Senior Sustaining Controls Engineer - Mainspring Energy, Inc.

Company Overview

Driven by our vision of the affordable, reliable, net-zero carbon grid of the future, Mainspring has developed a new category of power generation — the linear generator — that delivers local, scalable, and fuel-flexible power to help accelerate the transition to the net-zero carbon grid.

The unique combination of attributes offered by Mainspring’s linear generator enables applications on both the commercial and utility sides of the meter for the $816B global electricity equipment market. We serve a wide range of Fortune 500 customers across markets and industries as well as top-tier utilities and other gridside providers.

We are looking to build relationships with people who share our values:

• Pragmatic Optimism. Building a new category of world-class power generation requires the optimism of ambition and creativity, balanced with practicality to solve problems efficiently. The challenges that arise are opportunities for growth.

• Excellence without Ego. We bring expertise and commitment to creating the best customer experience, from sales to deployment and service, just as we apply deep technical rigor to building and delivering world-class products. We strive for excellence and behave as leaders with the humility to acknowledge our challenges, both collectively and as individual contributors.

• Proactive Collaboration. The integration and cross-disciplinary nature of Mainspring’s business requires intentionally seeking out others who bring different skills, perspectives, and priorities. Our culture of inclusion and respect extends beyond our team to interactions with our partners and customers.

Mainspring is based in Menlo Park and has partnered with top-tier investors and utilities such as Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, NextEra, and American Electric Power. More information can be found at www.mainspringenergy.com.

Responsibilities

The Senior Sustaining Controls Engineer will play a crucial role in the success of our product automatically and reliably fulfilling customers’ electricity demand. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to diagnose and resolve issues, differentiate between mechanical, electrical, and software-related problems, and document solutions to increase product reliability and reduce maintenance needs. This position is ideal for a controls expert who enjoys working on complex systems and has a keen eye for detail.

• Manage, document, and resolve field issues ensuring clear communication and follow-up on resolutions and improving the process.

• Diagnose root causes of system issues, distinguishing between mechanical, electrical, and software-related problems.

• Categorize, systematize, and address gaps in automated system behavior.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to provide technical support and enhance system behavior.

• Debug and troubleshoot existing control algorithms to improve system performance and reliability.

• Analyze and understand C++ code to interpret behavior.

• Adjust feature designs to address field issues.

• Use Python for data analysis, scripting, and system diagnostics.

• Tune control gains and calibrate systems, documenting the process for future reference.

• Identify and address gaps in system performance, ensuring continuous improvement.

• Support reliability and manufacturing testing, contributing to the system's life cycle maintenance.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in successful root cause analysis of complex software-mechatronic systems

• Driven and self-directed systems-thinker responsible for creating or improving effective sustaining engineering processes

• Excellent communicator with demonstrated collaboration across multidisciplinary teams

• Degree in mechanical or electrical engineering with controls focus and industrial experience

  • Engineer level: BS and two years or MS and one year

  • Senior level: BS and four years or MS and three years

The Bay Area salary for this role is $130k-$154k base + pre-IPO stock options + benefits. This position is on-site in Menlo Park, CA. The salary will be adjusted based on the experience of the employee.

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.