Modeling Engineer, Power Systems

Our Mission  

At SPAN, we are building products to enable the rapid adoption of renewable energy and decarbonization of buildings. As more distributed energy resources like solar and storage come integrated into the power grid, it is increasingly important to be able to improve the technology that interfaces the power grid, the home, and those distributed energy resources. SPAN’s smart panel replaces the electrical panel to become the center for connected power in the home.  With SPAN, homeowners receive all the safety features of a standard panel with revolutionary insights and edge-of-grid controls through our mobile app.

The Role 

SPAN’s Power System’s group is seeking a driven modeling engineer to lead the development of a highly-flexible simulation platform with the utility for both the software- and hardware-in-the loop. The modeling engineer will participate in the development of the physics-informed foundational modeling infrastructure, from the device-level all the way up to the system-level, used by hardware, firmware, controls, and mechanical teams to evaluate technologies and partnerships that augment SPAN’s Panel and Drive products and accelerate electrifying homes. Ideal candidates are desired to possess an in-depth knowledge of power electronics including thermal and electric circuits as well as system-level integration, control theory, and embedded systems, for the development of analytical and computational models that accurately predict the dynamic component and systems-level physics behavior for currently available and future home electrification technologies.

In this role, you will:

• Build an automated efficient physics-informed modeling infrastructure, leveraging analytical and computational models, that will be used by hardware and design engineers to drive component tradeoff studies, product specifications, system design, integration, and system optimization analyses for the Span Panel, Span Drive, and partner home electrification hardware.
• Collaborate with hardware engineers to specify product experiments to verify and validate component and system modeling efforts; collaborate with engineers and scientists across teams to interpret test data.
• Load management and source performance, degradation, and fault prognosis and diagnosis of Span Panel and Drive products when integrated with various technologies across a number of manufacturers, including electric vehicle batteries, home energy storage systems, solar arrays, power electronics inverters and converters, and home appliances and thermal systems.
• Collaborate with the software backend team to evaluate compute technologies and services for improving the accuracy, efficiency, security, and computational time of power systems simulations.
• Evaluate the scalability of hardware component and home electrical system models for integration into utility-level power systems and interactions with the grid under a wide range of operating conditions, and incorporate high granularity and accuracy where simulation acceleration is a priority.
• Collaborate with controls and firmware teams to integrate the physics-informed modeling infrastructure with a development environment that accurately emulates the code, processor architecture, analog-to-digital measurement sensors, and logic-level actuators for the Span Panel, Span Drive, and partner home electrification hardware.
• Support Span’s executive staff, product, and business team with techno-economic simulation and analysis to evaluate the viability of research and development projects, technology partnerships, and our product roadmap.
• Build and manage a resource plan and timeline for model development, including key hires that enrich Span’s modeling capabilities.

About You 

We are seeking modeling engineer who has:

• MS in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Applied Mathematics, or similar technical field
• 5+ years of experience developing power electronics or power systems models in the automotive, energy, or aerospace industries.
• Expert in MathWorks/Simulink, Python, and/or Julia as a scientific analysis and modeling platform.
• Experience building and maintaining physics-based/informed electromechanical, electrochemical, and electrothermal models for electrical components used in power electronics converters, electric machines, energy storage systems, and solar panels.
• Familiar with Finite Element Analysis as well the tradeoffs between implicit and explicit solvers used in numerical analysis.
• Strong data aggregation, analysis, and visualization skills.
• Proficiency with basic measurement tools (e.g. power analyzers, scopes, and thermocouples).

Life at SPAN

Why SPAN?

SPAN offers a unique opportunity at a startup based in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco. We are a small, diverse team of creative thinkers. We value open communication, teamwork, and a make-it-happen attitude - no job is too big or too small. We strive to make change by imagining what the future could be and building a product to complete that vision. We are looking to grow our team with talented people who are on the same mission to shape the future of energy.

Working at SPAN, you can expect:

• Competitive compensation and early equity at a well-funded, fast-growing, venture-backed company (read more on why Amazon and others invested in SPAN here and here)
• A sunny 20,000 sq ft hardware lab + office space in SOMA, a stone’s throw from Caltrain and close to BART
• Flexible hours and vacation time - we simultaneously work hard and make space for the important stuff
• Additional SPAN holidays in celebration of causes we believe in (i.e. Black History Day, Women’s History Day, Earth Day and Gay Pride & Juneteenth among others)
• Comprehensive benefits including a choice of medical plans; dental, vision, life and disability insurance
• Diversity - we are serious about this. 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. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.