Hardware / Electronic Engineer

Job Title: Hardware / Electronic Engineer

Department: Product Development

Reporting To: Team Lead R&D

Level: Senior

Location: Berlin, Germany

About ENGIE Energy Access 

ENGIE Energy Access is one of the leading Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGo) and mini-grids solutions provider in Africa, with a mission to deliver affordable, reliable and sustainable energy solutions and life-changing services with exceptional customer experience. The company is a result of the integration of Fenix International, ENGIE Mobisol and ENGIE PowerCorner; and develops innovative, off-grid solar solutions for homes, public services and businesses, enabling customers and distribution partners access to clean, affordable energy. The PAYGo solar home systems are financed through affordable installments from $0.19 per day and the mini-grids foster economic development by enabling electrical productive use and triggering business opportunities for entrepreneurs in rural communities. With over 1,700 employees, operations in 9 countries across Africa (Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia), over 1.2 million customers and more than 6 million lives impacted so far, ENGIE Energy Access aims to remain the leading clean energy company, serving millions of customers across Africa by 2025. 

www.engie-energyaccess.com 

Job Purpose/Mission  

As part of the ENGIE Energy Access Research and Development team, you passionately work on new, innovative and life-changing high quality products from concept to mass production and beyond. Bringing in your hardware engineering excellence, you fundamentally drive product development throughout all aspects of the product lifecycle. During concept generation and early product definition you consult the East Africa based Product Management Team on product design and development aspects and translate their product requirements into specifications. Before mass production and during product lifetime, you support the Product Performance Team on product reliability validation activities. You will add value to the existing R&D team as the most senior hardware engineer by bringing in your existing experience on various consumer product development cycles and your holistic system level view. 

Responsibilities 

• Drive the system and hardware development of our next generation solar home systems and support optimization on our existing products
• Develop hardware concepts based on provided requirements and specifications with a focus of optimizing on hardware costs as well as environmental and life-time requirements.
• Create HW schematics and PCB layouts for analog and digital circuits as well as for the power stage.
• Own collaboration with industrial design contractors.
• Verify the hardware functionality through simulations, prototyping and testing.
• Work together with firmware engineers to specify firmware requirements and validate systems.
• Actively support the transfer of a prototype solution into mass-production.
• Analyze hardware problems, identify root causes and provide efficient solutions for our new and existing products including self-developed, co-developed and externally sourced products, peripheral appliances and tools.
• Contribute to the requirements engineering of the Product Management and the hardware validation test planning of the Product Performance Team.
• Own responsibilities for electrical design and validation schedules, risk assessments and documentation.
• Be a technical sparring partner to more junior team members on the above-mentioned topics and drive innovation on electrical engineering 

Knowledge and skills  

Experience: 

• 8 -10+ years of experience on technically owning product development as a senior hardware engineer in consumer electronics  
• Experience with design and validation of DC power electronics and ideally RF technology or AC electronics 
• Embedded development experience (microcontrollers, SPI, UART, I2C, USB). 

• Experience in inspiring and coordinating mechanical case design, working closely with mechanical designers and engineers as well as contractors for thermal, RF and stress testing simulations 
• Experience with automating hardware validation tests 
• Experience mentoring junior engineers  

• Excellent documentation and interpersonal communication skills  
• Proven ability to guide strategic technical decision making and to track and mitigate technical risks 
• Experience in project management is a plus 

• Experience working with international teams is a plus 

Qualifications: 

• MS or greater in Electrical Engineering, Hardware Engineering, or similar discipline 
• Broad knowledge about electronics and electrical components. 

• Profound background in low cost and high efficiency circuit design 
• Self-driven, independent working style 
• Strong team-mindedness and collaborative way of working 
• Ability to analyze problems, identify root causes and provide efficient solutions. 
• Innovation-oriented mindset, ability to research new topics and arrive at tangible results 

 Technology: 

• Solid understanding of analog and mixed signal design principles.  
• Understanding of battery & solar technologies is a plus 
• PCB design (schematics and layout) in Altium or comparable tools  
• Simulations in e.g. Spice 
• Basic skills in C programming; python and git is a plus 

Language(s):  

• English – Professional Fluency 
• German is a plus 

We Offer:

Join us to be part of an incredible company that is making a meaningful difference across Africa. Our team has the autonomy to be creative, work entrepreneurially, and solve big, juicy problems.

Along with being part of a life-changing mission and a community of fantastic teammates, here’s what you can expect:

• We ensure that you are well-protected with life / disability insurances provided as standard to all employees.
• 28 days' paid time off.
• Flexibility to work in a state-of-the-art office, along with home office solutions.
• Fun team building offsite events at scenic countryside locations.
• Office kicker table for lunchtime games, free drinks and fruit, and opportunity to take part in regular team events.

ENGIE is an equal opportunity employer, promoting diversity and committed to creating an inclusive environment for all. All applications are screened based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without any regard to origin, age, name, sexual identity, orientation or preference, religion, marital status, health, disability, political opinions, union involvement or citizenship. Our differences are our strengths!