Sr. Manager, Power Electronics

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 

We are seeking an experienced and driven engineering manager to lead development of market-leading electrical and inverter/converter hardware through all stages of a product’s development lifecycle. As a hardware engineering manager, you will rely on your past experience to lead the execution of multiple programs and be accountable for meeting timelines and milestones. Candidates should be comfortable and excited to grow a team of highly skilled embedded systems, power electronics, and magnetics-focused electrical engineers to advance Span’s product portfolio. In this role, you will drive efforts to optimize our partner’s power systems integrated with Span’s panel, grow Span’s IP, and collaborate with software, firmware, controls, and mechanical teams to implement technologies that electrify the home and delight our customers.

In this role, you will:

• Lead a hardware team and be in charge of designs for optimized solutions and product schedules.

• Goal setting and measurement for the power electronics team. Lead mentoring and leadership growth.

• Support executive staff with business analysis of research and development projects and manufacturing options e.g. outsource versus internal to Span and which components are ripe for vertical integration.

• Define system architecture and create engineering requirements for components and systems.

• Collaborate with internal and external teams.

• Hands-on hardware bring-up, system debugging and code optimization. Drive complex designs and integration for power electronic systems and sub-systems.

• Work with contract manufacturers to have parts made to specification, to improve quality, and to improve yield.

• Own full product lifecycle: specification, design, prototype, certification, reliability, validation, and manufacturing.

• Buildout of your team’s lab space and equipment.

About You

Required Qualifications

We are seeking a seasoned electrical engineer or engineering manager who has:

• BS in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, or similar field.

• 7+ years engineering experience, 3+ years leading direct reports.

• Proven experience successfully leading large multi-disciplinary engineering programs with emphasis on HV electrical and embedded systems, mentoring team members.

• Remain engaged, proactive and positive in tough circumstances, owning assignments and taking full accountability for overall team success.

• Experience with high voltage power semiconductor characteristics (Si/SiC/GaN MOSFET’s, diodes), gate drive and protection circuit design.

• Solid understanding of the theory and application of magnetics (inductors, transformers) and capacitors (Electrolytic, film and Ceramic)

• Hands-on hardware bring-up, system debugging, hands-on approach whether it be building a prototype or performing testing.

• Experience working closely with contract manufacturers and leading design for manufacturing.

• Experience with embedded programming including working with / guiding firmware developers.

Bonus Qualifications

We would love to hire someone who has:

• MS in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, or similar field.

• 10+ years engineering experience, 5+ years leading direct reports.

• Demonstrated leading a team guiding multiple programs to success from the concept stage through manufacturing applying a disciplined project development methodology.

• Demonstrated implementing power electronics controls in a larger system optimizing for load and source interaction in single and three-phase system.

• Knowledge of national and international safety and EMC requirements relevant to the design of power converters such as UL, IEEE, National Electric Code(NEC), IEC, and ISO.

• Experience specifying embedded controllers for DC/AC converters/inverters – i.e. choosing between FPGA, microcontroller, DSP, hardware accelerated gate drive, etc.

• Experience of implementing a model-based design.

• Demonstrated success working in a cross disciplinary, multi-cultural environment.

• Experience developing of performance validation, environmental testing, and reliability testing.

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 team building 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!