Embedded Controls Systems Engineering Manager

Mainspring Energy

300

Menlo Park, CA

Posted on: 2026-09-08

Category: energy

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Employment type:

Full time

Experience required:

Intermediate

Salary

$168,000.00 - $198,000.00

About the company:

Mainspring Energy is a power infrastructure company that designs and manufactures the Linear Generator, a novel primary power solution that delivers firm, flexible, and low-emissions electricity at the point of need. The company serves a wide range of markets including utilities, data centers, enterprise customers, and industrial operations, offering modular units that can be deployed quickly and scaled from hundreds of kilowatts to hundreds of megawatts. The Linear Generator is capable of operating on multiple fuels including natural gas, biogas, and field gas, and is designed to transition seamlessly to zero-carbon fuels over 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

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.

Job Overview

We are seeking an experienced Systems Engineering Manager - Embedded Controls to lead the architectural definition, requirements breakdown, and systems-level integration of our complex electro-mechanical product ecosystem.

In this role, you will own the Systems Engineering V-model across our digital and control stack. You will lead a multidisciplinary team responsible for turning high-level product goals into precise functional requirements, allocation budgets, and Interface Control Documents (ICDs) spanning Control Algorithms, Embedded Firmware, and Cloud SW Platforms. While you will not manage mechanical CAD or structural design directly, you will act as the primary systems partner to our Mechanical and Electrical Engineering teams to ensure physical realities align seamlessly with our digital controls architecture.

Key Responsibilities

1. Systems Architecture & Requirements Decomposition

Lead top-down requirements engineering: translate product roadmap goals into technical system-level specifications, performance budgets (latency, power, bandwidth), and safety metrics

Own system-level functional breakdown and allocation across Controls, Embedded Software, and Cloud SW layers

Author and maintain Interface Control Documents (ICDs), system state machines, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test plans

Drive architectural trade studies balancing multiple solutions against customer and organizational needs

2. Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Alignment

Build, mentor, and manage a high-performing team of Systems and Controls Engineers

Drive tight technical alignment with partner engineering teams:

Embedded SW: Partner on RTOS task allocation, driver APIs, and execution time budgets

Cloud SW: Partner on telemetry schemas, remote command interfaces, edge-to-cloud security, and Over-the-Air (OTA) update frameworks

Mechanical & Electrical: Collaborate on sensor/actuator selection, dynamic plant modeling, pinouts, dynamic load limits, and thermal envelopes

Establish modern Systems Engineering processes (Model-Based Systems Engineering, automated requirement traceability, CI/CD for HIL testing)

3. Controls & Algorithmic Integration

Oversee the design, modeling (C++/Python), and validation of closed-loop control systems, state estimation, and sensor fusion algorithms

Ensure control models translate cleanly to target hardware execution without violating timing or memory constraints

Qualifications & Key Requirements

Education: B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Mechatronics, Computer Engineering, or a related quantitative field

Experience: 8+ years total engineering experience in complex connected physical systems (e.g., robotics, autonomous systems, medical devices, IoT hardware, aerospace, or automotive), with 2+ years in technical leadership/people management

Systems Mastery: Proven track record owning the Systems V-model, writing system specifications, defining ICDs, and conducting system-level trade studies

Full-Stack Context:

Deep knowledge of closed-loop control theory (PID, state-space, trajectory planning, system identification).

Strong working knowledge of embedded real-time systems (C/C++, RTOS, SPI/I2C/CAN buses)

Practical understanding of cloud architecture patterns (MQTT/gRPC APIs, fleet management, telemetry pipelines, OTA architectures)

Partner Alignment: Comfort working closely with Mechanical Engineers to incorporate physical dynamics, mass properties, and thermal/kinematic limits into digital system models