Staff Mechanical Engineer - Rings

Company Overview

Driven by our vision of the affordable, reliable, net-zero carbon grid of the future, Mainspring has developed a new category of power generation — the linear generator — that delivers local, scalable, and fuel-flexible power to help accelerate the transition to the net-zero carbon grid.

The unique combination of attributes offered by Mainspring’s linear generator enables applications on both the commercial and utility sides of the meter for the $816B global electricity equipment market. We serve a wide range of Fortune 500 customers across markets and industries as well as top-tier utilities and other gridside providers.

We are looking to build relationships with people who share our values:

• Pragmatic Optimism. Building a new category of world-class power generation requires the optimism of ambition and creativity, balanced with practicality to solve problems efficiently. The challenges that arise are opportunities for growth.

• Excellence without Ego. We bring expertise and commitment to creating the best customer experience, from sales to deployment and service, just as we apply deep technical rigor to building and delivering world-class products. We strive for excellence and behave as leaders with the humility to acknowledge our challenges, both collectively and as individual contributors.

• Proactive Collaboration. The integration and cross-disciplinary nature of Mainspring’s business requires intentionally seeking out others who bring different skills, perspectives, and priorities. Our culture of inclusion and respect extends beyond our team to interactions with our partners and customers.

Mainspring is based in Menlo Park and has partnered with top-tier investors and utilities such as Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, NextEra, and American Electric Power. More information can be found at www.mainspringenergy.com.

Responsibilities

One core innovation in the Linear Generator is the use of a piston and ring system without liquid lubricant, which dramatically reduces emissions and O&M costs. This person will work on the challenging design of these solid lubricant systems, involving complex 3D shapes with sliding seals, high pressure and temperature, materials optimization, with complex fluid dynamics, heat transfer and structural mechanics. This person needs to be a fast learner, who can take on a leadership role and lead development projects, design parts and do hands-on work in the lab to analyze performance and failure modes.

• Lead ring development projects, including developing project requirements and scope, developing novel designs, reviewing in detail the designs and analyses of colleagues, and developing production introduction plans

• Design complex moving parts in the piston and ring system of the Linear Generator, from originating creative ideas, executing the design and build, testing and then evaluating performance

• Assess failure modes that involve complex thermal/structural/materials/fluids interactions

• Develop system models to drive component design development in response to field observations

• Develop accelerated life tests in the lab on benchtop and in-generator experiments

Qualifications