Mechanical Design Engineer - Metal Structures

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

Mainspring is seeking Mechanical Design Engineers at the Senior or Staff Engineer levels with a focus on designing structures to withstand high forces while maintaining or improving functionality and system level performance. In this role, you will design and develop components and subsystems with challenging technical requirements from initial concept through successful manufacturing launch. You will develop new concepts and manage existing concepts through development, deployment, and manufacturing. At staff level, you will lead projects with potential for direct reports. Mainspring is a great place for engineers with a variety of areas of deep expertise, who like to solve challenging cross-functional problems with a mix of computational analysis, hands-on engineering and team effort. Core responsibilities will include the following.

• Lead and participate in brainstorming activities to develop novel ways to improve all aspects of the Linear Generator.
• Develop and optimize key mechanical subsystems of the Linear Generator to drive down cost, improve performance, and deliver high reliability.
• 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 new 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 + 4 years.
• Staff Level: BS + 10 years or MS + 7 years.
• Near expert level understanding of sheet metal and stamping/forming operations. Can talk in detail about past experiences during the interview process.
• Demonstrable experience optimizing system level designs given competing technical and functional requirements. Experience solving problems creatively when optimizing packaging within a system with a track record for delivering cost-effective design solutions into manufacturing.
• Solid understanding of metal castings, plastic manufacturing methods, welding/fabrication, hardware component selection, and finishing processes with the ability to identify and resolve design for manufacturability issues.
• Demonstrated attention to detail with the ability to generate and review design documentation, bill of materials, work instructions and test reports.
• Fluent in SolidWorks or comparable CAD package. Experience with using PDM or a similar CAD version control system is preferred.
• Technical proficiency with datum selection and tolerance stackup analysis.
• Self-starter with a proven ability to deliver functional product designs in a rapid development environment. Experience with a full design lifecycle from concept through manufacturing support is preferred
• Interest in developing creative and cost effective solutions to enable the deployment of zero carbon energy technology at large scale.

The Bay Area salary for this role is $130k-198k 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.