Senior Manager- Special Projects, Validation & Test

Company 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. We’ve built a new class of intelligent, software-defined power infrastructure products leveraging a decade of advanced medium voltage Solid State Transformer research that’s now ready for commercial deployment. Our products and solutions go far beyond the capabilities of traditional electrical equipment. We make power systems that are faster to deploy, dramatically smaller and more efficient, and capable of supporting modern, dynamic energy needs for tomorrow’s most demanding energy consumers. Scalable in-house advanced manufacturing capability is our foundation for meeting timeline and quality expectation to serve infrastructure customers around the world. Amperesand is led by breakthrough energy hardware development veterans and funded by top tier investors who share our vision of building a category-defining energy technology company. With hubs in San Francisco, Reno, and Singapore, our global team is laser focused on building foundational technology to solve the most pressing problems in power infrastructure at scale. Join us in building the power foundation of the future! Responsibilities Lead and build a multidisciplinary engineering organization spanning electrical, mechanical, firmware, system integration, validation, and test disciplines — hiring and developing a team of 15+ from the ground up. Own the full scope of special projects, validation, and test functions — establishing strategy, processes, and execution frameworks across all workstreams, with particular emphasis on power electronics validation and test. Drive high-priority, time-sensitive special projects that fall outside standard product development tracks — including advanced power electronics development for Solid State Transformer systems — partnering with senior leadership to scope, resource, and deliver end to end. Apply deep power electronics expertise to guide topology selection, magnetics design, device selection, and controls architecture across the team's programs. Establish and own the validation and test strategy across hardware and software systems, including test infrastructure, validation frameworks, and integration test environments. Oversee system integration efforts ensuring seamless interplay between electrical, mechanical, firmware, and software subsystems. Define org structure, roles, and career development paths; mentor and grow engineers across multiple disciplines. Develop frameworks for work breakdown, requirements decomposition, and design acceptance criteria. Partner closely with Controls and Software engineering leadership to align on shared milestones and cross-functional dependencies. Drive continuous improvement of test efficiency, coverage, and automation. Lead complex root-cause investigations across hardware, firmware, sensing, and validation domains. Qualifications PhD in power electronics or a closely related field strongly preferred; Master's degree in electrical engineering or power electronics required. 12+ years of engineering experience with at least 5 years in a people leadership role managing multidisciplinary teams. Deep power electronics background — hands-on expertise in power conversion design, topology optimization, magnetics, device