Device Software Automation Engineer

over 2 years ago
Full time role
San Francisco, CA, US... more
San Francisco, CA, US... more

Company

SpanIO, based in San Francisco, is developing products to reduce the cost and complexity of adopting distributed energy systems. We ...

View Company Profile

Job Description

Our Mission  

At Span, we are building products that enable the rapid adoption of renewable energy like home solar, batteries, and electric vehicles. The Span Smart Panel replaces the standard electrical panel to become the center for connected power in the home, providing revolutionary insights and home energy controls through the Span mobile app. 

 

Span has been named one of the best home innovations in 2020 by Fast Company and one of the Forbes Top 20 IoT Startups to Watch, in addition to receiving multiple awards from the US Department of Energy and National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

 

The Role

As the first Automation Engineer on the Device Software team you will create and implement a robust hardware in the loop test setup which allows our small team of dedicated engineers to develop firmware with confidence across a wide range of products. This role is critical to the success of both the Device Software team and Span as a whole; having a high degree of automation is the only way to keep up with Span’s burgeoning portfolio of hardware products. You will work with the rest of the Device Software team to build the infrastructure from the ground up. As we develop new products there is room for growth: the mandate for Device Software infrastructure will grow, eventually turning into an entire team.

The Team

Span’s Device Software team is responsible for the software that is physically embodied in our hardware products. Our first product - the Span Panel - contains a complex network of microcontrollers and a single board computer that must work together to react quickly to changing conditions with impeccable reliability in order to perform its job. The Device Software team touches every part of that system from 8 bit microcontrollers through embedded Linux, sometimes extending down to the electrical hardware below and up to the cloud infrastructure our devices speak to.

 

We look for friendly, excellent engineers who enjoy working with their peers to solve complex problems. We prioritize autonomy, trusting that the people we hire are capable of great things when supported by a team and encourage everyone to exercise their agency in pursuing solutions. Engineers work directly with the broader software, product, and hardware teams to ensure the right things get built at the right time.

Responsibilities

In this role you you will be designing and building the automation platform which will enable Span to deliver new hardware products quickly and reliably as we scale. This means a combination of:

  • Inventing and implement test infrastructure that can automate regression testing on the Span Panel and Span Drive products

  • Work with lab equipment to interface with new and existing products in order to exercise their functionality

  • Write software to interact with equipment such as solar simulators, solar inverters and batteries, and oscilloscopes to take measurements and automate tests

  • Interface with our existing continuous integration and test systems to collect firmware images and flash them to devices under test

As we are a startup, this list is neither exhaustive nor complete. We are excited for people to explore responsibilities outside their areas of expertise if the need or interest arises. We also do not expect every candidate to do all of these things; we each work on the areas of our interest and skill set.

About You

Required Qualifications

We are seeking an engineer with

  • 3+ years of professional software development experience

  • Familiarity with a higher level language like Python/C++/Java/Rust/etc and Object Oriented design

  • Knowledge of modern backend infrastructure practices around containerization and computing platforms such as AWS

  • Experience programmatically controlling and taking measurements with test equipment

  • Hands-on experience building test setups and using instrumentation

  • Experience with modern software development processes like unit testing, continuous integration, and version control

  • Interest in how their work fits into the larger puzzle of the Span product and business, and a track record of taking ownership of projects and features.

Bonus Qualifications

We do not expect any engineer to have all skills, but we do want you to be excited to learn and grow. Every Device Software Engineer is free to roam up and down our device software stack, so any combination of the following skills is welcome but not required.

  • Experience writing C, working with real time operating systems (especially FreeRTOS), or systems programming in general

  • Wireless technologies like WiFi, Bluetooth and Zigbee

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

  • Experience with computer networking

  • Experience with electronics lab equipment

 

Life at Span

Why Span?

Span offers a unique opportunity at 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 and early equity at a well-funded, fast-growing, venture-backed company (read more on why Amazon and others invested in Span here and here)
  • A sunny 20,000 sq ft hardware lab + office space in SOMA, a stone’s throw from Caltrain and close to BART
  • Flexible hours and vacation time - we simultaneously work hard and make space for the important stuff
  • Additional Span holidays in celebration of causes we believe in (this year so far we provided days off in celebration of Black History in Feb, Women’s History in March, Earth Day in April and Gay Pride & Juneteenth in June) 
  • Comprehensive benefits including a choice of medical plans; dental, vision, life and disability insurance
  • Diversity - we are serious about this. 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.

 

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.

 

 

Similar jobs





SpanIO, based in San Francisco, is developing products to reduce the cost and complexity of adopting distributed energy systems. We ...

View Company Profile

Similar jobs