Lead Motor Engineer

As Lead Motor Engineer, you will serve as Klein Tools’ primary technical authority for high-current BLDC and DC motor-drive systems supporting lithium-ion battery-powered products. Based onsite in Mansfield, TX, you will lead motor architecture and the end-to-end development path from control algorithms and power electronics through validation and production readiness for global programs.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide architecture and technical direction for high-current BLDC and DC motor-drive systems.
• Define targets across torque, speed, position, power, efficiency, thermal behavior, acoustic output, duty cycle, and life.
• Own system integration of motors with lithium-ion batteries, embedded controls, gearing, and mechanical loads.
• Select and optimize motor architectures including BLDC, brushed DC, and permanent-magnet synchronous motor designs.
• Evaluate winding topology and key electrical characteristics such as turns, wire gauge, resistance, inductance, pole count, back-EMF, Kt, and Kv.
• Develop and tune six-step commutation, FOC, SVPWM, and control loops for current, torque, speed, or position.
• Develop or direct embedded C/C++ firmware for motor control using STM32, Arm, DSP, or similar motor-control platforms.
• Design and validate three-phase inverter hardware including MOSFET stages, gate drivers, sensing, PWM, and PCB layouts.
• Define protection strategies for overcurrent, short circuit, shoot-through, voltage faults, heat, stall, and locked rotor conditions.
• Build prototype controller boards, inverter stages, sensing circuits, and test fixtures.
• Lead controller and inverter bring-up, debugging, characterization, and design validation.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Electromechanical, Mechatronics, or a related engineering field, with 8 or more years of relevant experience.
• At least 5 years in BLDC or related motor-drive development, including lithium-ion battery-powered systems operating from 5 A to 150 A.
• Demonstrated system-level expertise spanning motor hardware, power electronics, control algorithms, and embedded firmware.
• Knowledge of motor construction and windings, magnetic design, six-step commutation, FOC, SVPWM, sensorless or position feedback, three-phase inverters, gate drivers, current sensing, PWM, dead time, grounding, thermal management, protection, and high-current PCB layout.
• Ability to develop, review, or direct embedded C/C++ firmware using STM32, Arm Cortex, DSP, or comparable platforms.
• Hands-on experience using oscilloscopes, differential and current probes, power and logic analyzers, electronic loads, and dynamometers.
• Ability to interpret waveforms and test data to troubleshoot hardware, firmware, EMI/EMC, thermal, communication, and reliability issues.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with simulation, HIL testing, supplier development, and production launch in China.
• Mandarin Chinese and English fluency.

Technologies

• BLDC, FOC, SVPWM, six-step commutation
• STM32, Arm, Arm Cortex, DSP
• C, C++
• MOSFET, PWM, HIL testing
• Oscilloscopes, differential and current probes, power analyzers, logic analyzers, electronic loads, dynamometers
• EMI/EMC

Benefits

• Paid Vacations & Holidays
• Profit Sharing & Matching 401(k)
• Health Insurance (Medical, Vision, & Dental)
• Discounts on Klein Tools products
• Education and Professional Development Assistance

Company Focus Areas

• Quality
• Customer Obsession
• Innovation
• Ownership
• Teamwork