The Mission

The electrical grid was built to carry electricity unidirectionally from central fossil fuel plants to end consumers. As we transition to a renewable future built from rooftop solar and community storage, the grid itself needs an overhaul. SPAN’s goal is to re-invent the grid from a clean slate to enable that transition, envisioning a grid made of distributed control systems and software as much as copper wires.

To accomplish this, we are upgrading the breaker panel — the humble box sitting at the center of every building’s electrical wiring — to monitor, control, and make decisions about energy. This converts buildings from passive consumers in a centralized fossil fuel grid to active participants in the emerging distributed energy market.

SPAN’s unique commitment to clean-slate “right architecture” and our zealotry for top-caliber customer experience position us as domain leaders in envisioning the distributed grid and have allowed us to achieve rapid growth and high visibility in the industry in the two years since we launched.

The Role

We aim to establish the SPAN panel as the center of home energy and the backbone of the renewable distributed grid. To accomplish this, we will have to integrate with everything — or at least with every solar inverter, every storage battery, and every high-power smart appliance we can get our hands on.

Designing and sustaining this broad and high-quality portfolio of technical integrations is the core mission of our Systems team. Our team does systems integration, root-causes problems, and builds internal infrastructure to keep our energy platform running smoothly and reliably.

As a systems test engineer, you will be the first line of defense for keeping SPAN products reliable and consistent. You’ll experience a high degree of ownership over the SPAN lab, planning out and building out new test systems as the situation demands. You’ll help figure out what’s important to test and troubleshoot — collaborating with engineers across the organization, from firmware to product management to field service. Last but not least, you’ll be at the heart of a top-notch, fast-paced engineering team, getting a birds-eye view of SPAN's best-in-class grid-edge technology as it comes together.

Responsibilities

  • Test device firmware, integrations with inverters, batteries, and other energy hardware covering a broad range of regression and new-feature/integration testing
  • Collaborate with Systems Engineering, Systems Integration, Hardware, Firmware, Software and SW QA team to ensure proper test coverage of the product
  • Coordinate with Program Management to understand the test timeline and urgency
  • Plan and build new test setups in the lab
  • Develop and execute system test plans, maintain clear documentation of test plans and results
  • Work with design and integration engineers to reproduce and root-cause issues observed in the lab and the field
  • Define and build manual and automated test fixtures with support from R&D team
  • Maintain the lab setup (organize / label / etc)

Note: We’re a startup, so while this list is broad, it’s still just a start! You’ll end up wearing many hats during your time at SPAN.

About You

Required Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or related field or equivalent experience
  • 1-3 years' experience in test, QA, electrical design, integration, or applications engineering
  • Fluency with test and data acquisition equipment: multimeters, oscilloscope, logic analyzer, etc.
  • Solid hands-on electrical skills (wiring, crimping, soldering, etc.)
  • Solid understanding of low and high voltage electrical systems
  • Comfort navigating a Linux environment (basic Bash commands, SSH, basic git commands, etc.)
  • Basic understanding of computer networking
  • Strong communication and interpersonal skills
  • Ability to understand and explain complex problems simply and effectively
  • A hacker’s instinct for making things work and breaking things

Bonus Qualifications

  • Comfort writing Python or similar scripting languages
  • Experience with basic data analysis and visualization: SQL, Jupyter Notebook, Pandas, NumPy, Grafana, TimescaleDB, etc.
  • Fluency using DAQ or power analyzer
  • Experience working with / developing test automation
  • Experience with inverters / batteries / PV/ electrical trade/ similar

Life at SPAN

SPAN is a startup based in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco. We are a small, diverse team of creative thinkers. We value open communication, teamwork, and a make-it-happen attitude - no job is too big or too small. We strive to make change by imagining what the future could be and building a product to complete that vision. We are looking to grow our team with talented people who are on the same mission to shape the future of energy.

Working at SPAN, you can expect:

  • Competitive compensation at a well-funded, venture-backed company
  • Comprehensive benefits including a choice of medical plans; dental, vision, life and disability insurance
  • A sunny, airy office located close to BART and Caltrain public transit
  • Regular team lunches, brown bag learning opportunities, board games nights, and other opportunities to connect with teammates - in-person and now virtually
  • Equity grants at a quickly-growing startup
  • Flexible hours and vacation time - we simultaneously work hard and make space for the important stuff
  • To be a part of a team and culture that is hard-working, has a good sense of humor, values collaboration, and is just a little bit nerdy 

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. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.

The U.S. base salary range for this position is $100,000 - $150,000 plus benefits, equity and variable compensation for Sales-related roles. This range represents SPAN’s good faith estimate of competitively-priced salary for the role based on national, real-time industry data from companies of a similar growth stage. This range reflects minimum and maximum new hire salaries for the role across US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by location and individual factors including relevant skills, experience and education or training. This range correlates to the relative level of the candidate we believe we need for the role and may require an adjustment for candidates of a different level. 

Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the location this role is based during the hiring process.

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