Lab Manager

Our Mission

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. 

The Role

SPAN’s Systems Engineering team is a cross-functional team that supports the SPAN engineering organization across the board. We are responsible for SPAN’s lab space and physical test infrastructure, run hardware and software tests and create hardware and software for automated testing. As part of Systems Engineering, you’ll get to work with teams across the company, and will get to work with a high degree of autonomy and ownership.

As the first Lab Manager in our new South San Francisco lab you will be responsible for project Managing electrical and facility upgrades; help design improved electrical layout and source contractors.  We will look to you for a variety of hands-on tasks, including assembling prototypes, building test rigs, stocking the lab, and managing to ship and receive. You’ll help us design, build, and maintain our next-generation lab; help with a variety of fabrication and facilities projects, and generally support the engineering team.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Work with engineering + R&D teams to plan out lab space allocation / build out the space intelligently
• Purchase equipment, tools, furniture, and consumables for the lab
• Hire and oversee test engineers and technicians to operate and maintain test rigs, equipment, and lab/shop areas
• Keep equipment calibrated and repaired
• Oversee build projects for new enclosures, rigs, labs, rooms etc
• Support one-off integration and troubleshooting efforts
• Develop clear processes for requesting, purchasing, installing, and maintaining new lab equipment and tooling
• Manage lab testing / fabrication resource scheduling and communicate to project managers and other stakeholders
• Support long-term testing projects (identify wear items, maintenance intervals, spares stock)
• Designing + building mechanical test fixtures and electrical test setups for the Span lab
• Building test harnesses and putting together prototypes
• Being an owner for the critical shipping/receiving department including setup, implementation, and continual process improvement
• Ensure on-time delivery to internal and external customers
• Perform packing/unpacking tasks and documentation as required
• Coordination of courier service to and from the manufacturing site
• Asset management and inventory control
• Build a team of  Lab Technicians

Provide key support for the FW, RMA, customer support, test, and product deployment teams by owning and tracking processes for inventory

Use of warehouse equipment (pallet jacks, straddle stacker, etc) and ability to lift heavy objects

Required Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in a fast-paced engineering development environment
• 2+ years of managing a team in a Lab environment
• Ability to operate and maintain a wide variety of hand and power tools, shop tools, and lab equipment
• Experience assembling 80/20, Unistrut, or similar mechanical systems
• Experience with electrical assembly (soldering, wire harnesses) or willingness/ability to learn
• Comfort reading + building from mechanical drawings
• Comfort with Atlassian Suite (Jira, Confluence)
• Strong interpersonal and communications skills
• Remain engaged, proactive, and positive in tough circumstances, owning assignments and taking full accountability for their success
• Positive attitude, eagerness to learn, and ability to change direction quickly
• Local Bay Area candidate (this is an in-office position)

Bonus Qualifications

• 5S experience
• Experience with home electrical wiring
• Experience using electrical instrumentation (DMM, oscilloscope, logic analyzer)
• Experience using 3D CAD (Solidworks) and rapid prototyping tools (3D printer, laser cutter)
• Familiarity with fabricators, prototype houses, machine shops, etc. in the Bay Area
• Experience outsourcing work, hiring and managing contractors, supervising projects
• First aid / AED / CPR training

Life at SPAN

SPAN embraces diversity and equal opportunity in a serious way. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. 

Headquartered in San Francisco’s vibrant SoMa neighborhood, we are an eclectic group of creative thinkers who value open communication, teamwork, and a ‘make it happen’ approach to addressing complex challenges. 

Our CEO, Arch Rao⁠—former head of the Tesla Powerwall team⁠—fosters an energetic and collaborative environment, with a strong emphasis on maintaining work-life-balance across the organization.

We’re hiring talented individuals who are driven by success and are passionate about shaping the future of renewable energy. If that sounds like you, we’d love for you to consider joining the rapidly growing team at SPAN.

The Perks:

⚡ Competitive compensation + equity grants at a well-funded, venture-backed company

⚡ Comprehensive benefits (including medical; dental, vision, life and disability insurance)

⚡ Comfortable, sunny office space located near BART and Caltrain public transit

⚡ Strong focus on teambuilding and company culture (events, meet-ups, clubs)

⚡ Flexible hours and unlimited PTO

Our Mission & Values:

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.

Our core values include:

• Making home energy more accessible, intuitive, and convenient.
• Enabling homes and vehicles to be powered by the sun.
• Building resilient homes with reliable power.
• All-electric everything.
• A more flexible & distributed grid.

Interested in joining our team? Submit an application today and we’ll be in touch with next steps!