Senior Electronics Engineer

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 Span engineering team is made of passionate people with expertise in electronics, mechanical design, energy systems, and embedded software. We are seeking an experienced and driven electrical engineer to own critical electronic and electrical components of the Span panel through all stages of development. As the senior design engineer, you will be responsible for building reliable, cost-effective energy management hardware for the Span panel that will ship to market.

In this role, you will:

• Own complex but cost-effective PCB/assembly designs with precision analog, power, and digital content.
• Design or specify magnetic components and wire harness assemblies.
• Collaborate with internal and external teams on the specification of mechanical interfaces, thermal interfaces, and overall product function.
• Choose technologies and rapidly/efficiently validate bench-level prototypes.
• Develop and validate highly robust repeatable power and analog circuit topologies.
• Design power, mixed-signal, and digital circuits and circuit components
• Develop, simulate, and perform tests related to functional performance, regulatory compliance, and reliability, with limited resources.
• Interpret UL and IEC standards to extract construction and test requirements, and produce designs that meet these requirements without excessive iteration.
• Place and route PCB layouts to comply with creepage and clearance rules, high voltage safety concerns, high-speed signal integrity requirements, low noise analog design best practices, EMC/EMI regulations, and thermal and mechanical design requirements.
• Produce completed design packages for PCBAs including well-curated BOM, clear schematic capture, annotation, and mechanical assembly/drill/conformal coat drawings.
• Document design requirements and work with external contractors for layout and other support activities when necessary.
• Work with contract manufacturers to incorporate DFM feedback into the design process, creating high yield cost-effective designs.

About You

Required Qualifications

• We are seeking a seasoned electrical engineer who has:
• BS or MS in Electrical Engineering or Electrical Engineering/Computer Science.
• Hands-on approach whether it be building a prototype or performing testing.
• Experience owning designs, specifying system interfaces, and architecture with diverse teams under tight timelines.
• Proficiency in analog and mixed-signal circuit design.
• Familiarity with power electronics.
• Familiarity with high voltage design (which in our context means up to 600V)
• Strong grasp on fundamentals covering circuit analysis, electromagnetics, as well as basic feedback and control theory.
• Experience validating design concepts with simple bench tests.
• Ability to think creatively and synthesize novel, cost-effective circuits to solve unique design problems.
• Experience working closely with contract manufacturers and suppliers.
• Broad knowledge of component types, including availability and supply chain concerns.
• Altium Designer (or equivalent Altium product) experience

Bonus Qualifications

We would love to hire someone who has:

• Demonstrated success working in a cross-disciplinary, multi-cultural environment.
• Designed switch-mode power supplies involving high (>60V) voltage, high current, high power, or high efficiency
• Designed magnetic devices such as transformers or inductors.
• Designed electromechanical devices such as solenoid actuators or relays.
• Knowledge of national and international safety and regulatory requirements such as UL, National Electric Code(NEC), FCC, IEC, and ISO.
• Design experience with products that connect to the electrical grid.
• Experience meeting IEC 61000-4-x requirements in design, especially ESD, surge, and EFT.
• Designed high voltage isolated power and data interfaces.
• Experience with the development of performance validation, environmental, and reliability tests.
• Knowledge of design for test requirements in support of both flying probe or ICT, and functional tests.
• Designed functional tests for PCBAs at the manufacturing end of the line.
• Deployed or supported functional tests in a large-scale manufacturing environment.
• Analyzed field failures, and responded with design or manufacturing process changes.
• Supported both prototype and high-volume production.
• 5 years of experience developing products from initial concepts to mass production.

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.