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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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:
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.