James Dónal Cronin

Experience

1. Mar 2026 – Present

   Senior Electrical Engineer, Advanced Development

   SharkNinja, Inc.

   Needham, MA

   • Lead hardware and firmware development for early-stage consumer product concepts, taking ideas from sketch to working bench prototype to give leadership fast, data-backed go/no-go decisions.
   • Design and run electrical and thermal characterisation, including multi-channel temperature and power logging and sensor response analysis, to define safety and performance margins.
   • Develop sensing and control prototypes for new smart-home product concepts, evaluating sensor options and embedded architectures.
   • Rapidly prototype on ESP32 and RP2040 (Raspberry Pi Pico) across thermal, time-of-flight, and gesture sensing to prove feasibility before formal development.
   • Build custom Python tooling to automate data conversion, visualisation, and curve-fitting, shortening test-to-insight turnaround for the wider team.
   • Partner with industrial design, firmware, and test teams; advise colleagues on bench power-electronics safety practices.

2. Jan 2025 – Mar 2026

   Hardware Engineer II

   Pison Technology Inc.

   Boston, MA

   • Designed, tested, and integrated electrical systems and hardware modules for Pison's neural interface technology.
   • Developed and executed automated test protocols for hardware prototypes, including signal-integrity checks and debugging of electrical subsystems.
   • Performed real-time data acquisition and analysis of electrical signals during system bring-up and validation.
   • Applied statistical analysis to prototype datasets to uncover trends that informed design optimisation and reliability improvements.
   • Collaborated with firmware, software, and product teams to resolve hardware issues and improve system performance.

3. Nov 2023 – Oct 2024

   Project Engineer

   Gilbane Building Company

   Boston, MA

   • Supported management of the $80M HarbourVest project (256,000 SF, 11 floors), coordinating multi-disciplinary teams against tight schedules and budgets.
   • Worked with MEP consultants on electrical, mechanical, and plumbing designs; reviewed BIM models for clash detection across disciplines.
   • Conducted inspections for NEC and ASHRAE compliance, resolving non-conformances with design engineers and contractors.

4. Sep 2022 – Oct 2023

   Electrical Engineer

   Prochem Engineering Ltd

   Kilkenny, Ireland

   • Delivered MV/LV electrical designs for pharmaceutical and manufacturing facilities using AutoCAD, Revit, and ETAP: schematics, single-line diagrams, and cable schedules.
   • Calculated electrical loads and short-circuit capacities to size transformers, switchgear, and circuit breakers; coordinated equipment procurement.
   • Designed lighting systems in DIALux to CIBSE standards and developed energy-efficient power distribution layouts.

5. May 2021 – Sep 2022

   Research and Development Intern

   Institute of Image-Guided Surgery (IHU)

   Strasbourg, France

   • Built a fully functional out-of-scale GI tract prototype and its accompanying Android app for the FLUX project; tested and validated the design.
   • Explored sensor integration techniques and presented results to cross-functional teams, refining the design from feedback.
   • Helped draft an EU Call for Tender proposal to secure project funding.

6. May 2019 – Sep 2019

   Student Intern

   Flextronics Ltd.

   Cork, Ireland

   • Worked with engineers on production-line robotics; shadowed specialists in RF and PCB manufacturing and test.