Senior Mechanical Engineering Manager

SPAN develops products that accelerate the rapid adoption of renewable energy in the home. The flagship SPAN Smart Panel is the first true evolution for the traditional home electric panel, harnessing enhanced technology for metering, monitoring, and control. An expanded product suite of intelligent, integrated solutions radically lowers the cost and complexity of energy upgrades–including solar, batteries and EVs–empowering homeowners to be active, resilient, and informed players in the energy market.

At SPAN, we believe that powering your home with clean energy should be a simple and delightful experience that is at its essence human-centered and technology-forward.

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We are seeking a passionate and driven engineering manager to lead the development of market-leading hardware through all stages of a product’s development lifecycle. As a mechanical engineering manager, you will lead the execution of multiple programs and be accountable for meeting timelines and milestones. Candidates should be comfortable and excited to grow a team of highly skilled mechanical engineers to advance Span’s product portfolio. In this role, you will drive efforts to optimize our products, grow Span’s IP, and collaborate with our electrical, firmware, manufacturing, and reliability teams to implement technologies that electrify the home and delight our customers.

Expect ~4 days a week in the office in San Francisco. The Mechanical team’s success is based on tight collaboration with the cross-functional team, face-to-face meetings, and hands-on work with the prototyping and testing teams in our lab.

Our Products are extremely complex mechanically (thermals, safety, and reliabilty as difficult constraints), and you’d be responsible for providing the technical direction, decision making and to growing the team and executing on complex projects within tight timelines.

Responsibilities  

In this role, you will:

• Lead a mechanical engineering team of ~5 and oversee the development of the mechanical engineering for tight product schedules.
• Grow the ME program at Span to support development of mulitple new product developments and sustaining projects simultaneously.
• Set and measure goals for the mechanical engineering team. Lead mentoring and leadership growth.
• Support executive staff with business analysis of research and development projects and manufacturing options e.g. outsource versus internal to Span and which components are ripe for vertical integration.
• Define system architecture and create engineering requirements for components and systems.
• Collaborate with internal and external teams.
• Hands-on hardware analysis, bring-up, and thermal optimization.
• Work with contract manufacturers to have parts made to specification, to improve quality, and to improve yield.
• Own full product lifecycle: specification, design, prototype, certification, reliability, validation, and manufacturing.
• Step in to support IC work when needed - Designing and modeling components and assemblies, building, design validation, working with the part and assembly suppliers, etc.

We are seeking a seasoned mechanical engineer or engineering manager who has:

• BS in Mechanical Engineering or a similar field.
• Have 10+ years of experience developing hardware products for production. You have seen the full production cycle from ideation to manufacturing on multiple products. 3+ years leading direct reports.
• Have experience in static/dynamic structural, modal and thermal analysis using hand calculations as well as FEA software.
• Effectively communicate technical concepts, ideas and knowledge to other team members, including mentoring junior members of the team.
• Significant experience in Solidworks 3D CAD, 2D detailed drawings.
• Hands-on approach to hardware bring-up,  whether it be building a prototype or performing testing.
• Experience working closely with contract manufacturers and leading design for manufacturing.
• Remain engaged, proactive and positive in tough circumstances, owning assignments and taking full accountability for overall team success.
• Are passionate about renewable energy and energy storage.

Bonus Qualifications

We would love to hire someone who has:

• Experience leading a team, guiding multiple programs to success from the concept stage through manufacturing, applying a disciplined project development methodology.
• Experience developing performance validation, environmental testing, and reliability testing.
• Knowledge of national and international safety and regulatory requirements such as UL, National Electric Code(NEC), IEC, and ISO.
• Design experience with products that connect to the electrical grid, NEMA 3R enclosures, and/or complex thermal requirements.