Senior Software Engineer, Power Plant Software

Form Energy; Berkeley (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Stock options

Comprehensive benefits

Paid parental leave

Generous vacation

Job summary

Form Energy in Berkeley is hiring a backend software engineer to develop the site control software deployed with our iron‑air batteries. As part of the Plant Software team, you will build and maintain production backend services that provide monitoring, visibility, and control of the full battery system—from the power plant level down to individual cells—working closely with field, firmware, hardware, and data engineers.

Relocation assistance is available.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience developing and maintaining production backend services, distributed systems, or edge applications.
• Strong backend development skills with API design, asynchronous communication, and service-oriented architectures.
• Root-cause troubleshooting mindset across real-world or simulated environments.
• Cross-functional collaboration with hardware, firmware, or operations teams.
• Bonus: familiarity with Go, gRPC, Protobuf, or industrial protocols (Modbus, DNP3, CAN).
• Interest in energy storage, renewables, and industrial power systems.

Responsibilities

• Build Edge & Local Services: high-reliability backend for real-time monitoring and control.
• Drive Full Feature Lifecycles: end-to-end feature ownership, tests, and field deployments.
• Team Collaboration & Continuous Improvement: participate in code and design reviews.
• Field Support: on-call rotations to troubleshoot software in active installations.
• Ensure Operational Reliability: robust observability and fail-safe mechanisms for mission‑critical infra.

Skills

5+ years exp

Backend development

API design

SOA

Troubleshooting

Tools

Go

gRPC

Protobuf

Modbus

DNP3

CAN

Job description

Are you ready to build America’s energy future? Form Energy is an American manufacturing and energy technology company. We’re revolutionizing energy storage with cost-effective, multi-day technology designed to keep the electric grid secure and reliable, even during extended periods of stress. By strengthening the electric system and reimagining what’s possible, we’re giving clean energy a whole new form! In recent years, Form Energy has earned a number of accolades, including being named by TIME as a “Best Invention”, MIT Technology Review as a “Top Climate Tech Company To Watch”, and Fast Company as “One of the Next Big Things In Tech”. We are making rapid progress on our mission of delivering energy storage for a better world, and our team is growing just as rapidly to meet demand. We have signed contracts with leading electric utilities across the United States and production of our iron‑air batteries is underway at our first high‑volume manufacturing facility in West Virginia. Working for Form Energy is more than just a job, it’s a chance to be part of something extraordinary. And now - right as we significantly scale up battery manufacturing - might be the most exciting moment in the company’s history to join. We are assembling a team of highly talented and driven individuals across the country. Driven by our core values of humanity, excellence, and creativity, our team is determined to deliver on our mission and transform the energy landscape for the better.

Role Description

Form Energy is hiring a backend software engineer to develop the site control software that is deployed to the field with our batteries. As part of the Plant Software team, you will develop and maintain software that provides monitoring, visibility, and control of the full battery system, all the way from the power plant level down to individual battery cells. You’ll work closely with Form’s field engineers, firmware engineers, mechanical and electrical engineers, and data platform engineers. This is an exciting opportunity to help shape and be part of the growth of a fast-moving company with breakthrough technology and an incredible mission!

Relocation assistance is available.

What you’ll do

• Build Edge & Local Services: develop and maintain high-reliability backend application-layer services and infrastructure for real-time monitoring, visibility, and control.
• Drive Full Feature Lifecycles: Own technical features end-to-end, translating operational requirements into scalable designs and production code, defining automated tests, and field deployments.
• Team Collaboration & Continuous Improvement: Actively participate in code reviews, design reviews, and engineering standard-setting.
• Field Support: Participate in the team’s on-call support and onsite testing rotations, distributed equally across all team members, to troubleshoot and validate software in active installations.
• Ensure Operational Reliability: Build robust observability, diagnostic tools, and fail-safe mechanisms to ensure high availability for mission‑critical infrastructure.

What you’ll bring

• 5+ years of software engineering experience developing and maintaining production backend services, distributed systems, or edge applications.
• Strong backend development skills with demonstrated proficiency in API design, asynchronous communication, and service-oriented architectures.
• Root-cause troubleshooting mindset: Comfort working through complex system issues, including debugging in real-world or simulated environments.
• Cross-functional collaboration: Track record of partnering effectively with non-software engineering teams (e.g., hardware, firmware, or operations) to define requirements and solve interdisciplinary problems.
• Bonus points for familiarity with Go, gRPC, Protobuf, or industrial communication protocols (Modbus, DNP3, CAN, etc.)
• Excitement for learning about energy storage, renewables, and industrial power systems (or bonus points for experience!).

Humanity is a cornerstone of Form Energy’s culture, and we make sure our compensation and benefits reflect that.

Form Energy offers competitive salaries, stock options, and a holistic benefits package to ensure all employees have what they need to thrive while working here. When it comes to you and your family’s health, we cover 100% of medical, dental, and vision premiums for full-time employees - and 80% of healthcare premiums for dependents. This starts from day one. We also offer at least 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents (up to 20 weeks for birthing parents), and generous vacation policies to give employees time to recharge when needed.

To build America’s energy future, we need everyone at the table. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply to our open jobs.

If you may require reasonable accommodations to participate in our interview process, please contact [e-mail]. Requests for accommodations will be treated with discretion.

Form Energy is committed to maintaining the privacy of our applicants. Please be aware that we will never solicit sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers or bank account details during the recruiting or hiring process.