Mechanical Engineer, Continuous Improvement (Senior to Staff)

Mechanical Engineer, Continuous Improvement (Senior to Staff)

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 .

Do you have the ability to fundamentally redesign a variety of parts, components and subsystems to knock out lingering problems?

Do you have a knack for diagnosing difficult real-world issues escalating from product in the field?

Have you reviewed a design and been able to predict issues that will accelerate its end of life?

Have you had to invent a tool to service a component or system in the field or changed a process to make routine service much easier?

If you are obsessed with solving real functional design problems for complex equipment then you can make an impact here at Mainspring Energy. This Mechanical Engineer will focus on continuous improvements to our “frictionless” Linear Generator hardware. In many cases, this will involve extensive root cause analysis, creative troubleshooting, broad engineering knowledge, fast problem solving, creating and running tests, evaluating field and test data, interfacing with design team, and general project management. Ultimately, you will be asked to validate a solution and help shepard that solution through an ECO process.

Core responsibilities:

Address critical mechanical field failures for the Linear Generator. Use field data to track and prioritize each issue over time, determining root cause, designing solutions, qualifying the changes, and pushing the changes into production / field retrofits though an ECO process.

Interface with the manufacturing and supply chain teams to address production issues. Use test and manufacturing data to track and prioritize each issue over time, determining root cause, designing solutions, qualifying the changes, and pushing the changes into production / field retrofits though an ECO process.

Create, optimize, and manage internal improvement systems that feed this learning back into the design process to reduce/eliminate future field or production failures. Intimate involvement with the design process to eliminate as many issues as possible.

Work with reliability and test teams to validate systems and components with fast cycles of learning for deployment into the next generation of Linear Generators

Collaborate cross-functionally with manufacturing engineering, NPI, and external suppliers to rapidly deploy designs into production.

Qualifications

• Degree in Mechanical Engineering or a similar engineering field from an accredited institution. Experience and degree will determine level, but minimum requirements are
  • Senior Level: BS + 6 years or MS + 5 years.
  • Staff Level: BS + 11 years or MS + 10 years.
• Able to show examples of situations where there has been extensive experience using data driven root cause analysis to solve complex problems.
• Demonstrable experience solving failures in system level designs with competing technical and functional requirements.
• Expert knowledge of tolerance stack ups and CMMs. Solid understanding and experience with at least four of the following manufacturing methods: casting, forging, sheet metal, stamping/forming operations, hydroforming, welding/fabrication, machining, hardware component selection and finishing processes with the ability to identify and resolve design for manufacturability issues.
• Fluent in SolidWorks or comparable CAD package. Experience with using PDM or a similar CAD version control system is preferred. Proficiency with structural FEA is a plus.

The Bay Area salary for this role is $130k-$140k 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.