Senior Power Electronics Engineer at Harmattan AI (Lausanne, Switzerland)
Harmattan AI· Lausanne, Switzerland·
Role details
Harmattan AI at a glance
France's first defense-tech unicorn, building attritable AI-piloted strike, interception, and ISR drones for allied militaries.
Harmattan AI is a vertically integrated defense prime building autonomous drone systems for allied militaries. It designs the full stack, from airframes and payloads to embedded compute and the autonomy algorithms that let drones sense, decide, and act at the edge without GPS or a network link, coordinated across a swarm by its mission-orchestration layer.
$242M raised · latest: Series B · $200M · January 2026 · backed by Dassault Aviation, FirstMark Capital, Atlantic, Motier Ventures
Summary
Lead the end-to-end design of analog power chains for autonomous defense systems, including motor controllers and DC-DC stages. Own power stage architecture, simulation, PCB layout, and lab validation while mentoring junior engineers in Lausanne.
Job description
About Us
Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following the close of a $200M Series B, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, we are expanding our teams and capabilities to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces. Our work is guided by clear values: building technologies with real-world impact, pursuing excellence in everything we do, setting ambitious goals, and taking on the hardest technical challenges. We operate in a demanding environment where rigor, ownership, and execution are expected.
About the Role
Power electronics are the bottleneck on every next-generation UAS airframe we build: motor controllers, gate drivers, and DC-DC stages are what define flight time, payload, thermal envelope, and field reliability. We're looking for a senior IC to own the analog power chain end-to-end across our UXV platforms: from MOSFET commutation simulation through PCB layout to lab validation. You will be the technical reference on power electronics inside our Lausanne engineering hub, unblocking propulsion, airframe, and embedded teams in parallel as we scale from prototype cadence to multi-platform deployment. This is a builder role, not a research seat. You ship hardware.
Responsibilities
- Power Stage Architecture: Lead motor-controller and DC-DC topology across fixed-wing, multicopter, and hybrid UXV platforms. Translate mission constraints into power-chain specification.
- MOSFET Commutation & Gate-Drive Design: Own the analog switching design: dead-time tuning, gate shaping, switching-loss vs EMI vs thermal trade-offs.
- Multi-fidelity Simulation: Deploy the full stack: analytical loss budgeting, transient SPICE (LTspice), system-level modelling in PLECS or Simulink.
- BLDC Drive Stages: Design three-phase inverters with integrated current sensing, protection, Trapezoidal and FOC-aware hardware interfaces.
- High-Power-Density PCBA: Lead schematic and layout in Altium or KiCad with thermal, parasitics, and EMC engineered in from the first revision.
- EMI / EMC Engineering: Drive pre-compliance, filter design, and root-cause debug under flight-representative loads.
- Prototype-to-Production: Take motor-controller PCBAs through revision discipline, DFM, and qualification - closing the loop on field returns.
- Lab Validation: Execute bench characterization (power analysers, oscilloscopes, thermal imaging, double-pulse testing) and reconcile against simulation.
- Firmware & Controls Interface: Partner with embedded and propulsion on FOC tuning, current-sense calibration, and the hardware/firmware compensation boundary.
- Design Authority & Mentorship: Set the bar via design-decision records and reference designs. Mentor 1–2 junior engineers.
Candidate Requirements
- MSc or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, or equivalent.
- 5+ years of hands-on R&D experience on motor drives, BLDC/PMSM controllers, or high-power-density power electronics.
- Deep working mastery of MOSFET commutation design: gate-driver selection, dead-time tuning, switching transitions, loss budgets.
- Proven ownership of at least one motor-controller PCBA shipped from prototype through production (or pre-production qualification): ideally on drone, robotics, eVTOL, or automotive platforms.
- Fluency in simulation (LTspice, PLECS, or Simulink) and PCB design (Altium).
- Strong, hard-earned intuition for EMI / EMC design and debug.
- Lab-bench discipline: you've personally debugged what simulation missed.
- Comfort with scale-up iteration speed and end-to-end ownership.
- English fluent (working language); French is a nice-to-have, not a requirement.
Bonus points for: GaN / SiC experience, safety-critical design exposure , applied control theory implemented in hardware, exposure to defense, aerospace, or UAS programmes.
We look forward to hearing how you can help shape the future of autonomous defense systems at Harmattan AI.
Why work at Harmattan AI
- Culture: “Elite builders” who “thrive on complexity, move with urgency, and own their work end to end.” Emphasis on purpose, technical excellence, and real‑world impact. harmattan.ai
- Values: Tackle the hardest problems, build what matters, move at the speed of relevance, and aim to redefine frontiers. harmattan.ai
- Work policy: Hybrid model with a mix of remote and on‑site; many roles are in‑office at locations in Paris, Lausanne, London, Arlington (TX), Wissous, Poland, UAE, and Morocco. builtin.com
- Engineering culture: Hands‑on development of mission‑critical autonomous systems; strong R&D focus across AI, computer vision, RF hardware, propulsion, and mission planning.
- Perks: Not explicitly listed, but the company highlights the opportunity to protect front‑line personnel and shape the future of autonomous defence.