Hardware Reliability Engineer

📋 Job Overview

Amperesand is reinventing how the world powers its most critical systems. We are facing a once-in-a-generation opportunity for infrastructure disruption. Electricity demand is skyrocketing, driven by AI factories, electric vehicles, and modern industrial growth. Energy supply is shifting to incorporate a more diverse mix of resources – including solar, gas, and batteries – at a massive scale. And yet the power infrastructure behind our latest mega-projects hasn’t meaningfully changed in nearly 100 years. Supply chains for today’s infrastructure equipment can’t match the pace and sophistication of critical energy projects. Amperesand is building hardware and software that rewrites this broken power infrastructure playbook to support a new era of energy abundance.

🏢 About Amperesand

We are facing a once-in-a-generation opportunity for infrastructure disruption. Electricity demand is skyrocketing, driven by AI factories, electric vehicles, and modern industrial growth. Energy supply is shifting to incorporate a more diverse mix of resources – including solar, gas, and batteries – at a massive scale. And yet the power infrastructure behind our latest mega-projects hasn’t meaningfully changed in nearly 100 years. Supply chains for today’s infrastructure equipment can’t match the pace and sophistication of critical energy projects. Amperesand is building hardware and software that rewrites this broken power infrastructure playbook to support a new era of energy abundance.

🎯 The Role

In this role, you will drive end-to-end reliability for our Solid-State Transformer (SST) platform, from concept to field deployment. You will lead cross-functional teams to mitigate program risks via Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA)/Fault Tree analysis (FTA) and set clear reliability benchmarks for supplier selection. By developing advanced Physics-of-failure (PoF) modeling and performing expert-level RCA, you will ensure our hardware meets the demanding lifetime required for modern energy infrastructure.

✅ Key Responsibilities

• Assist in the setup and execution of reliability test plans for SST’s (solid state transformer), including thermal mapping and accelerated life testing.
• Utilize statistical methods to analyze test data, identifying trends in component or system-level failures.
• Participate in DFMEA sessions, helping to document risks and track mitigation actions.
• Perform initial root-cause analysis on failed components using lab equipment (microscopes, X-ray, etc.) and coordinate with senior engineers on complex investigations.
• Assist in building reliability block diagrams and basic PoF models to predict product lifetime.
• Work closely with the Design and Manufacturing teams to communicate test results and ensure reliability targets are met.
• Maintain detailed records of test procedures, lab results, and reliability reports for key milestones.
• Ability to travel occasionally to different facilities to support hardware deployment and testing.

📌 Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Reliability Engineering.
• Strong understanding of hardware reliability or circuit analysis.
• Basic familiarity with reliability statistics (Weibull distribution, MTBF) and a desire to master advanced Bayesian and Monte Carlo methods.
• Comfortable working in a high-voltage lab environment; experience with basic diagnostic tools (Oscilloscopes, Multimeters).
• Interest in learning reliability tools such as ReliaSoft (Weibull++, ALTA) or simulation software like Ansys Sherlock.
• Nice to have proficiency in Python, MATLAB, or R for data processing and automation.
• Excellent written and verbal skills; ability to translate complex data into clear, actionable updates for the team.
• A \"first principles\" thinker who is eager to learn and thrives in a fast-paced hardware startup environment.

🎁 Benefits

• Competitive Salary + Incentive Stock Options
• Medical, vision, and dental benefits for employees and their dependents, effective from the start of hire
• Company paid Basic Life, AD&D, short-term and long-term disability insurance
• 401k retirement savings plan through Empower
• Employees receive paid time off (PTO), paid sick days, and paid company holidays
• Commuter Benefits
• 100% paid maternal leave (12 weeks) and paternal leave (6 weeks)