Research Intern, Hardware Implementation and Validation (Energy Storage and Power Electronics)

Location: Santa Clara, California, United States Job ID: R0144505 Date Posted: 2026-09-09 Company Name: HITACHI AMERICA, LTD. Profession (Job Category): Administration & Facilities Job Schedule:  Full time Remote: No Job Description: Title: Research Intern, Hardware Implementation and Validation (Energy Storage and Power Electronics) Company: Hitachi America Division: R&D | Strategic Solution Lab Location: Santa Clara, CA Status: Full time, 3-6 month internship The Company About Hitachi America, Ltd. Hitachi America, Ltd. is the regional headquarters for Hitachi Group companies in the Americas, overseeing the U.S., Canada, and Latin America markets. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Hitachi Americas has been deeply committed to its Social Innovation Business since its establishment in 1959, addressing society's most pressing challenges through innovative solutions. Leveraging its expertise and resources, Hitachi Americas and its subsidiary companies operate across diverse sectors, including transportation, energy, mobility, industrial manufacturing, healthcare, digital engineering, data analytics and others. Driven by Digital, Green, and Innovation, Hitachi Americas remains at the forefront of pioneering solutions that shape the future. For further details, please visit https://www.hitachi.us/ . About Hitachi, Ltd.   Through its Social Innovation Business (SIB) that brings together IT, OT(Operational Technology) and products, Hitachi aims to be a global leader in continuously transforming social infrastructure through digital, contributing to a harmonized society where the environment, wellbeing, and economic growth are in balance.  Hitachi operates worldwide across four sectors – Digital Systems & Services, Energy, Mobility, and Connective Industries – as well as a Strategic SIB Business Unit focused on new growth areas. With Lumada at its core, Hitachi creates value by combining data, technology and domain knowledge to solve customer and social challenges. Revenues for FY2025 (ended March 31, 2026) totaled 10,586.7 billion yen, with 606 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 290,000 employees worldwide. Visit us at www.hitachi.com . Summary AI training and inference clusters produce large, fast, synchronized power swings. A single GPU rack can move more than half of its rated load in milliseconds, and when hundreds of racks move together the effect reaches the facility boundary and the grid. We are developing a hybrid energy storage system for data centers to protect upstream infrastructure and increase usable capacity. We are seeking a Research Intern (Hardware Implementation and Validation) to take this system from design to hardware. You will own the implementation and validation of the storage system and its controllers, compare the design's predicted behavior against what the hardware actually does, and feed the differences back into the design. Where the measurements show that the architecture, sizing, or control law needs to change, you will propose and implement the change. This is a hands-on engineering role with a research component. Results are expected to be reported internally and, where appropriate, to feed conference publications and standards discussions. Job Responsibilities Build, commission, and safely operate a bench-scale hybrid energy storage system (batteries, supercapacitors, bidirectional DC/DC converters, common DC bus) with programmable loads and a real-time control platform. Implement power-split and energy management controllers on real-time hardware and evaluate candidate control strategies head-to-head under repeatable transient test profiles. Design and execute a validation campaign: define test cases from realistic load traces, instrument the bench at the required time resolution, and measure response time, bus voltage deviation, energy split, and state-of-charge behavior. Compare measured results against simulation models, identify where the models are incomplete (converter dynamics, sensing and communication latency, storage non idealities), and update them. Recommend and implement design updates to storage sizing, converter control bandwidth, and the interface between fast local control loops and the supervisory controller. Document hardware, test procedures, and findings so the work can be reproduced and extended. Communicate results via technical reports, presentations, and contributions to publications and patents as appropriate. A Day in the Life Align with technical leads on build milestones, test plans, and success metrics. Work in the lab wiring, commissioning, and debugging converters, storage modules, and instrumentation. Deploy a control design from simulation to the real-time target and run it against transient test profiles. Analyze measurement data, compare it with model predictions, and propose the next design or model change. Present progress through demos, written updates, and research discussions. Requirements Currently enrolled in a PhD program (preferred) or MS program in Electrical Engineering, Power Engineering, or a related field. Solid fundamentals in power systems and power electronics : DC/DC converter topologies and control, DC bus dynamics, and protection. Experience with battery and supercapacitor energy storage , including electrical and thermal characteristics, state-of-charge estimation, and safe handling and testing practices. Experience with control of power converters or energy storage systems : classical loop design, droop control, and exposure to model predictive control or other optimization-based methods. Hands-on laboratory experience building, commissioning, and debugging kilowatt scale power hardware , including use of oscilloscopes, power analyzers, and programmable loads or sources. Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink and Python, and the ability to move a control design from simulation to a real-time targ