SENIOR POWER ELECTRONICS ENGINEER, SPACE
Montréal, Québec | On-site | Full-time, permanent
Most power electronics engineers in space spend their careers making sure a bus stays regulated. This role is about beaming power through space with a laser.
THE COMPANY
Our client is a deep-tech space company building laser power beaming systems. High-power lasers and precision pointing send energy wirelessly over long distances to photovoltaic receivers, so spacecraft in orbit and rovers on the Moon get power where and when they need it, including through the two-week lunar night.
They're backed by government contracts in Canada and the US, with flight demonstrations planned in Earth orbit and on the lunar surface. The team is small, technical and growing, and every engineer owns real flight hardware from the lab bench to orbit.
THE ROLE
You'll lead the power electronics across the whole chain:
- The kW-class laser drivers that create the beam
- The spacecraft power system that feeds them: DC-DC conversion, PDUs, batteries
- The receiver electronics that turn laser light back into usable power
You'll take designs from schematic and simulation through prototyping, lab work and environmental qualification to flight hardware. It's hands-on: you'll be at the bench as much as at the desk, and you'll help shape where the technology goes next.
WHAT YOU'LL WORK ON
- High-power laser drivers and precision current sources, CW and pulsed
- Isolated and non-isolated DC-DC converters, point-of-load regulation and protection
- PDU/PCDU design with LCL/FCL switched outputs, telemetry and telecommand
- PV receiver electronics for power beaming: MPPT, conditioning and bus regulation
- Battery integration, management and protection
- Power stages and magnetics with Si, SiC and GaN
- Control loop design, stability analysis, input filtering and EMC
- Worst-case analysis, derating, FMECA, radiation analysis and EEE part selection
- High-voltage, high-current PCB design, including creepage, clearance and corona
- Thermal vacuum, vibration, EMC and radiation test campaigns, with occasional trips to external labs
- Microcontroller firmware for power control and telemetry
WHAT YOU'LL BRING
- A degree in electrical or electronics engineering
- 5+ years designing power electronics, with at least 2 on space programs
- At least one space power unit you've designed, qualified and delivered (EM, QM or FM)
- Spacecraft EPS architecture experience: PV input, battery, bus and PDU
- ECSS (E-ST-20, Q-ST-30-11, Q-ST-60) or NASA/MIL equivalents (EEE-INST-002, MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-1540)
- Radiation-tolerant design and part selection for power devices
- Control loop compensation and stability analysis
- LTspice, PSpice, SIMetrix/SIMPLIS, PLECS or similar, plus schematic capture and PCB layout to IPC-6012 Class 3
- Microcontroller programming and basic Python or C/C++
- Comfort with high-voltage, high-current lab work
NICE TO HAVE
- kW-class laser driver experience
- FPGA and digital control of power converters (Verilog/VHDL)
- Battery safety standards (NASA JSC-20793, ECSS-E-ST-20-20)
- A graduate degree in power electronics
- OIQ membership or eligibility
- Eligibility for export-controlled work (Controlled Goods Program, ITAR/EAR)
- French and English (or a willingness to learn)
WHY THIS ONE
You'll design the laser driver, the spacecraft power system and the receiver that closes the loop, and you'll see all of it fly. Very few roles in the industry give you that.
Interested? Send your CV to Sam Wiltshire at EVONA, s.wiltshire@evona.com, and tell me which space power units you've taken to flight.
