Senior Validation Engineer

Hi, we are ecobee.

ecobee introduced the world’s first smart Wi-Fi thermostat to help millions of consumers save money, conserve energy, and bring home automation into their lives. That was just the beginning. We continue our pursuit to create technology that brings peace of mind into the home and allows people to focus on the moments that matter most. We take pride in making a meaningful difference to the environment, all while being part of the exciting, connected home revolution.

In 2021, ecobee became a subsidiary of Generac Power Systems. Generac introduced the first affordable backup generator and later created the category of automatic home standby generator. The company is committed to sustainable, cleaner energy products poised to revolutionize the 21st century electrical grid. Together, we take pride in making a meaningful difference to the environment.

Why we love to do what we do:

We’re helping build the world of tomorrow with solutions that improve everyday life while making a positive impact on the planet. Our products and services work in harmony to provide comfort, efficiency, and peace of mind for millions of homes and businesses. While we’re proud of what we’ve done so far, there’s still a lot we can do—and you can be part of it.

Join our extraordinary team.

We're a rapidly growing global tech company headquartered in Canada, in the heart of downtown Toronto, with a satellite office in Leeds, UK (and remote ecopeeps in the US). We get to work with some of North America and UK's leading professionals. Our colleagues are proud to bring their authentic selves to work, confident that what we do is grounded in a greater purpose. We’re always looking for curious, talented, and passionate people to join our team.

Who’ll You Be Joining: 

Our Hardware team is made up of engineers with a wide variety of specialties, skill sets, backgrounds, and experiences ranging from HVAC control to RF design, digital logic, avionics, test fixtures, embedded software development, PCB layout and power electronics. They aim to bring their wide experience to the cross-functional squads that they are a part of, with a focus on collaboration, learning, development.

As a Senior Verification Engineer, based in ecobee’s Waterloo design centre, you will be a lead member responsible for transforming innovative ideas from concept to prototype through to mass production, you will be pivotal to ensure that every product we ship is stamped with engineering approval for quality and reliability. Working with other members of the Hardware Engineering team, you will play a key role in maintaining our reputation for reliable, robust and high-quality products where customer experience is paramount. With your strong background in electrical engineering concepts, schematic analysis, simulations, circuit debugging and instrumentation, you will carefully review both legacy and new products and develop and execute test plans to validate the designs.

How You’ll Make an Impact: 

• Creating and executing engineering design verification test plans
• Preparing and executing reliability test plans to increase confidence in warranty and service life targets
• Conducting Highly Accelerated Life Tests (HALT) and Accelerated Life Tests (ALT) to expose device vulnerabilities and improve designs
• Perform engineering assessments of test and verification activities against real-world field applications
• Create proposals and abstracts of ideas for automations and verification test improvements, breakdown and execute steps to concept/development
• Designing and building test instrumentation systems to standardize and automate experiments and data capture of many concurrent DUT simultaneously
• Experience designing, building, and iterating on custom built automated verification fixtures to enhance repeatability, scope, and throughput of test coverage
• Building Python scripts, familiarity with SCPI commands/interfacing, analyzing and compiling large datasets of presenting information and analyses of tests
• Conducting and reviewing Gage repeatability and reproducibility analyses as well as yield reports and production test issue resolution
• Assist with root causing factory issues with a background of manufacturing processes and design knowledge to isolate variables and find system or component level issues
• PFMEA’s and performing assessments and trade-offs of test coverage to conceptualize production test suites for high volume mass production test
• Executing on cost-benefit analyses and risk assessments to optimize production test decisions and coverage
• Documentation and report creation of tests completed
• Analyzing experimentation results and engineering reports from others to issue approval or rejection
• Identifying component alternates and creating test plans to validate substitutions to reduce BOM cost or mitigate supply chain issues
• Environmental, ESD, Surge, EFT and compliance testing of new and existing products
• Researching, identifying and executing on applicable UL, CSA, IEC or other specifications relevant to product development
• Prototyping of new circuits before inclusion into production programs
• Creating of Production Test Plans, Test scripts and Production Test Fixtures
• Collaborating with teammates to improve and guide all test/verification activities (reports, methods, procedures, designs, fixtures) and creating proposals of ideas
• Providing recommendations on design integrity and issuing recommendation to proceed to mass production
• Identify and escalate major design risk factors; identify, validate and propose alternate suggestions with concern for cross-functional impact (feature set, cost targets, design scope, etc.)
• Designing Printed Circuit Boards intended to prototype new circuits, create fixtures, development tools or other uses

What You’ll Bring to the Table:  

• Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics (or similar)
• 5+ years industry experience in electrical hardware product development with emphasis on consumer electronics
• Must have been involved with full product development and high volume production
  • design concept, circuit design, multiple stages of prototype development and test, entry into manufacturing, test fixtures
  • identify and resolve design issues resulting in more reliable product and easing production
  • identify and resolve field failures and work back improvements into the design.
• Experience in Hardware design, validation and test execution
• Proven experience in Schematic design and review, Printed Circuit Board review
• Printed Circuit Board review and knowledge of PCB layout fundamentals
• Python or other scripting for embedded control and automation of testing
• Hardware debugging and root cause analysis
• Analog and high-speed digital circuit analysis
• Familiarity with oscilloscope, DAQ, DMM, thermal chamber, spectrum analyzer, VNA among other lab equipment
• Understanding of testing principles and impact on results
• Solder and rework fine pitch electronic SMT components including 0201, XDFN, TSOT
• Familiarity with PCBA manufacturing processes
• Understanding of full product design principles, thermal transfer, etc. and impact on electronics
• Knowledge of embedded systems, architecture, operating states, and optimizations
• Strong industry awareness of critical parts manufacturers

Bonus Points if You Can Bring this to the Table:  

• Background in PCB layout including optimization of power distribution networks, stack-up design, high-speed interfaces and high voltage systems
• Experience in low power, IoT sensor design
• CPU architectures, 8 bit, 32 bit and 64 bit experience
• Memory architectures, eMMC, DDR3, DDR4 etc.
• Embedded Linux and C++ development, Ability to write C++ for MCU applications
• Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) designation

We've built the following list as a guideline for some of the skills and interests of our development team - but we strive to build our team with members from a diverse background and skill set, so if any combination of these apply to you we'd love to chat!

P.S. Through trial and error, we've learned that people don't apply unless we provide a guideline. However, what’s more important to us than a number is the experiences you’ve had and the skills you’ve developed—regardless of the length of time it took to get where you are. Do you have 20+ years of experience? Awesome, please apply. Have only 3 years, but feel you meet the requirements above? Great, send us your resume.

What happens after you apply:

Application review. It will happen. By an actual person in Talent Acquisition. As we sometimes get upwards of 100+ applications for some roles, it can take a few days, but every applicant can expect a note regarding their application status.

Interview Process.

• A 30-minute phone/video call with a member in Talent Acquisition
• A 1 hour interview with our Hiring Manager Sr Manager, Hardware Engineer with Director, Hardware Engineer and our VP of Hardware Engineering. This conversation will revolve around getting to know each other, the backgrounds and professional journeys encompassing some technical discussion
• The next step will be to do a technical case study and present in a final virtual interview of 1 hour. We normally give candidates a week to complete the case study.

With ecobee, you’ll have the opportunity to:

• *Be part of something big: *Get to work in a fresh, dynamic, and ever-growing industry.
• *Make a difference for the environment: *Make a sustainable impact while on your daily job, and after it through programs like ecobee acts.
• *Expand your career: *Learn with our in-house learning enablement team, and enjoy our generous professional learning budget.
• *Put people first: *Benefit from competitive salaries, health benefits, and a progressive Parental Top-Up Program (75% top-up or five bonus days off).
• *Play a part on an exceptional culture: *Enjoy a fun and casual workplace with an open concept office, located at Queens Quay W & York St. ecobee Leeds is based at our riverside office on the Calls.
• *Celebrate diversity: *Be part of a truly welcoming workplace. We offer a mentorship program and bias training.

Are you interested? Let's make it work.

Our people are empowered to take ownership of their schedules with workflows that allow for flexible hours. Based on your job, you have an option of a office-based, fully remote, or hybrid work environment. New team members working remotely, will have all necessary equipment provided and shipped to them, and we conduct our interviews and onboarding sessions primarily through video.

We’re committed to inclusion and accommodation.

ecobee believes that openness and diversity make us better. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds to apply regardless of race, gender, age, religion, identity, or any other aspect which makes them unique. Accommodations can be made upon request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process. Our recruitment team is happy to answer any questions candidates may have about virtual interviewing, onboarding, and future work locations.

We’re up to incredible things. Come and be part of them.

Discover our products and services and learn more about who we are.

Ready to join ecobee? View current openings.

Please note, ecobee does not accept unsolicited resumes.