Staff Product Performance Engineer

Team: Product Testing

Location: Menlo Park, CA

Commitment: Salary

Workplace Type: onsite

Salary:

This position is onsite at our Menlo Park HQ. The salary will be adjusted to reflect local market conditions based on employee location as well as the experience of the employee. Along with base salary, Mainspring offers pre-IPO company equity through Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) + benefits.

About Mainspring

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

Job Overview

Mainspring is seeking a rigorous, curious, and highly motivated Product Performance Engineer to own the performance of our Linear Generator. Reporting directly to the VP of Test Engineering, you will combine hands-on experimental work with in-depth data analysis to characterize, understand, and improve all aspects of the Linear Generators performance with emphasis on power output, efficiency, and emissions profiles. Your central mission is to make sure our products meet the performance targets defined in our internal Product Requirements Document (PRD), and to give engineering teams the insight they need to close any gaps. This role is ideal for an engineer or researcher with deep expertise in thermodynamics, power generation who wants to apply it to a first-of-its-kind product in a fast-paced development environment.

Responsibilities

As the Product Performance Engineer at Mainspring Energy, you will:
Own the measurement and tracking of product performance, including power, efficiency, and emissions, against the targets defined in the PRD.
Identify gaps between measured performance and PRD targets, and drive cross-functional efforts to close them.
Design and execute experiments on Linear Generator test units, working hands-on with technicians and the test team to set up, instrument, and run studies.
Build and maintain Python-based analysis tools and pipelines to process large test datasets, quantify performance, and identify trends and root causes.
Apply first-principles thermodynamic and heat release analysis to explain observed performance.
Communicate results clearly to design engineering teams, and make data-driven recommendations that guide design decisions.
Develop and improve test methods, instrumentation, and processes to support performance validation on next-generation products.

Qualifications

• PhD in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, chemical engineering, physics, or a related field with at least 5 years of experience, or a Master's degree with at least 10 years of applicable industry or research experience.
• Deep expertise in thermodynamics/power generation, with the ability to apply it to real hardware and experimental data.
• Excellent data analysis skills in Python (e.g., pandas, NumPy, SciPy), including working with large, noisy experimental datasets.
• Hands-on experience designing and executing experiments involving instrumentation and emissions testing.
• Strong communicator with a collaborative mindset, comfortable presenting findings to leadership and working across teams.
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities against deadlines.

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.