Senior Mechanical Design Engineer - Linear Electromagnetic Machine - Mainspring Energy, Inc.

Company Overview

Driven by our vision of the affordable, reliable, net-zero carbon grid of the future, Mainspring has developed a new category of power generation — the linear generator — that delivers local, scalable, and fuel-flexible power to help accelerate the transition to the net-zero carbon grid.

The unique combination of attributes offered by Mainspring’s linear generator enables applications on both the commercial and utility sides of the meter for the $816B global electricity equipment market. We serve a wide range of Fortune 500 customers across markets and industries as well as top-tier utilities and other gridside providers.

We are looking to build relationships with people who share our values:

• Pragmatic Optimism. Building a new category of world-class power generation requires the optimism of ambition and creativity, balanced with practicality to solve problems efficiently. The challenges that arise are opportunities for growth.
• Excellence without Ego. We bring expertise and commitment to creating the best customer experience, from sales to deployment and service, just as we apply deep technical rigor to building and delivering world-class products. We strive for excellence and behave as leaders with the humility to acknowledge our challenges, both collectively and as individual contributors.
• Proactive Collaboration. The integration and cross-disciplinary nature of Mainspring’s business requires intentionally seeking out others who bring different skills, perspectives, and priorities. Our culture of inclusion and respect extends beyond our team to interactions with our partners and customers.

Mainspring is based in Menlo Park and has partnered with top-tier investors and utilities such as Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, NextEra, and American Electric Power. More information can be found at www.mainspringenergy.com.

Mainspring Energy is seeking Senior Level Mechanical Design Engineers with a focus on developing a high-voltage linear electromagnetic machine (LEM) for improved performance, cost, and reliability. You will design and advance new components and subsystems with challenging technical requirements from initial concept through successful manufacturing launch. You will manage existing concepts through development, deployment, and manufacturing. Mainspring is a great place for engineers who have a variety of areas of deep expertise and like to solve challenging cross-functional problems requiring a mix of computational analysis, hands-on engineering and team effort.

Core responsibilities will include the following:

• Participate in brainstorming activities to develop novel ways to improve all aspects of the LEM and the Linear Generator broadly.
• Develop and optimize key mechanical and electromechanical subsystems within the LEM to drive down cost, improve performance, and deliver high reliability. These systems may include: magnetic encoders and other position sensors; high-voltage wiring and coil design; precision-machined steel and cast-iron components; magnet array assembly methods; composite material manufacturing and analysis; air bearing design, development, and testing.
• Work with reliability and test teams to validate systems and components with fast cycles of learning for deployment into the next generation of Linear Generators.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with manufacturing engineering, NPI, and external suppliers to rapidly deploy new designs into production.

Qualifications

• Degree in Mechanical Engineering or a similar engineering field from an accredited institution. Experience and degree minimum requirements are:
• BS + 6 years relevant industry experience or MS + 5 years relevant industry experience.
• Good understanding of metal castings, machining, welding/fabrication, bolted connections, datum selection, large tolerance stackup analysis, and finishing processes with the ability to identify and resolve design for manufacturability issues.
• Demonstrated experience with volume manufacturing of electric motors or generators is preferred, including: Design for Quality, inspection and testing methods, insulation system design and certification, formed and wound coil design, magnetic material specification and handling, lamination design and manufacturing
• Fluent in SolidWorks or comparable CAD package. Experience with using PDM or a similar CAD version control system is preferred.
• Interest in developing creative and cost effective solutions to enable the deployment of zero carbon energy technology at large scale.

The Bay Area salary for this role is $130k-$145k base + pre-IPO stock options + benefits. This position is on-site in Menlo Park, CA. The salary will be adjusted based on the experience of the employee.

Does your experience not meet all of our posted requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to positions unless they meet every listed requirement. At Mainspring, we are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, flexible, and collaborative environment, so if you want to help us transition the world to clean and affordable electricity, and don’t meet all posted requirements for a particular role, we’d still love to hear from you. Mainspring can sometimes be flexible enough to shift responsibilities for the right person, or otherwise identify open or upcoming roles that may better fit your professional background.

In more traditional words, Mainspring Energy, Inc is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

This compensation and benefits information is based on Mainspring Energy's estimate as of the date of publication and may be modified in the future. We generally do not negotiate on salary once we have made an offer. The level of pay within the range will depend on a variety of job-related factors that may include location, relevant prior experience and/or education, or particular skills and expertise. New hires joining the company tend to be paid within the starting base pay range noted above, with opportunities to increase pay over time based on development of additional skills, competencies, and company-specific knowledge.