Staff Data Engineer

Form Energy; Somerville (MA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Form Energy is seeking a Staff Data Engineer to build and operate data systems behind deployed energy storage projects. You will turn field telemetry into reliable data and lead design of novel data solutions, working across data engineering, field operations, hardware, and analytics teams.

You will focus on production-grade pipelines, time-series data, and scalable data platforms, with relocation support and a fast-moving mission-driven environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, applied mathematics, software engineering, data engineering or computer engineering with 7+ years of data or software engineering experience.
• Strong production programming in Python, Scala, Java or Go.
• Experience building and operating production data pipelines with reliability and observability.
• Experience with open table formats (Iceberg or Delta Lake) and streaming systems (Kafka or Kinesis).
• Familiarity with orchestration (Dagster, Prefect, Airflow) and IaC (Pulumi/Terraform) on AWS.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and a track record of leading design initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate streaming and batch pipelines turning real-time telemetry into reliable datasets.
• Lead the design of data solutions with technical docs and RFCs.
• Model time-series and event data for downstream analytics and applications.
• Build data orchestration for reliable, observable, testable workflows.
• Stand up and manage AWS infrastructure and IaC tooling.
• Collaborate with field ops, hardware/controls engineers, and analytics teams.
• Share in on-call rotation to keep critical data flowing.
• Raise the engineering bar through code reviews and mentorship.

Skills

Python

Scala

Java

Go

Communication

On-call

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science, applied mathematics, software engineering, data engineering or computer engineering

Tools

Apache Spark

dbt

Apache Iceberg

Delta Lake

Kafka

Kinesis

Dagster

Prefect

Airflow

Pulumi

Terraform

AWS

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.

Feeling energized to make a meaningful impact on the world? Then keep reading - you've come to the right place.

Role Description

Form Energy is hiring a Staff Data Engineer to build the data systems behind our deployed energy storage projects, turning real-time field telemetry into reliable, trustworthy data the rest of the company can build on. As a hands-on senior individual contributor and technical lead, you'll build and operate our operational-telemetry data products and independently lead the design of novel data solutions, raising the bar for data reliability and engineering practice by example. Your focus starts with commercial project operational telemetry and is likely to extend into manufacturing and R&D data over time, working within our data engineering group and partnering closely with field operations, hardware and controls engineers, and the analysts and application teams who depend on your data. 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:

• Design, build, and operate the streaming and batch pipelines that turn real-time telemetry from deployed energy-storage systems into reliable, well-modeled, query-ready datasets, spanning ingestion, transformation, storage in open table formats, and serving to downstream consumers.

• Take a lead role across the operational-telemetry data products, building on and extending the core streaming platform rather than reinventing it.

• Independently lead the design of novel data solutions, producing technical design docs and RFCs and driving them to alignment across the data, applications, and field-facing stakeholders they touch.

• Model and serve time-series and event data for downstream analytics, monitoring, and applications, using open table formats (Iceberg / Delta Lake) and time-series stores.

• Build and maintain data orchestration (Dagster, Prefect, or Airflow) for workflows that are reliable, observable, and testable.

• Stand up and manage the AWS infrastructure and infrastructure-as-code (Pulumi and/or Terraform) your pipelines run on.

• Partner with field operations, hardware/controls engineers, and analytics/application consumers to translate operational needs into trustworthy, well-documented data.

• Share in an on-call rotation to keep ops-critical data flowing.

• Raise the engineering bar through code review, mentorship, and technical influence that reaches beyond the immediate team.

What you'll bring:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, applied mathematics, software engineering, data engineering or computer engineering plus 7+ years of data or software engineering experience, including building and operating production data pipelines where reliability is operationally critical.

• Strong production programming in Python, Scala, Java, or Go.

• Hands-on experience with data transformation tools such as Apache Spark (PySpark and/or Scala) and dbt.

• Experience with open table formats such as Apache Iceberg or Delta Lake.

• Experience with streaming data systems, including Kafka and/or Kinesis.

• Experience with orchestration frameworks such as Dagster, Prefect, or Airflow.

• AWS experience, plus infrastructure-as-code with Pulumi and/or Terraform.

• A track record of independently leading the design of novel solutions, including preparing technical design docs and/or RFCs.

• Excellent communication and organizational skills, and comfort participating in an on-call rotation.

• Nice to have: Databricks and/or Snowflake; industrial IoT experience and edge protocols (MQTT, Modbus, OPC-UA); time-series databases (InfluxDB, TimescaleDB, ClickHouse, Druid); REST APIs and webhooks; energy, hardware, or other physical-systems domain background.

#LI-Onsite

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.