Senior Manager - Service Engineer, Energy Storage

Location: San Francisco, California, United States

Department: Engineering & Technology

About Redwood Materials

Redwood is localizing a global battery supply chain that seamlessly integrates recovery, reuse, and recycling—keeping critical minerals in circulation and driving the energy transition. Founded in 2017, we're delivering low-cost and large-scale energy storage and producing battery materials in the U.S. for the first time, all from batteries we already have.

Position Summary

Redwood Materials is seeking a Senior Manager, Field Service Engineering & Technical Operations to build, lead, and scale our Service Engineering department for our expanding Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) product line. In this role, you will transition the team from hands-on escalation support to a structured, high-performing organization.

You will own the technical operational boundary between field operations and core engineering—establishing Tier-2/Tier-3 support frameworks, defining O&M handoff protocols, and driving root-cause engineering solutions straight into product design. The ideal leader combines technical depth in power electronics and energy storage with a track record of scaling service engineering organizations in fast-paced startup environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Team Leadership & Organizational Growth: Recruit, mentor, and scale a multi-tiered team of Service Engineers providing advanced technical support across deployed BESS assets.

• Escalation & Operational Governance: Define clear SLAs, handoff criteria, and escalation thresholds between Operations & Maintenance (O&M), Service Engineering, and core Product/R&D Engineering teams.

• System Failure Analysis & Root Cause: Lead complex technical investigations across electrical, thermal, controls, software, and power conversion systems (PCS/inverters).

• Design for Serviceability & Feedback Loops: Translate field telemetry and failure data into actionable product requirements to directly influence next-generation system reliability and maintainability.

• Technical Knowledge & Field Training: Oversee the development of enterprise service documentation, decision trees, service bulletins, and upskilling programs for field technicians.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related field.

• Experience: 10+ years supporting complex electromechanical, power electronics, or renewable energy infrastructure (BESS, solar, grid-scale systems), with 3+ years in a direct engineering management or team lead role.

• Technical Mastery: Deep operational knowledge of BESS architecture, including energy management systems (EMS), battery management systems (BMS), PCS, protection systems, and thermal controls.

• Framework Experience: Proven history designing and managing structured escalation models (Tier-1 O&M $\rightarrow$ Tier-2/3 Service Engineering $\rightarrow$ Product Engineering).

Working Conditions & Physical Requirements

• Ability to work in challenging field environments (noise, dust, extreme temperatures) with proper PPE.

• Travel: Up to 40% travel to field sites and manufacturing locations.

• On-call availability during escalation events or off-hours as required.