Applications Engineer
Posted 10 Mar 2026
Advertised as “Principal Applications Engineer”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 5+ yrs
- Management level
- Individual contributor
- Employment
- On-Site
- Contract
- Full-time
No salary listed for this role.
Field of studyElectrical Engineering, Power Electronics (or related)
Study levelMaster's or higher
Company Description
Vertical Semiconductor, a venture-backed MIT spin-out, is leading the development of vertical gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductors to build the foundational power layer for the next generation of compute and AI.
Role Overview
We’re hiring a Principal Applications Engineer to help commercialize next-generation Vertical GaN power devices (100 V - 2300 V) by translating device performance into system-level wins for customers. This role blends customer-facing technical leadership, hands-on power converter evaluation, simulation/model development, and bench characterization of fast-switching wide bandgap devices. The role offers significant ownership of customer technical engagement, and the development of evaluation hardware, reference designs, and technical content (application notes, trainings, demos). As the company scales, this position has the strong potential to evolve into a team leadership role.
Key Responsibilities
Customer technical leadership / design-in acceleration
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Serve as senior technical interface for strategic accounts: translate customer specs into power device requirements; support design in activity including simulations, testing, troubleshooting, and performance optimization.
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Present Vertical Semiconductor technology, products, and roadmap to customers and partners; act as a subject-matter expert for target applications.
Simulation, modeling, and system enablement
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Develop and own SPICE and/or PLECS simulation workflows for Vertical GaN in realistic converter environments (switching behavior, parasitics, loss/thermal estimation, gate-drive tradeoffs).
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Build reusable solution templates (topology starting points, loop inductance/parasitic models, measurement-informed parameters) to rapidly evaluate customer use cases.
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Create system collateral: application block diagrams, design guidelines, technical notes, and simulation models as part of an enablement roadmap.
Evaluation hardware & reference design leadership
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Lead development of evaluation boards, demo boards, and reference designs (schematic/layout, BOM, bring-up plan, test plan, characterization report).
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Perform system-level bench testing and debug; drive design optimizations based on measured performance.