About Tau

Power conversion is the bottleneck between the compute, energy, and mobility industries and the future they're trying to build. Most of the industry is still solving it with decades-old approaches. Tau is fixing that. We're a venture-backed hardtech company in Redwood City, building power conversion technology for data centers, EVs, and energy systems. Several products are already moving into production.

We hire people who own problems end-to-end: power electronics, embedded software, controls, test and validation, mechanical design. We solve from first principles, not legacy playbooks. We're past "promising technology." Customers are buying, volume is coming, and the people who join now set the standard everyone builds on after.

About the Role

We seek an experienced and highly accomplished Senior Hardware Design Engineer, Power Electronics, to join our innovative team at Tau Motors. In this crucial role, you will spearhead the development of cutting-edge power electronics systems for next-generation electric vehicles and energy storage solutions. As a critical member of our power electronics team, you will drive the design, build, and validation of advanced power converter circuits and systems, contributing significantly to Tau's technology roadmap and product offerings. The role also offers growth opportunities in other areas of power electronics, including modeling, control, and firmware.

Because our success depends on collaboration, we expect new employees to work onsite five days a week to build strong working relationships with the team.

Our Engineering Approach

Solve customer problems, not engineering puzzles. Great technical work becomes exceptional when it creates reliable products, enables meaningful new capability, and solves real customer problems.

Think in systems. Understand how your work affects the complete product and the people who build it. Make tradeoffs that improve the whole, not just your direct area of ownership.

Exercise judgment. Apply the engineering rigor the risk requires. Make timely decisions with the available evidence, communicate uncertainty, and balance technical excellence with program needs.

Raise the standard. Deliver quality work on time, improve how the team works, and leave the products, systems, tools, and people around you better than you found them.

What You'll Do

Design schematics and PCB layouts for AC/DC, DC/DC, and DC/AC converters, including PFC, isolated DC/DC, inverter, and onboard charger stages.
Lay out Si, SiC, and GaN power stages with low commutation loop inductance, low parasitic capacitance, and clean switching behavior.
Design and route gate drive, isolation, and protection circuits for noise immunity and robustness to common-mode transients.
Define stackups, power and signal planes, heavy-copper current paths, and grounding for mixed-signal boards with analog sensing, ADCs/DACs, and microcontrollers.
Apply creepage, clearance, and insulation requirements (IEC 60664, IEC 62368, UL) to high-voltage designs.
Optimize layouts for thermal performance (copper spreading, thermal vias, IPC-2152 current capacity) and EMC compliance.
Select components and integrate magnetics and capacitors, paying attention to field coupling, ripple-current paths, and mechanical fit.
Build and maintain footprints, symbols, and 3D models in the component library.
Run PI/SI, thermal, and parasitic extraction analyses to verify layouts before fabrication.
Release fabrication and assembly outputs (Gerber/ODB++, drill, fab and assembly drawings), applying DFM/DFA/DFT and IPC standards.
Work with fab houses and contract manufacturers to resolve build issues and improve yield.
Bring up, debug, and validate boards in the lab, and feed the results back into layout revisions.

What You’ll Bring

A degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field, or equivalent experience.
5+ years of hardware and PCB design experience in power electronics, preferably automotive, EV charging, or high-voltage conversion.
Hands-on schematic and layout experience with onboard chargers, bidirectional chargers, inverters, or isolated converters.