Hardware Test Engineer

Our Mission

At Span, we are building products to drive the rapid adoption of renewable energy by designing the infrastructure for a distributed, renewable grid. Our smart replaces the standard electrical panel to become the center for connected power in the home, providing intelligent load-balancing and revolutionary edge-of-grid controls through the Span mobile app while simultaneously forging a path toward distributed energy.

The Span engineering team is made of experienced, passionate people with expertise in electronics, mechanical design, energy systems, and embedded software. We are seeking a passionate Hardware Test Engineer to join the hardware development team of SPAN help prototype and validate new designs to help make important decisions to move through the development process.

The Role

As a Hardware Test Engineer, you will lead in defining and implementing our strategies for hardware reliability and safety. Working with our mechanical, electrical, and systems engineering teams, you’ll define how to test our hardware and take the lead on making it happen.

The Hardware Test Engineer at SPAN is expected to be concerned about product safety and reliability. In addition to working with our lab to build out high-quality prototypes required to get accurate and repeatable results, you’ll be expected to define a strategy for instrumentation and data acquisition and documentation and presentation of results. We will lean on your expertise to help steer our product strategy and guide us toward our goal of rapidly deploying advanced renewable energy technology that is trustworthy and safe.

Responsibilities

• Build test setups and take data in our lab.

• Work with Engineers to develop test plans.

• Operate tests using Linux command line and use Python coding to support test logging and data analysis and presentation.

• Conduct testing in areas including the validation of material properties, design structure, thermal performance, ingress performance, antenna performance, and electrical safety.

• Define test plans for environmental/reliability, pre-compliance, and hardware design verification.

• Plan out what we can run in our lab and what to outsource, coordinate with external test labs to outsource tests, and manage project timelines.

• Root-cause analyze hardware failures from the field and factory.

• Prepare and present test findings in reports for internal team consumption

• Develop and execute reliability tests and certification tests as needed to support electrical development.

• Reworking PCBAs, building up up cables, modifying off the shelf components.

• Various prototyping and building or PCBAs, test fixtures, and set-ups.

Note that we are a startup, so this list is just a start; you will end up wearing many hats during your time at Span and getting to try things outside your area of expertise.

About You

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in a hardware test role

• Deep understanding of environmental/reliability test procedures, accelerated life testing, and risks posed to hardware products in the field

• Competent in soldering & electronic rework for SMD parts on PCBAs

• Hands-on experience building test setups and using instrumentation

• Ability to understand and discuss the electromagnetism, electronics, and material physics fundamentals underlying hardware reliability and safety

• Comfortable with scripting languages, particularly Python, and owning SW tools for the test team’s use

• Ability to understand and explain complex problems simply and effectively

• Meticulous and creative approach to problem-solving; excellent note-taking habits

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience with solar, energy storage, or electrical distribution and metering systems

• Experience with high voltage / high power systems

• Experience designing and constructing test fixtures (80/20 and otherwise)

• Experience with surface mount soldering and/or reflow soldering

• Comfortable with Linux command line (e.g. experience with Raspberry Pi) and basic Python coding

• Experience with 3D printing.

• Experience taking hardware products through UL or similar certification processes

• Educational background in electrical engineering

• First aid / AED / CPR training

• NFPA 70E Arc Flash training

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.

Impacting the future as a small, agile team means putting in a lot of hard work and elbow grease so we work to make sure you are happy, healthy, and you look forward to coming to work. Working at Span, you can expect:

• Competitive compensation

• Medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance

• Sunny, airy office located close to BART and Caltrain

• Regular team lunches, brown bag learning opportunities and events

• Opportunity to influence our culture

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 $130,000 - $160,000 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.