high voltage level shifting, bootstrap, and charge pump supplies. Strong knowledge basic infrastructure and communications blocks like current/voltage references, level shifters, SPI, I2C, registers, e-fuse, amplifiers, and comparators.
· Experience designing detailed schematics for motor driver circuits including gate drivers, discrete transistors, and power stages utilizing MOSFETs, IGBTs, or Wide-Bandgap SiC / GaN devices. · Experience designing motor control hardware protection and diagnostics that can withstand fault conditions like short circuit, ,over current, open circuit, over/under voltage, sudden loss of power, and over temperature.
· Advanced knowledge of PCB layout optimization for high-power switching, including minimizing parasitic inductance, mitigating EMI/EMC, and managing thermal dissipation (via thermal vias, or heatsinks). 2. Simulation & Software Tools · Proficiency with model-based design using Mathworks (Matlab, Simulink, Simscape), Saber, PLECS, or PSIM to simulate motor drive system. Alternatively experience with co-simulation of the mechanical and electrical system using a combination like Simplis for the power inverter and Simulink fo