Senior Electrical Engineer, Electronics Design

Mainspring Energy manufactures and delivers fuel-flexible, low-emissions local power solutions that rapidly add new capacity and deliver reliable, affordable, and sustainable electric power. The company began commercial shipments of its Mainspring Linear Generators in 2020 and today has hundreds of megawatts in advanced development and field operations for leading Fortune 500 companies, data centers, and utilities. Mainspring also partners with global energy leaders including AEP, NextEra Energy Resources, Schneider Electric, and more.

The core values that ground our work, guide our decisions, and connect us together: Pragmatic Optimism, Excellence without Ego, Proactive Collaboration.

About the role

Are you an innovative hardware leader who thrives on driving cutting-edge electronics from initial concept to production? Do you prefer the challenge of owning complex, low-voltage control systems and guiding cross-functional teams through technical hurdles over routine, single-phase component tweaking? This is a high-impact engineering position where you will take end-to-end ownership and act as the technical lead for the critical electrical hardware and PCBA designs that power our revolutionary Linear Generator. Unlike traditional electrical design roles confined to narrow subsystems or isolated schematic capture, you will work alongside a world-class team of multidisciplinary engineers with execution autonomy to design advanced low-voltage (< 60V) systems, spearhead complex hardware validation and technical reviews, and directly shape the future of our power generation control architecture.

Responsibilities

• Low-Voltage Hardware Design: Design low-voltage (< 60V) electrical systems and PCBAs that enable core functions and expand the capability of the Linear Generator
• Bring-Up & Validation: Own the full bring-up, validation, and qualification of your custom electrical hardware designs
• Technical Reviews: Lead cross-functional design reviews to present concepts, align requirements, and secure approvals
• Complex Diagnostics: Debug and troubleshoot complex hardware issues that arise across field deployments, test labs, and the production floor
• Design for Reliability: Partner closely with reliability engineers to analyze hardware performance and continuously increase system robustness
• Manufacturing Collaboration: Work directly with our New Product Introduction (NPI) team and external suppliers to optimize designs for manufacturability (DFM) and testability (DFT)
• Cross-Domain Integration: Interface with high-voltage hardware teams and define requirements for cabling and embedded firmware support
• Team Growth: Learn complex design concepts and mentor peers while collaborating with a world-class engineering team

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience with a Bachelor's degree, or 4+ years of experience with a Master's degree, in Electrical Engineering or a related field
• Proven hands-on experience designing, troubleshooting, and realizing low-voltage electrical hardware (e.g., DC/DC converters, relays, e-fuses, and MOSFETs)
• Proficiency with PCBA schematic capture and PCB design tools (Altium strongly preferred)
• Strong fundamentals in analog/mixed-signal design, including operational amplifiers, ADCs, and hardware filtering (anti-aliasing, bandpass, etc.)
• Experience performing component derating analysis, worst-case tolerance stack-ups, and Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA)
• Demonstrated ability to drive projects forward from initial requirements through production
• A "collaborate-first" mindset with strong communication skills across diverse technical teams and personalities

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in the full hardware development life cycle of PCBA’s and electrical assemblies, from requirements development to manufacturing support
• Familiarity with hardware reliability and environmental validation testing (e.g., HALT, thermal chamber testing, Hipot, vibration)
• Experience working in a startup or rapid product development environment
• Familiarity with project management and documentation tools (e.g., Jira, Confluence)
• Basic programming or scripting experience (Python, C, or C++) specifically for automating lab bench tests or debugging hardware

Mainspring is committed to building a diverse, inclusive, flexible, and collaborative environment. If you don’t meet all posted requirements but want to help transition the world to clean and affordable electricity, we’d still love to hear from you.

Pay

The salary will be adjusted to reflect local market conditions based on employee location as well as the experience of the employee. Along with the base salary, Mainspring offers pre-IPO stock options + benefits.

This position is onsite at our Menlo Park HQ.