R&D Engineer – Mechanical/Electrical Systems

Standard Thermal; Woodinville, Northern (WA, KY); Hybrid; USD 95,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Competitive salary

Job summary

Standard Thermal is pioneering low-cost thermal energy storage using earth as a thermal battery. The team develops mechanical and electro‑mechanical systems for field deployments and industrial use, with a focus on robust, scalable solutions and rapid learning in lab and outdoor environments.

The role emphasizes deep hands‑on work, cross‑disciplinary design, and end‑to‑end problem solving, with travel for deployments and commissioning as needed.

Qualifications

• BS/MS in mechanical or electrical engineering or equivalent practical experience.
• Hands-on, project-based experience building systems.
• End-to-end problem solving demonstrated.
• Strong foundation in heat transfer, fluid mechanics, mechanics of materials, electrical circuits.
• Comfortable with hand calculations and simple models before detailed design.
• Experience in industrial/process environments and field deployments.
• Willingness to travel for field work and commissioning.

Responsibilities

• Own problems end-to-end from design through build, test, iteration, and scale-up.
• Design and build mechanical and electro-mechanical hardware for development and field deployments.
• Cross disciplinary work across mechanical, electrical, sensors, controllers, and instrumentation.
• Aim for aggressive simplification to meet cost targets.
• Scale benchtop results to fieldable systems with manufacturability, cost, schedule, and reliability in mind.
• Support field deployments and travel for commissioning and vendor/site visits.

Skills

Hands-on engineering

Prototype development

Problem solving

CAD design

Electrical systems

Education

BS/MS in mechanical or electrical engineering

Equivalent practical experience

Tools

CAD

Spreadsheet modeling

Job description

Standard Thermal is developing and deploying the world’s lowest-cost thermal energy storage technology, using earth as a thermal battery. We deliver a year-round steady supply of thermal energy to industrial consumers by buffering solar PV energy through a large thermal battery. To do this, we are building and field-testing thermal systems that combine mechanical hardware, heat transfer, electrical power, instrumentation, controls, and standard heavy construction methods.

You will be a load-bearing member of a small, fast-moving team, with significant responsibility for the systems that we deploy. Systems you develop will ultimately be deployed at enormous scale, presenting a unique opportunity for individual contributions to have outsized impact.

What you will do

• Own problems end-to-end: Solve problems from first-principles reasoning through design, build, test, iteration, and scale-up.
• Design and build hardware: Ideate and build mechanical and electro-mechanical systems supporting ongoing development and field deployments.
• Cross disciplinary boundaries: Design and build systems that include mechanical assemblies, sensors, controllers, heaters, and other electrical/mechanical components.
• Simplify aggressively: Our cost requirements necessitate ruthless adherence to simplification.
• Scale what works: Help translate benchtop and numerical modeling results into fieldable and scalable systems, with attention to manufacturability, cost, schedule, reliability, and serviceability.
• Support field deployments: Travel as needed for building and commissioning test systems, and customer/vendor site visits.

What we are looking for

• BS/MS in mechanical or electrical engineering or related field, or equivalent practical experience. Capability is more important than credentials.
• Clear evidence that you enjoy building things. Past work projects, personal side projects, automotive work, Formula SAE, robotics, rocketry, or other similar hands‑on experience all count.
• Demonstrated evidence of end-to-end problem solving.
• Broad foundation in physical sciences. Strong working knowledge of the governing principles of heat transfer, fluid mechanics, mechanics of materials, electrical circuits, and related fields.
• Fluency with engineering calculations. Comfortable rapidly bounding unfamiliar problems using hand calculations, order-of-magnitude estimates, and simple spreadsheet models before moving to detailed design or simulation.
• Quantitative sanity checking. Develop an independent expectation for what an answer should look like from first-principles reasoning, and recognize when a measurement, simulation, or vendor proposal is physically implausible.
• Comfort moving between mechanical design/CAD, electrical component selection, sensors/instrumentation, data acquisition, troubleshooting, and experimental work, with a preference for experience in industrial process environments.
• Bias towards practical utility and rapid learning. You care about whether the system works and is cost-effective in practice.
• Low ego, high ownership. Comfortable rapidly changing paths when evidence and test results indicate, and asking for help or input when needed.
• Eagerness to work hands‑on in both lab and outdoor field environments and get dirty when the job requires.

Details: Competitive salary, equity, and benefits.