---
title: 'Staff Industrial Designer at Heron Power'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-industrial-designer-heron-power-scotts-valley-fpx59mmenp7f'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Staff Industrial Designer at Heron Power

- **Company:** Heron Power
- **Location:** Scotts Valley, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-12
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/heron-power/e9df68f5-cb8c-4c2d-a9c3-717a72072bbf

## Job description

What to Expect Heron Power Electronics is a company building cutting-edge power electronics products for the 21st-century grid. We aim to debottleneck the growth of electricity generation and consumption with scalable, innovative, and less costly hardware solutions, accelerating the sustainable electrification of everything. Our first goal is to build better converters to connect large-scale renewables, storage, and loads like datacenters to the grid. Heron Power's leadership team is made up of seasoned veterans who have designed and shipped gigawatts of power conversion products. We believe great design is an important part of building great technology. Our products are physical machines, digital interfaces, tools, environments, documentation, and a brand—and the experience of Heron is shaped by all of them. We understand that no one individual knows everything. We learn together, build together, and solve difficult problems from first principles. You can expect to work in a fast-moving, deeply technical environment where designers work directly with engineers, operators, customers, and leadership to turn complex technology into products and experiences that are clear, useful, thoughtful, and distinctly Heron.

Job Overview We are looking for a Staff Industrial Designer to help shape the products, experiences, and visual language of Heron Power Electronics. This is a broad design role with industrial design at its center, spanning physical product design, product UX, visual communication, and brand. You might spend one project developing the form, architecture, interfaces, and details of a new power electronics product; another improving how an operator interacts with a product; and another creating the creating graphics, infographics, environmental elements, or documentation that make complex ideas clear. You will work closely with the Head of Design and leadership across mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, manufacturing, software, commercial, and more. You'll move fluidly between defining a problem, exploring concepts, prototyping solutions, developing production-ready designs, and working with partners to bring them into the world. As a Staff-level designer, you will be expected to operate with a high degree of autonomy, take ownership of ambiguous design problems, establish a strong point of view, move quickly from thinking to making, and help raise the quality and coherence of design across Heron.

## How You Will Contribute

- Drive industrial design efforts across Heron's power electronics products, from early architecture and concept development through detailed design and production.
- Work directly with mechanical, electrical, thermal, manufacturing, and systems engineers to understand technical constraints and turn them into thoughtful product solutions.
- Explore product architecture, proportion, form, materials, finishes, interfaces, serviceability, manufacturing processes, and details.
- Build quickly and think through making—using sketches, CAD, physical prototypes, renderings, mockups, animations, and whatever tools best address the question at hand.
- Help define how people physically interact with Heron products, including installation, operation, service, access, controls, labeling, status communication, and safety.
- Contribute to digital product UX where physical and digital experiences intersect, working with software teams to make complex systems understandable and intuitive.
- Develop clear visual communication for complex technical ideas through diagrams, information graphics, presentations, product graphics, documentation, and other storytelling tools.
- Extend and evolve Heron's visual identity across products, spaces, digital experiences, events, and communications.
- Establish design systems, principles, and patterns that create consistency across an expanding family of Heron products and touchpoints.
- Advocate for the user while balancing engineering performance, manufacturing, cost, reliability, safety, serviceability, and business requirements.
- Raise the design bar across the company through strong craft, thoughtful critique, clear communication, and a willingness to get into the details and go the extra mile.

## What You Will Bring

We're looking for an Industrial Designer with deep industrial design capability and unusually broad range. You do not need to be equally specialized in every design discipline. We care more about excellent design judgment, strong execution, curiosity, and the ability to move confidently across different kinds of problems.

Must-Have Requirements

- Significant professional experience designing and shipping physical products, with a portfolio demonstrating exceptional industrial design thinking and craft, strong taste, breadth across disciplines, and the ability to carry ideas from early exploration through polished execution.
- Strong industrial design fundamentals, including form development, proportion, product architecture, CMF, ergonomics, manufacturing processes, and design detailing.
- Strong 3D skills and experience developing concepts through CAD, rendering, prototyping, and physical models.
- Heart. We are rebuilding the American grid. Solving extremely difficult and urgent problems. Laying the foundation for highly intelligent power infrastructure that can enable abundant, efficient, sustainable energy. This is a BFD. It should move you.
- Experience collaborating closely with engineering teams and working within real technical, manufacturing, cost, and schedule constraints.
- Strong graphic and visual communication skills, including layout, composition, typography, information hierarchy, diagrams, and presentation design.
- Ability to take complex technical information and make it understandable through design.
- Experience thinking about products as complete experiences—not just objects—including physical interaction, interfaces, installation, service, communication, and environment.
- Ability to independently frame ambiguous problems, develop a point of view, communicate design rationale, and drive work forward with limited direction.
- Low ego, high curiosity, strong internal drive, and sincere enthusiasm for collaborating with people from disciplines very different from your own.

Nice-to-Haves

- Experience designing industrial equipment, energy products, robotics, vehicles, electronics, or other technically complex physical products.
- Experience with UX or interaction design for hardware, embedded interfaces, tools, dashboards, or technical systems.
- Experience developing or evolving visual identities and applying brand systems across physical and digital touchpoints.
- Experience with product graphics, labeling, wayfinding, environmental graphics, or tradeshow/exhibition design.
- Experience working in a startup or other environment where designers need to do it all, big and small, and move comfortably between strategy and hands-on execution.
- An interest in electricity, energy systems, manufacturing, and the physical infrastructure that makes modern life possible.

If you're a designer who gets excited moving between the scale of a machine, an interface, a diagram, and a brand—and wants to do it side by side with exceptional engineers solving genuinely hard problems—we'd love to hear from you.

## About Heron Power

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Heron Power develops next-generation medium-voltage power electronics, including solid-state transformers, to modernize the electrical grid for AI data centers, renewable energy, and surging electricity demand.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B)
- **Headquarters**: Scotts Valley, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Drew Baglino

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Electric Power Transmission, Control, and Distribution; Industrial Power Electronics; Energy Infrastructure
- **Target customers**: B2B — hyperscale data center operators, solar and storage developers, utility-scale energy project developers, and the broader electricity sector.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To build power electronics purpose-built for the 21st-century grid, helping the electricity sector grow faster and more affordably with scalable, reliable, and software-integrated infrastructure.

## Products & Services
- **Heron Link for Data Centers**: An integrated solid-state transformer + SuperBBU (battery backup unit) solution purpose-built for AI and hyperscale power needs, enabling more efficient, scalable, and reliable power delivery.
- **Heron Link for Solar & Storage**: An integrated solid-state transformer and inverter in one infinitely scalable platform, designed to streamline the connection of renewable generation and battery storage to the grid.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$178 million** across two rounds (Series A: $38M led by Capricorn Investment Group in June 2025; Series B: $140M led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz in February 2026).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**:
    - **Investors**: Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz (American Dynamism Fund), Capricorn Investment Group, Gigascale Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Energy Impact Partners, Powerhouse.
    - **Advisors**: JB Straubel (Tesla Co-Founder), Zach Kirkhorn (Former Tesla CFO).
    - **Strategic Partner**: LG Energy Solution Vertech (collaboration to integrate Heron Link with U.S.-manufactured battery energy storage systems).
- **Growth Signals**:
    - Headcount has grown **975% year-over-year** to 72 employees, with 58 active job postings.
    - Awarded **$26.375 million** in tax credit incentives from the state of California to build a 40-gigawatt manufacturing facility and create 600+ advanced manufacturing jobs.
    - Rapidly scaling from engineering prototypes to early customer deployments with major industry partners.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Deep technical moat**: Heron’s core technology is an integrated solid-state transformer (SST) — a fundamental re-architecture of medium-voltage power electronics that is more scalable, software-integrated, and efficient than traditional copper-and-iron transformers.
- **Founder pedigree**: CEO Drew Baglino was a 18-year veteran and SVP of Powertrain and Energy at Tesla, where he led development of the 4680 battery cell, Megapack, and built multi-billion-dollar energy and charging businesses.
- **Strategic backing**: Backed by a world-class syndicate of climate-tech and deep-tech investors (Breakthrough Energy, a16z, Valor) and advised by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel and former Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn.
- **Manufacturing-first approach**: Already planning a 40 GW U.S. manufacturing facility with state incentives secured, signaling a focus on high-volume, cost-competitive production from the start.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale manufacturing**: Building out a large-scale U.S. factory to meet demand from AI data centers and renewable energy projects.
- **Commercial deployment**: Moving from engineering prototypes to delivering integrated solutions with strategic partners like LG Energy Solution Vertech.
- **Debottleneck the grid**: Targeting the critical infrastructure bottleneck where traditional transformers and grid equipment cannot keep pace with surging electricity demand from AI, electrification, and renewables.

## Why Work Here
- **High-impact mission**: Work on foundational hardware that directly enables the energy transition and AI infrastructure — systems that will be deployed and operated for decades.
- **Engineering culture**: Values rapid iteration ("build, test, learn"), first-principles reasoning, and cross-functional collaboration across hardware, software, manufacturing, and operations.
- **Ownership and autonomy**: Strong emphasis on taking accountability for outcomes, not just tasks, and working across team boundaries to deliver an impeccable product.
- **Transparent and direct**: Culture prizes clear communication, honest feedback, and progress over posturing — "no defensiveness, no ego."
- **Location and flexibility**: Based in Scotts Valley, California (near Santa Cruz/Silicon Valley), with a presence in Canada. The work is highly hands-on (hardware, lab, factory), so on-site presence is expected for engineering roles.
- **Growth trajectory**: Explosive headcount growth (975% YoY) and 58 open roles across electrical, mechanical, manufacturing, software, and supply chain disciplines — offering significant career acceleration for early hires.
- **Notable perks**: Opportunity to work alongside a team with deep expertise from Tesla, Meta, and KKR, with direct mentorship from a proven founder.

## Sources
1. [heronpower.com](https://heronpower.com/)
2. [heronpower.com/about](https://heronpower.com/about)
3. [heronpower.com/careers](https://heronpower.com/careers)
4. [linkedin.com/company/heron-power-electronics](https://www.linkedin.com/company/heron-power-electronics)
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/heron-power](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/heron-power)

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- [Staff Supplier Industrialization Engineer - Mechanical](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-supplier-industrialization-engineer-mechanical-heron-power-scotts-valley-957jykeqt1bf) — Scotts Valley, CA
- [Staff Supplier Industrialization Engineer - PCBA](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-supplier-industrialization-engineer-pcba-heron-power-scotts-valley-eva12vmsvtfh) — Scotts Valley, CA
- [Head of People Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-people-operations-heron-power-scotts-valley-w6j1waf56azk) — Scotts Valley, CA
- [Hardware Validation Systems Developer](https://feeny.ai/job/hardware-validation-systems-developer-heron-power-scotts-valley-rt7hhp0tqay6) — Scotts Valley, CA
- [Test Engineer – Power Electronics](https://feeny.ai/job/test-engineer-power-electronics-heron-power-scotts-valley-68sp21xs5b1x) — Scotts Valley, CA
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- [Systems Integration Engineer, SST & BESS Applications](https://feeny.ai/job/systems-integration-engineer-sst-bess-applications-heron-power-scotts-valley-vgbkn6jhna14) — Scotts Valley, CA
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