Vice President, Electrical Engineering

Mainspring Energy; Menlo Park (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

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 leader will drive electrical hardware development, oversee cross-disciplinary teams, and coordinate with manufacturing and quality to deliver high-reliability, cost-efficient systems.

Based onsite at the Menlo Park HQ, you will report to the SVP of Engineering and contribute to a fast-paced startup

Qualifications

• Degree in electrical engineering with 16+ years of experience.
• 10+ years managing multi-disciplinary engineering teams.
• Proven track record commercializing heavy industrial power hardware.
• Experience designing complex systems that require cross-discipline tradeoffs across firmware, thermal, mechanical, electrical, supply chain, reliability, systems.
• Thrives in a fast-paced startup environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead all electrical hardware development for complex power electronics and controls boards, both inside the Linear Generator and also all of the grid integration equipment
• Manage the development systems and processes, product deliverables and roadmap, strategy and goals
• Manage a high-performing electrical team and work in close coordination with the controls and software teams
• Partner with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Quality to optimize products for DFM and cost
• Drive the compliance strategy to secure all critical regulatory certifications

Skills

Electrical engineering

Team leadership

Power electronics

High-volume manufacturing

Systems co-optimization

Education

B.S./M.S. in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Power electronics design tools

PCB design

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

The Linear Generator is unlike any other generator technology on the market - it is a system that couples a chemical reaction and thermally-driven expansion directly to a linear motor for energy generation and control - called the Adaptive Pressure Cycle. This puts the controls and power electronics at the center of the design, and we’re looking for a leader who can thrive in a dynamic environment with many systems-level tradeoffs to balance. It is important that they have a deep understanding in many of the critical areas: power electronics / motors / inverters, PCBA designs / mixed-signal routing, low-noise analog signal conditioning and high-EMI environments.

They must also have significant practical experience bringing power electronics to market, with a good understanding of high volume manufacturing and attaining high quality and reliability at low cost.

This person must be an excellent leader who personifies our core values and can grow the team to accomplish our goals. This position reports to the SVP of Engineering, and is expected to be onsite at least 60% of the time.

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.

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

• Pragmatic Optimism
• Excellence without Ego
• Proactive Collaboration

The Linear Generator is unlike any other generator technology on the market - it is a system that couples a chemical reaction and thermally-driven expansion directly to a linear motor for energy generation and control - called the Adaptive Pressure Cycle. This puts the controls and power electronics at the center of the design, and we’re looking for a leader who can thrive in a dynamic environment with many systems-level tradeoffs to balance. It is important that they have a deep understanding in many of the critical areas: power electronics / motors / inverters, PCBA designs / mixed-signal routing, low-noise analog signal conditioning and high-EMI environments.

They must also have significant practical experience bringing power electronics to market, with a good understanding of high volume manufacturing and attaining high quality and reliability at low cost.

This person must be an excellent leader who personifies our core values and can grow the team to accomplish our goals. This position reports to the SVP of Engineering, and is expected to be onsite at least 60% of the time.

Responsibilities

• Lead all electrical hardware development for complex power electronics and controls boards, both inside the Linear Generator and also all of the grid integration equipment
• Manage the development systems and processes, product deliverables and roadmap, strategy and goals
• Manage a high-performing electrical team and work in close coordination with the controls and software teams
• Partner with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Quality to optimize products for DFM and cost
• Drive the compliance strategy to secure all critical regulatory certifications

Required Qualifications

• Degree electrical engineering with 16+ years of experience, including 10+ years managing multi-disciplinary engineering teams
• Proven track record of commercializing heavy industrial power hardware, e.g. utility-scale generators, inverters, or microgrid systems, from initial topology and rapid prototyping through DFM, DFT, and high-volume utility-grade scaling
• Proven success growing and managing technical teams
• Experience designing complex systems that require complex engineering, risk, cost, and requirements tradeoffs to co-optimize across a wide variety of disciplines, e.g. firmware/software, thermal, mechanical, electrical, supply chain, reliability, systems, etc.
• Thrives in a fast-paced startup environment - building the company while building the product

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 position is onsite at our Menlo Park HQ. The salary will be adjusted to reflect local market conditions based on employee location as well as the experience of the employee. Along with base salary, Mainspring offers pre-IPO company equity through Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) + benefits.