Sr. Electrical Engineer

About the role

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.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• Work in close partnership with our core Electrical Engineering team throughout.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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

• 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.

Requirements

• 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.