The posting
Senior Electrical Engineer - Advanced Product R&D (APRD)
Welcome to the Traegerhood: Our business is BBQ, and business tastes good. Traeger invented the wood pellet grill over 30 years ago, and we're fanatics who are dedicated to bringing people together to create a more flavorful world. From our headquarters in Salt Lake City, we work tirelessly to provide a world-class experience to our customers, retailers, and especially our employees. If you're a team player who's dedicated to delivering top-quality results every day, then we want you to come cook with us.
What You'll Do:
As a Senior Electrical Engineer on Traeger's Advanced Product R&D (APRD) team, you will explore and prototype new electrical components, subsystems, and architectures - igniters, motors, sensors, and controller concepts - that could shape future grill platforms. You'll work in close partnership with our core Electrical Engineering team throughout. You'll bring deep expertise in mixed signal circuit design across both digital and analog domains, along with a strong command of PCB layout best practices and apply just enough embedded firmware knowledge to build working prototypes alongside our ME team. The ideal candidate will stay ahead of emerging technologies so APRD can keep bringing fresh ideas to the table. Travel to Asia is expected as needed to support supplier visits and new product introduction.
How You'll Help Us Win:
- Reach out to and evaluate new suppliers for prospective components, and stay on the cutting edge of relevant chips and componentry to keep proposing new ideas to the wider team.
- Conduct early-stage BOM evaluation of prospective subsystems - giving rough, directional estimates of what's needed and likely cost - to inform go/no-go decisions on further exploration.
- Build early prototypes of electrical subsystems and work with our ME team to integrate them into works-like prototypes for testing and demonstration.
- “Work collaboratively with the Electrical Engineering team and maintain a conduit of communication between APRD and the EE team.
- Apply working knowledge of embedded firmware sufficient to build and validate prototypes.
- Evaluate and propose architecture concepts and components that help unlock and achieve initiatives within APRD while informing and collaborating with the EE team.
- Use OrCAD X ECAD tools for schematic capture and PCB layout of prototype-stage hardware.
- Build, debug, and bring-up prototype hardware at the bench using oscilloscopes and standard lab equipment.
- Design, modify, and analyse prototype-stage electrical hardware including analog and digital circuits, wiring harnesses, and test fixtures.
- Contribute to new product exploration from early concept through to a demonstrable proof of concept.
Bonus Points if you have this:
- Familiarity with EMI and EMC compliance testing for consumer electronics.
- Exposure to embedded firmware architectures (RTOS, state machines) for connected consumer products.
- Knowledge of how to properly solder surface mount electrical components.
- Experience with rapid prototyping techniques and rapid iteration in early-stage concept development.
- Experience with reliability testing, test fixture design, or production test development.
- Experience leveraging AI for improved efficiency.
- Prior experience in consumer electronics or outdoor cooking products.
- Patents held or a demonstrated track record of innovative hardware solutions.
What You'll Need To Succeed:
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
- 6+ years of experience in electrical hardware engineering, with demonstrated ownership of prototype-stage architectures.
- Strong foundation in analog and digital circuit design fundamentals and circuit analysis.
- Deep understanding of microcontroller architecture and peripheral interfaces such as UART, SPI, I2C, and CAN.
- Working knowledge of embedded firmware sufficient to prototype and validate complete controller concepts, in partnership with a mechanical engineer.
- Hands-on experience with bench-level debugging and hardware bring-up using oscilloscopes and standard lab equipment.
- Comfort proposing rough BOM estimates for early-stage subsystems, balancing cost, performance, and supply availability at a directional level.
- A collaborative communicator who builds trust and stays closely aligned with adjacent teams, particularly Electrical Engineering, rather than working in isolation.
- Disciplined, data-driven approach to problem solving, comfortable operating in the ambiguity typical of early-stage R&D.
- Ability to travel domestically and overseas, including to Asia, to support supplier and NPI activities.
- Self-motivated and able to work effectively in a cross-functional team environment.
Why You Will Love Working Here:
- Be part of the most disruptive force in outdoor cooking
- Join a true team working towards a common goal
- Culture of risk-taking, innovation, & quality
- So. Much. Food.
- Have an outdoor lover’s paradise in your backyard
- Full medical/dental/vision package to fit your needs
- 401k to help you plan for the future
- Tuition reimbursement
- Individual professional development programs & initiatives to help you grow professionally
- Great discounts on all things Traeger
- Did we mention all the food?
