Electrical Engineer - Power Electronics

Mainspring Energy; Menlo Park (CA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Hybrid position

Onsite at Menlo Park HQ

Job summary

Mainspring Energy is hiring a Power Electronics Engineer for its Menlo Park HQ. The role focuses on designing and validating hardware for the Linear Generator, collaborating across production, reliability, and supplier teams.

Qualifications include a Electrical Engineering degree and 2–5 years in power electronics, with hands-on lab skills, schematic capture, and high‑voltage design experience. This is a hybrid role with onsite testing and remote work options.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or higher.
• 2–5 years of experience developing power electronics technologies.
• Ability to take concept-level designs and produce a schematic.
• Experience with circuit board design and design ownership

Responsibilities

• Design power electronics hardware for the Linear Generator.
• Bring-up, validate, and qualify power electronics designs.
• Troubleshoot hardware issues in lab, production, and field.
• Collaborate with NPI team and suppliers for manufacturability.
• Improve reliability with reliability engineers.
• Own the hardware systems you design.

Skills

Power electronics

Schematic capture

Circuit modeling

Troubleshooting

Altium

High voltage design

Team collaboration

Electrical engineering

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Power Analyzers

Network Analyzers

Signal Generators

Job description

Mainspring Energy manufactures and delivers fuel-flexible, low-emissions local power solutions that rapidly add new capacity and deliver reliable, affordable, and sustainable electric power. The company began commercial shipments of its Mainspring Linear Generators in 2020 and today has hundreds of megawatts in advanced development and field operations for leading Fortune 500 companies, data centers, and utilities. Mainspring also partners with global energy leaders including AEP, NextEra Energy Resources, Schneider Electric, and more.

The core values that ground our work, guide our decisions, and connect us together:

• Pragmatic Optimism
• Excellence without Ego
• Proactive Collaboration

About Mainspring

Mainspring Energy manufactures and delivers fuel-flexible, low-emissions local power solutions that rapidly add new capacity and deliver reliable, affordable, and sustainable electric power. The company began commercial shipments of its Mainspring Linear Generators in 2020 and today has hundreds of megawatts in advanced development and field operations for leading Fortune 500 companies, data centers, and utilities. Mainspring also partners with global energy leaders including AEP, NextEra Energy Resources, Schneider Electric, and more.

Job Overview

The technology that powers Mainspring’s Linear Generator is unlike any other generator technology on the market. The Linear Generator relies on innovative electrical power and control hardware systems to achieve its best-in-class efficiency while meeting the world’s strictest emissions requirements. These electrical hardware systems are designed by a talented team of electrical engineers that own hardware design from initial concept through test and manufacturing. We have a high impact opportunity for a power electronics engineer to shape the future of the Linear Generator’s power electronics systems.

Responsibilities

• Design custom power electronics hardware that enables key functions of our Linear Generator
• Bring-up, validate, and qualify your power electronics designs
• Troubleshoot complex hardware issues that arise in the test lab, production floor, and fielded units
• Collaborate with the new production introduction team and external suppliers to improve designs for manufacturability and testability
• Partner with reliability engineers to further drive up electrical hardware reliability
• Serve as an expert on the hardware systems that you own

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree, or higher, in Electrical Engineering
• 2-5 years of experience developing power electronics technologies
• Excellent electronics design fundamentals; ability to take concept level design details, select components, and produce a schematic
• Examples of taking ownership of a power electronics design project
• Circuit board design experience
• Familiar with schematic capture and power converter circuit modeling/simulation tools
• Knowledge of power electronics control theory
• Proficiency with EE tools (Oscilloscopes, Power Analyzers, Network Analyzers, Signal Generators etc.)
• Experience with power semiconductor selection, gate drive, and protection circuit design
• Proven ability to work independently on an electronics design project
• Clear verbal and written communication skills
• A passion for hands-on hardware development
• A “collaborate-first” mindset and have successfully communicated across a range of teams and personalities

Nice-to-haves

• Experience designing high voltage (480VAC or 800VDC range) systems
• Experience designing kW-level power electronics
• Experience in the full hardware development life cycle, from requirements development to manufacturing support
• Experience working at a startup or rapid development environment
• Experience with Altium

Does your experience not meet all of our posted requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to positions unless they meet every listed requirement. At Mainspring, we are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, flexible, and collaborative environment, so if you want to help us transition the world to clean and affordable electricity, and don’t meet all posted requirements for a particular role, we’d still love to hear from you. Mainspring can sometimes be flexible enough to shift responsibilities for the right person, or otherwise identify open or upcoming roles that may better fit your professional background.

In more traditional words, Mainspring Energy, Inc is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

This compensation and benefits information is based on Mainspring Energy's estimate as of the date of publication and may be modified in the future. We generally do not negotiate on salary once we have made an offer. The level of pay within the range will depend on a variety of job-related factors that may include location, relevant prior experience and/or education, or particular skills and expertise. New hires joining the company tend to be paid within the starting base pay range noted above, with opportunities to increase pay over time based on development of additional skills, competencies, and company-specific knowledge.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

This role is an amazing growth opportunity, where you will work closely with and learn from a small team of top-caliber power electronics engineers. Working together, you will jointly own all the custom power electronics within our system.

This is a hybrid position (onsite + remote) at our Menlo Park HQ. It will require you to be onsite as required to perform testing, troubleshooting, manufacturing support, etc. The salary will be adjusted to reflect local market conditions based on employee location as well as the experience of the employee. Along with the base salary, Mainspring offers pre-IPO stock options + benefits.