Performance Engineer

Do you want to change the world? We do, too.

The energy market is roughly $4 trillion globally, and solar penetration is less than 1%. But just one hour of sunlight, if harnessed, could power the entire world for a year. We have the opportunity to completely change the way energy is produced, distributed and consumed on a global scale, and we’re looking for talented, committed people to help us drive our growth and achieve our goals.

SunPower is a global solar energy solutions company with a rich heritage of pioneering the best energy technologies in the world. Our solutions are unrivaled in terms of long-term reliability, efficiency and guaranteed performance, and our company is unmatched in terms of global reach and scale. Through design, manufacturing, installation and ongoing maintenance and monitoring, SunPower provides its proprietary, world-record efficient solar technology to residential, commercial and utility customers worldwide.

SunPower is changing the way our world is powered every day with a brilliant, passionate and driven team of more than 7,000 in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. In an industry that is reshaping the world’s energy future, there’s no better place to be than SunPower.

We believe that our employees create our brand – with each project, each communication, each task completed and each interaction. Experience is critical to SunPower in regards to not only our customers but also our employees and dealer partners. As such, we strive to hire candidates that are service focused. The experience we would expect the ideal person to deliver is:

SUMMARY OF ROLE

This position is part of the SunPower Development team; whose accountability is to bring projects from origination through to the development phase and enable the sale of the projects, while preserving project margins and schedule.

The successful candidate’s primary focus will be to provide high-quality simulation results and expert guidance on new projects to internal sales and finance groups, as well as to external customers. In addition, the individual will be expected to provide SunPower with strong technical leadership in the area of solar prospecting, assessment, and function as the primary subject matter expert and resource for projects under development as they proceed to booking, working within a diverse team of engineers, support staff, and technical experts. The candidate must possess exceptional customer relationship and communication skills with the ability to convey technical concepts effectively. This will require a strong understanding of, and likely contribution to the development of simulation models and databases. Much of PV simulation accuracy is dependent on model inputs, especially meteorological inputs, and a strong background in solar resource assessment, metrology and statistics are desired.

The location of this role can be in SunPower’s offices in Boston (MA), or Richmond (CA).

Essential duties and responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned:

Perform project simulations using industry-standard and internal simulation platforms
Provide performance engineering expertise to SunPower’s Commercial business unit
Provide expertise to SunPower commercial business in the area solar prospecting and solar resource assessment
Perform simulation review, project guidance, project guarantees, customer negotiations
Lead the acquisition of solar resource data for current and future projects by identifying highest priority solar prospecting opportunities, writing specification for metrology, monitoring solar prospecting process, assessing data quality, and managing the solar resource database
Develop tools and methods to streamline simulation processes and to improve simulation accuracy
Support product development, origination, and finance departments on system performance-related initiatives
Work closely with other engineers, and lead cross-functional teams with a strong drive for results
Innovate, and provide technical leadership for solving challenging technical problems with a positive, solution-oriented approach
Mentor other cross-functional team members to develop their individual skills in the area system performance
Demonstrate ethics and professionalism at all times

Education, Experience, and Qualifications

Bachelors Degree in Engineering or related field (Masters preferred)
3+ years of experience in the engineering field
Strong communications skills, both verbal and written, and a proven ability to work with internal and external customers
Strong project management/organizational skills, with the ability to prioritize multiple tasks from multiple requestors of all levels and competencies
Power industry experience, particularly the solar industry, preferred
Experience with solar resource assessment and metrology is highly desirable
Expertise in design of experiments preferred
Background in statistics is highly desirable
Experience with project finance a plus
Some background in climate or atmospheric science a plus
Strong programming ability, software development experience a plus
Experience with PV Syst, SAM, and PV Watts is a plus
Experience with OSI-PI, Python, and MATLAB is a plus
Creative, self-motivated and self-directed, and able to multi-task a large variety of projects in a fast-paced, dynamic environment
Proven ability to adapt to change in a calm and measured manner
Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills
Must be a proven team player and contributor
Willingness to travel as required
Equal Employment Opportunity
The Company is an equal employment opportunity employer and makes employment decisions, including but not limited to, hiring, firing, promotion, demotion, training, and/or compensation, on the basis of merit. Employment decisions are based on an individual’s qualifications as they relate to the job under consideration. The Company’s policy prohibits unlawful discrimination based on sex (which includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions, the actual sex of the individual, or the gender identity or gender expression), race, color, religion, including religious dress practices and religious grooming practices, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, familial status, age, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, protected veteran or military status, or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state or local laws, ordinances, or regulations. The Company is committed to complying with all applicable laws providing equal employment opportunities. This commitment applies to all persons involved in the operations of the Company and prohibits unlawful discrimination by any employee of the Company, including supervisors and co-workers.