Sr. Staff Mechanical/Thermal Engineer
Description
Enphase Energy is a global energy technology company and a leading provider of solar, battery, and electric vehicle charging products. Founded in 2006, our innovative microinverter technology revolutionized solar power, making it a safer, more reliable, and scalable energy source. Today, the Enphase Energy System enables users to create, use, save, and sell their own power. Enphase is also one of the most successful and innovative clean energy companies in the world, with more than 80 million products shipped across 160 countries.
Join our dynamic teams designing and developing next-gen energy technologies and help drive a sustainable future!
About the role
The Enphase Energy Storage Innovation team in the office of the CTO is responsible for defining, prototyping, and supporting the next generations of Enphase storage and systems products. The team is an integrated, multi-disciplinary group that is fast-moving and looking for motivated individuals who can contribute and collaborate closely with the team to deliver innovative solutions. As a team member, you will solve some of the most exciting problems in the energy space and help shape the direction of our products. We are looking for a Sr. Staff Engineer with a strong background in mechanical OR thermal design.
What you will do
- Design high-quality mechanical and electromechanical parts and assembly designs efficiently and with good modeling practices
- Produce 2D drawings and 3D CAD models, evaluate parts, and collaborate with a multi-disciplinary design team, suppliers, and contract manufacturing partners to develop product prototypes
- Perform mechanical analysis, structural FEA, vibration and shock analysis, FMEA, and design verification testing to inform designs and resolve issues and failures in prototype products
- Research, analyze, implement, and test new materials and technologies to support innovative energy storage and system product designs
- Design, integrate, and validate thermal management solutions for Enphase energy storage and systems products
- Build, update, and analyze computational models, including heat transfer, combustion, and air flow, to simulate thermal performance in energy storage and systems products
- Specify key functional and performance requirements; design and execute verification test plans
- Design high-quality mechanical and electromechanical parts and assembly designs efficiently and with good modeling practices
- Complete documentation for design, testing, and analysis
- Hands-on fabrication of electromechanical assemblies and prototypes
- Work with a multi-disciplinary team to test and troubleshoot prototype designs
- Mentor junior staff
Who you are and What you bring
- BS/MS/PhD Mechanical Engineering or closely related discipline
- Job title and position level will be determined upon the candidate’s experience.
- Minimum experience: BS and 5+ years / MS and 3+ years / PhD with design experience for a Senior Engineer
- BS and 8+ years / MS and 6+ years / PhD and 3+ years design experience for a Staff Engineer
- BS and 12+ years / MS and 8+ years / PhD and 5+ years design experience for a Sr. Staff Engineer
- Candidates with greater levels of experience may be considered and are encouraged to apply
Minimum Skills, Knowledge, and Special Attributes
- For mechanical focused candidate:
- Significant experience in product and part mechanical design
- Expertise in leveraging various high-volume manufacturing approaches such as sheet metal stamping, die casting, extrusion, forging, laser welding, CNC machining, thermoforming, silicone/rubber molding, injection molding, etc.
- Proficiency with structural FEA and analyses for vibration, fatigue, and load bearing
- Experience designing products for manufacturability and reliability
- High proficiency with an enterprise CAD package (Solidworks preferred)
- Outdoor product design experience for various ingress protection environments
- Good communication and documentation skills
- Ability to work effectively on early-stage product development efforts with ambiguous requirements
- Strong hands-on mechanical prototyping skills
- Ability to take ownership of development tasks and drive them to completion in a timely manner and with high quality to support team success
- For thermal focused candidate:
- Significant experience designing active and passive thermal management solutions within a product and with key thermal components such as heat sinks, air flow systems, coolant systems, multi-phase cooling, phase change materials, and thermal interface materials
- Experience with analytical approaches and simulation tools for Mechanical or thermal modeling
- High proficiency with an enterprise CAD package (Solidworks preferred)
- Experience designing test plans, building experimental setups, collecting data, and analyzing results for thermal performance
- Familiarity with design for manufacturability and reliability
- Good communication and documentation skills
- Ability to work effectively on early-stage product development efforts with ambiguous requirements
- Strong hands-on thermal mechanical prototyping skills
- Ability to take ownership of development tasks and drive them to completion in a timely manner and with high quality to support team success
Additional Desired Skills
- Proficiency with multi-physics modeling
- Medium voltage >1kV insulation
- Familiarity with common standards for electrical equipment and energy storage systems
Work location
- Austin, TX
The base pay range for this position is $110,000 to $167,000. This salary range may be modified in the future. The successful candidate’s starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, education or training, work location, and market conditions. This position is also eligible for bonus, equity, and benefits.