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Kohler Energy

Power Your Career at Curtis

Title   Department
Embedded Software Engineer Engineering
Failure Analysis (FA) Technician/Technologist Engineering
Senior Manufacturing Engineer Engineering
Senior Project Leader Engineering
Staff Electrical Engineer Engineering
Systems Engineer Engineering

Embedded Software Engineer

  • Location: California

Curtis Instruments, a Kohler Co., is seeking an Embedded Software Engineer to join our team to further our product development in the electric vehicle industry.  You will work with a small, talented team of engineers who are passionate about this continually growing industry.  

In this role, you will code and debug real-time embedded firmware for our new generation of electric motor controllers/inverters.    If you enjoy working in a HW/SW lab environment, this may be the job for you.

This position is located in our R&D technical center in Livermore, CA.   The software group works four days in the office, with flexibility as needed.
 

What you’ll do:

  • Write effective and efficient real-time software.  
  • Work within a small, highly skilled design team to complete assigned objectives.
  • Follow software development cycles, including software requirements capture and verification of software to these requirements.
  • Design, setup and run tests to ensure the design meets specifications.
  • Debug systems.
  • Provide support to continuation engineering and other Curtis engineering teams.
  • Participate in the preparation of development specifications.
  • Collaborate with Curtis engineering sites around the world.
  • Work on a wide variety of vehicles we support, including golf cars, forklifts, small on-road cars, electric ride-on lawnmowers, etc.

We are interested in hearing from you if you possess the following:

  • Bachelor’s degree with industry experience or closely related academic or personal projects in embedded, real-time software.  
  • User of emulators, in-circuit testing and software debugging tools/techniques.

Nice to have:

  • Experience with serial communication protocols using CAN, for example CANopen, J1939, UDS, etc.
  • Knowledge of control and feedback systems for power and motor control.
  • Knowledge of real-time operating systems and task schedulers.
  • Knowledge of electronic circuits and implementation.
  • Experience with Unified Modeling Language (UML), C++, unit testing.
  • Excellent interpersonal skills.
  • Effective verbal and written communication skills.

What you get:

  • Generous medical and dental plan
  • 401k with 5% company contribution
  • Life Insurance
  • Educational Reimbursement
  • PTO
  • Paid Parental Leave (for moms and dads)
  • 10 annual holidays
  • Flexible work environment

 

The target salary range for this position is $100,00 to $130,000.

 

If this sounds like you, please apply today!

Failure Analysis (FA) Technician/Technologist

  • Location: California

Curtis Instruments, a Kohler Co., designs motor speed controllers for a wide variety of electric vehicles, and we're looking for a Failure Analysis Technician to join our team.  If you took apart your toys when you were a child to see how they worked, this may be the job for you!   A successful candidate will be someone that enjoys working with their hands in a lab environment.

You will perform analysis on the design and performance of circuits and components, and review manufacturing assembly issues for our motor speed control products. You will test and disassemble devices that are suspected of failures, and troubleshooting faults down to the component level.

This position is a mostly in-office position, with limited flexibility to work from home due to the lab equipment needed to be successful. This position is located in our premier R&D engineering facility in the San Francisco Bay Area - Livermore, CA.

What you will do:

  • Specify and perform configuration changes and maintenance for electric vehicle test beds used for engineering failure analysis and testing of products. Specify maintenance procedures, and document test platforms with schematics and drawing documentation.
  • Acquire, interpret and prepare experimental data for presentation.
  • Design, build and carry out laboratory testing and experiments to prove or disprove clearly stated hypotheses. Participate in this entire process from concept through reporting.
  • Provide design details where lacking and recommend modifications to designs and manufacturing process as required.
  • Compile and maintain data taken from test operations. Maintain records and documentation using company computer networks. Write a root cause analysis report when necessary.
  • Apply a high level of analog and digital electronic circuit theory knowledge, principles of electronic circuits and fundamentals of electronic testing procedures.
  • Design, program and operate computer based data acquisition equipment.
  • Operate electronic test equipment including oscilloscopes, multi-meters, signal generators, power supplies and digital device programmers.
  • Perform analysis and debug embedded microprocessor based electronic systems. Familiarity with use of emulators, logic analyzers and software debugging tools a plus.

What you need to be successful:

  • Minimum two-year technical degree or equivalent experience and training in a related discipline. Minimum of 5 years industry experience.
  • Ability to read and interpret schematic diagrams and be able to recognize the components on a circuit assembly.
  • Proper and extensive use of power supplies, Multi-meters, oscilloscopes, curve tracers.
  • Ability to hand solder, remove and replace surface mount and through-hole components
  • Familiarity with hand tools and mechanical disassembly of electronic hardware
  • Familiarity with electronic fabrication and manufacturing processes
  • Good record keeping, communications, and writing skills, Microsoft Office Suite familiarity
  • Understand function of bipolar transistors, Field Effect transistors, Op Amps, Logic ICs and embedded microprocessor technologies.
  • Software familiarity is a plus
  • Experience in consumer/industrial electronic repair on component level is a plus
  • Some experience in photographic techniques is a plus
  • ERP database experience, such as Syteline, SAP or Oracle.
  • Must be able to lift 50 pounds.

What you get:

  • Generous medical and dental plan
  • 401k with 5% company contribution
  • Life Insurance
  • Educational Reimbursement
  • PTO
  • Paid Parental Leave (for moms and dads)
  • 10 annual holidays
  • Flexible work environment

Pay Range: $50.00/hr - $60.00/hr

If this sounds like you, please apply today!

Senior Manufacturing Engineer

  • Location: California

Curtis Instruments, a Kohler Co., is looking to add an experienced Sr. Manufacturing Engineer to our team at our Livermore, CA R&D facility. If you have experience providing core expertise for strategic project initiatives, design for manufacturability reviews, and advanced production quality planning of new products, we are looking for you!

This role is strategic, rather than operational, and involves planning/coordination of multi-functional staff to ensure manufacturing facilities in all geographic regions have the capacity, equipment, processes and expertise to successfully manufacture new and existing products in medium to high volumes to automotive-standard levels of quality.

This is a hybrid position, requiring flexibility to go into the office a minimum of two times a week, or as needed. In addition, occasional travel to international manufacturing sites is expected.

 

Responsibilities Include:

  • Ensure best manufacturing practices, processes and equipment are consistently specified and optimally employed throughout all Curtis manufacturing organizations.
  • Participate in New Product Development teams and provide detailed manufacturability reviews for new products tailored to the competences of the target manufacturing location.
  • Represent remote manufacturing facilities as the single point of contact in the design facility.
  • Carry out formal and timely manufacturability (DFM/DFT) reviews on all new products along with documenting the product assembly process.

Desired Skills and Experience:

Education

  • Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical/Electronic, Mechanical or Manufacturing Engineering

Skills

  • Demonstrated experience implementing/deploying new processes into manufacturing.
  • Industry knowledge of quality processes, SPC, Black Belt, Lean Manufacturing (6S)/
  • Strong Project Management and organizational skills, and the drive to take full responsibility for projects and problems in cross functional groups.
  • Strong ability to communicate at all levels within the organization, including to overseas employees speaking English as a second language, accommodating cultural differences and sensitivities.
  • Excellent computer skills

Experience

  • Minimum 5 years’ experience in a modern electronics manufacturing environment.
  • Detailed knowledge of PCB assembly manufacturing concepts, techniques and equipment.
  • Leading and implementing process improvement measures via new process and/or equipment technologies, from identification phase through to serial production validation.
  • Prior experience of production launch coordination a plus.

Pay range: $90,000 - $150,000

If this sounds like you, please apply today!

Senior Project Leader

  • Location: California

Curtis Instruments, a Kohler Co., is looking to add a Sr. Project Leader to our team to design motor speed controllers for a wide variety of vehicle types.  The main objective of this position is to drive product development forward through prototype development and verification management. You will work with an interdisciplinary team of talented engineers to accomplish this goal.  You will plan, schedule and execute all phases of product development from design through production release.  This is a technical position, we are not looking for a Program Manager.

This position is located in our premier engineering facility in Livermore, CA, and is a needed addition to our Engineering team. 

Once you are up to speed on Curtis' processes, this position will be a hybrid role requiring at least two times a week in the office, with flexibility as needed.

We are looking for someone who will:

  • Plan, organize, lead, and track the design and release of motor, system control and support products.
  • Interface directly with customers, sales and product management to define and develop products.
  • Estimate cost and schedule for work to be performed, and ensure that work is completed within the estimated cost and schedule.
  • Conduct status and design reviews on a regular basis and provide project status reports to management.
  • Supervise the efforts of the design engineer(s) assigned to the project.
  • Guide the project through all phases of the corporate PDS.
  • Maintain records and documentation using laboratory notebooks and internal computer networks.
  • Work with group leads and staff engineers to write the engineering specifications.
  • Improve the project development process.
  • Assist test engineering in the initial specification of equipment and procedures for production testing.
  • Assist manufacturing and test in the resolution of design related problems that arise during production.

What you need:

  • BS technical degree and 8+ years experience.
  • 3+ years project leadership experience with power electronic and embedded control products.
  • Demonstrated understanding of electronics, software development, mechanical design, and manufacturing.
  • Demonstrated project planning, leading, organizing and tracking skills.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of good engineering practice.
  • Effective verbal and written communication skills as well as excellent interpersonal skills.
  • Accuracy and good organizational skills.

What you get:

  • Generous medical and dental plan
  • 401k with 5% company contribution
  • Life Insurance
  • Educational Reimbursement
  • PTO
  • Paid Parental Leave (for moms and dads)
  • 10 annual holidays
  • Flexible work environment

Our target salary range is $110,000 - $170,000.

If this sounds like you, please apply today!

Staff Electrical Engineer

  • Location: California

Join our team to further development in the electric vehicle industry.  We are seeking a Staff Electrical Engineer that will help develop our future generations of motor controller products and mentor our junior engineers.  You will conduct research and design for multiple product development and continuation teams.  This is an opportunity to work with our embedded software design teams to optimize control logic and microprocessor circuit implementations.   

This is mostly an in-office position, the team is working four times a week in office, with flexibility.

What you'll do:

  • Independently design, prototype, test and debug motor controllers.
  • Design and debug electronic circuits, components and PCB assemblies for new product development and sustaining projects.
  • Design, setup and run tests to ensure the design meets specifications.
  • Develop and apply new techniques, circuits and tests for product design.
  • Maintain records and documentation on all designs, tests and analysis.
  • Develop new and apply existing techniques and tools to improve cost, design time, reliability, durability, and manufacturability.
  • Work within a design team to complete assigned objectives.
  • Troubleshoot circuits from prototypes, development, and customer returns.
  • Participate in the preparation of development specifications.

What you need:

  • BSEE degree or equivalent, and 10 plus years experience in a relevant technical discipline; advanced degree preferred.
  • Experience with design of high current motor controllers or equivalent technologies.
  • Proven track record of designs with best practices around ESD and emissions.
  • Proven passion for hands-on activities, detailed design of experiments and verification skills.
  • Ability to work independently or with others on significant and unique issues vital to the company’s success.
  • Proven mentorship skills and effective cross-functional handshakes with great organization skills.
  • Exercise independent judgment in methods and techniques.
  • Demonstrated ability to develop novel designs to meet project costs, performance and schedules.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of good engineering practices.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of PCB layout and schematic capture tools.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of circuit analysis, simulation and design of experiments.
  • Effective verbal and written communication skills.

What you get:

  • Generous medical and dental plan
  • 401k with 5% company contribution
  • Life Insurance
  • Educational Reimbursement
  • PTO
  • Paid Parental Leave (for moms and dads)
  • 10 annual holidays
  • Flexible work environment

The target salary range for this position is $120K to $185K, depending on experience.

If this sounds like you, please apply today!

Systems Engineer

  • Location: California

Curtis Instruments, a Kohler Co., is looking for a Systems Engineer to join our California engineering team in the design of motor speed controllers for electric vehicles.  Our Systems Engineers work with an interdisciplinary team in the design of new or revised motor control products.   Primary responsibilities include reviewing and refining product architecture, functional specifications, and work with the design engineers in each discipline to implement successfully. 

This position is located in our premier engineering facility in the San Francisco Bay Area - Livermore, CA.  Once you are up to speed on Curtis' processes, this position will be a hybrid role requiring at least two times a week in the office, with flexibility as needed.

You'll be responsible for the following:

  • Consult directly with customers’ engineers and product management to define product requirements.
  • Analyze customer and product management feature requests for motor controllers and vehicle managers to determine feasibility and scope of effort. Participate in the development of the project proposal.
  • Analyze and document compliance with market and regulatory requirements. Prepare reports or information as needed to support customers and regulatory agencies.
  • Consult with subject matter experts to develop and refine system requirements for motor controllers and vehicle managers.
  • Determine tradeoffs between approaches and clarify specifications during development.
  • Develop the system functional specifications and maintain these during development. Recommend changes. Ensure all requirements are developed per the operating procedures and meet the acceptance criteria.
  • Modify existing algorithms (pseudo-code, state machines, control diagrams, etc.) to correct errors, improve performance, and implement new features. Develop simulations or mathematical models as needed to predict and measure the outcomes of the design.
  • Participate in concept and design reviews with subject matter experts as required.
  • Develop and document system test cases that verify or validate the linked requirements. Perform verification tests as needed.
  • Participate in root cause analysis and correction action plans as assigned.
  • Assist the verification team by clarifying specifications and requirements as issues come up in the testing process.  Write system test cases.
  • Assist test engineering in the initial specification of equipment and procedures for production testing.
  • Assist manufacturing and test in the resolution of design related problems that arise during production.
  • Assist the product support group in adding features and maintaining the functional specifications as the product matures.

What you will need:

  • BS technical degree and 2+ years experience.
  • Experience with development and launch of industrial products in medium volume (1k – 100k per year).
  • Demonstrated understanding of electronics, software, and mechanical design.
  • Experience using requirements managment tools, such as Polarian, Jira and Confluence.
  • Demonstrated ability to write functional specifications, technical leadership, and organization skills.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of good engineering practice.
  • Effective verbal and written communication skills as well as excellent interpersonal skills.

What you get:

  • Generous medical and dental plan
  • 401k with 5% company contribution
  • Life Insurance
  • Educational Reimbursement
  • PTO
  • Paid Parental Leave (for moms and dads)
  • 10 annual holidays
  • Flexible work environment

Our target salary range for this position is $110,000 to $150,000 annually.

 

If this sounds like you, please apply today!