Staff Reliability Engineer

The posting, as Span wrote it

OUR MISSION

SPAN IS ENABLING ELECTRIFICATION FOR ALL ⚡

WE ARE A MISSION-DRIVEN COMPANY DESIGNING, BUILDING, AND DEPLOYING PRODUCTS THAT ELECTRIFY THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT, REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS, AND SLOW THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE.

• Decarbonization is the process to reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide, from entering our atmosphere.
• Electrification is the process of replacing fossil fuel appliances that run on gas or oil with all-electric upgrades for a cleaner way to power our lives.

AT SPAN, WE BELIEVE IN

• Enabling homes and vehicles powered by clean energy
• Making electrification upgrades possible
• Building more resilient homes with reliable backup
• Designing a flexible and distributed electrical grid

THE ROLE

SPAN is seeking a Staff Reliability Engineer to be the technical leader for our reliability team, improve lab organization, standardize reliability test suites, improve the visibility of reliability test reports, and mentor a small team of dedicated reliability engineers. You'll set the technical direction for reliability testing across the entire suite of SPAN products—spanning electrical, mechanical, environmental, and systems-level considerations—while managing the day-to-day work of the entire team. You'll be the closed-loop-feedback function between test results and product requirements and design decisions, translating product data into clear, actionable input for design engineering teams across all disciplines.

This is a role for someone who can operate at both altitudes: hands-on enough to dig into a failure mode with an oscilloscope or X-ray machine, and strategic enough to standardize reliability test suites, prioritize conflicting test programs, and mentor junior engineers on sound reliability judgment and organizational escalation.

In this role, you will

• Mentor and develop a small, agile reliability team—setting weekly, monthly, and annual priorities, creating and reviewing proposed test plans and results, and helping the team improve their independent capabilities with both technical depth and judgment.
• Own Span's DFR (Design for Reliability) program: Setting reliability targets, establishing mission profiles / usage models, creating and maintaining DFMEAs, writing reliability test plans, and creating test plans across the full suite of SPAN products.
• Define reliability test strategy with program management across all domains (electrical, mechanical, thermal, environmental, and systems-level) while balancing product risk, DFMEA-based mitigations, team bandwidth, and program schedules.
• Analyze reliability test results with statistical tools and translate those findings into tangible impacts that executives can understand while making clear recommendations on what levers are available to change the results.
• Serve as the primary link between the reliability organization, program management, and product design in order

[…]

• Knowledge of national and international safety and regulatory standards (UL, NEC, IEC, ISO).
• Experience creating or scaling an in-house reliability lab to expand capabilities and capacity.
• Experience in connected home, energy, or IoT hardware products.
• Experience in corrosion mechanics and how they relate to material plating.
• Experience in IC degradation mechanics and how they relate to thermal and environmental factors.
• Experience in defining product mission profiles, writing test procedures and scripts to automate mission profile testing, and interpreting test results of mission profiles in reliability metrics that can be communicated with leadership.

LIFE AT SPAN

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.

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.

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: 100% employee premiums for base plans on medical, dental, vision with options for additional coverage. Parental leave up to twenty four (24) weeks depending on eligibility

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

⚡ Strong focus on team building and company culture: Employee Resource Groups, monthly social events, SPANcakes recognition breakfast, lunch, and learns

⚡ Flexible hours, one holiday per month, and flexible time off

Interested in joining our team? Apply today and we’ll be in touch with the next steps!