Senior Staff Software Engineer

Are you ready to build America’s energy future? Form Energy is an American manufacturing and energy technology company. We’re revolutionizing energy storage with cost-effective, multi-day technology designed to keep the electric grid secure and reliable, even during extended periods of stress. By strengthening the electric system and reimagining what’s possible, we’re giving clean energy a whole new form! 

In recent years, Form Energy has earned a number of accolades, including being named by TIME as a “Best Invention”, MIT Technology Review as a “Top Climate Tech Company To Watch”, and Fast Company as “One of the Next Big Things In Tech”. We are making rapid progress on our mission of delivering energy storage for a better world, and our team is growing just as rapidly to meet demand. We have signed contracts with leading electric utilities across the United States and production of our iron-air batteries is underway at our first high-volume manufacturing facility in West Virginia.

Working for Form Energy is more than just a job, it’s a chance to be part of something extraordinary. And now - right as we significantly scale up battery manufacturing -  might be the most exciting moment in the company’s history to join. We are assembling a team of highly talented and driven individuals across the country. Driven by our core values of humanity, excellence, and creativity, our team is determined to deliver on our mission and transform the energy landscape for the better.

Feeling energized to make a meaningful impact on the world? Then keep reading - you’ve come to the right place.

Role Description

Form Energy is hiring a Senior Staff Software Engineer to be part of our growing Software Engineering organization. This organization is responsible for everything up and down our technology software stack, and is at the heart of making sure Form’s battery achieves the best performance possible. This is an exciting opportunity to help shape, and be part of a fast moving company, working on breakthrough technology, and an incredible mission.

In this position you will provide multi-domain technical leadership for the Software Platform that controls Form Energy’s next generation of Energy Storage Systems. You will lead development of the software platform for battery systems and gateways across key focus areas viz. architecture, implementation, safety and security, manufacturing readiness, and fleet operations. Translate program requirements into a coherent, scalable platform. Define clear interfaces with embedded systems, controls, cloud, and manufacturing. Drive platform abstraction and scalable system design. Build and maintain robust test infrastructure and enable secure remote access. Design for efficient sustaining engineering, security by default, and production scale deployment and operations. . Evaluate vendors and guide make versus buy decisions. Champion organization wide tooling. Build adaptable processes that align with and evolve team roadmaps, and create unified tooling that accelerates time to market. Drive internal and external development activities that fulfill product requirements and improve efficiency across the organization, using operational data to deliver measurable value.

What you'll do:

• Turn product requirements documents and program milestones into a staffed, sequenced backlog with clear acceptance criteria

• Lead project management and project engineering practices that convert product requirements documents and program gates into a staffed, sequenced backlog with measurable outcomes

• Own interfaces among embedded, controls, cloud, and data pipelines, with explicit API contracts and latency, reliability, and safety budgets

• Drive platform abstraction and middleware shared components that accelerate feature teams and reduce duplicate effort

• Define and maintain the embedded Linux and RTOS platform, including bootloaders, BSP, device drivers, packaging, and update pipelines across batteries, gateways, and site controllers

• Lead evaluation and integration of wired and wireless protocols (CAN, Modbus, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, LTE or 5G, UWB) and site networking

• Harden the stack with secure boot, key management, attestation, Software Bill of Materials (SBOM), signed updates, and coordinated vulnerability response, aligned with NERC CIP, ISO 27001, and IEC 62443

• Meet UL, IEC, and grid interconnect requirements by defining diagnostics, watchdogs, failover, and observability paths in partnership with Systems and Controls

• Build and maintain automated test infrastructure, including CI, hardware in the loop rigs, fault injection, and performance regression tests

• Define telemetry, logging, and over the air (OTA) policies, including staged rollout, rollback, and recovery, and close the loop from field data into the roadmap

• Optimize performance, power, storage wear, and reliability on constrained hardware, and document operating budgets for each product target

• Deliver factory safe software, secure provisioning, device identity and traceability, and test utilities, and support manufacturer bring up

• Evaluate vendors, run make versus buy analysis, and select fit for purpose tools and partners with clear acceptance criteria and SLAs

• Mentor senior engineers, run design reviews, drive decisions, align partners, and remove execution blockers

• Identify risks and planning gaps, and establish strategies to mitigate their impact

What you'll bring:

• 10+ years in embedded software for complex systems

• Experience with Linux internals in Embedded systems context including kernel, drivers, bootloaders, OTA, secure sandboxes, systemd, networking, etc.

• Proven Track record leading multi-disciplinary programs from concept to volume manufacturing

• Developed networked embedded applications with any or all of GRPC, HTTP, MQTT, CAN, ModbusTCP, etc.

• Strong written design docs and crisp decision records

• BS or MS in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent work experience

#LI-Onsite

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Humanity is a cornerstone of Form Energy’s culture, and we make sure our compensation and benefits reflect that. Form Energy offers competitive salaries, stock options, and a holistic benefits package to ensure all employees have what they need to thrive while working here. 

When it comes to you and your family’s health, we cover 100% of medical, dental, and vision premiums for full-time employees - and 80% of healthcare premiums for dependents. This starts from day one. We also offer at least 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents (up to 20 weeks for birthing parents), and generous vacation policies to give employees time to recharge when needed. 

To build America’s energy future, we need everyone at the table. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply to our open jobs.

If you may require reasonable accommodations to participate in our interview process, please contact [email protected]. Requests for accommodations will be treated with discretion.

Form Energy is committed to maintaining the privacy of our applicants. Please be aware that we will never solicit sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers or bank account details during the recruiting or hiring process.