Firmware Engineer- Strategic Team

Our Mission  

SPAN is enabling electrification for all

SPAN is mission-driven to design, build, and deploy products that electrify our built environment, decarbonize our world, and slow the effects of climate change.

• Decarbonization is the process to reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide, from entering our atmosphere.

• Electrification is the process of replacing fossil fuel appliances that run on gas or oil with all-electric upgrades for a cleaner way to power our lives.

At SPAN, we believe in:

• Enabling homes and vehicles powered by clean energy

• Making electrification upgrades possible

• Building more resilient homes with reliable backup

• Designing a flexible and distributed electrical grid

The Team and Role

SPAN’s Strategic Firmware team is responsible for the full lifecycle of new strategic products, features, and integrations. We are focused on quickly building minimum viable solutions that will help unlock market segments and increase sales. We look for friendly, motivated engineers who enjoy working with their peers to drive impact and move the business forward. Engineers on this team work directly with the broader cross functional strategic team including product, mobile software, cloud software, and hardware.

As a Firmware Engineer you will have the opportunity to be the engineering owner for new strategic initiatives that impact any of our hardware components from microcontrollers up through application stack in embedded Linux. This can include everything from bootloaders on systems without an OS up through applications in C and C++ inside an RTOS, to system services and applications written in Rust and Python in embedded Linux. Hardware products are central to SPAN’s business and writing firmware for even our smallest microcontrollers means working on something that directly impacts the user experience.

Representative Projects

• Integrations with smart networked third party home energy devices: work across teams to define MVP, manage external partners, define architecture, and lead the implementation
• The regulatory frameworks that govern our electrical systems and devices are updated from time to time, in some cases changes here may create market demand for electrical products. To unlock new markets we may work with our product and certification teams to design new features or capabilities and lead the implementation.
• We are always looking for ways to bring additional value to our customers and the strategic team is generally responsible for delivering these products and features. For example, a new SPAN Drive charge mode may help customers save on their electricity bills and get more out of their existing solar panels.

About YouRequired Qualifications

We are seeking a Firmware/Embedded Linux engineer with:

• 8 or more years of experience writing software for a hardware device (on a microcontroller, and/or in Linux, etc) in C/C++, Rust, and/or Python
• Strong fundamentals in modern software design coupled with awareness of concerns like manual memory management
• Experience working with standard electrical communication interfaces like UART, I2C, USB, etc.
• Exceptional interpersonal communication and collaboration skills. Great at building trust and driving decisions to a resolution
• Track record of taking ownership over projects and willingness to help others with theirs, from design and code review through to mentorship of new employees

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 with the STM32 microcontroller family
• Experience with functional safety and processes and standards like UL 60730, ISO 26262, IEC 61508, and UL 1998
• Experience writing higher level system or application software such as diagnostic command line tools or the application side of a communication interface
• Wireless technologies like WiFi, Bluetooth and Zigbee
• Hands-on experience with electronics lab equipment
• Clean energy hardware in a multidisciplinary environment

The U.S. base salary range for this position is $147,000 - $200,000 plus benefits, equity and variable compensation for Sales-related roles. This range represents SPAN’s good faith estimate of competitively-priced salary for the role based on national, real-time industry data from companies of a similar growth stage. This range reflects minimum and maximum new hire salaries for the role in San Francisco county. Within the range, individual pay is determined by location and individual factors including relevant skills, experience and education or training. This range correlates to the relative level of the candidate we believe we need for the role and may require an adjustment for candidates of a different level. 

Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the location this role is based during the hiring process. 

 Life at SPAN

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. 

Headquartered in San Francisco’s vibrant SoMa neighborhood, we are an eclectic group of creative thinkers who value open communication, teamwork, and a ‘make it happen’ approach to addressing complex challenges. 

We’re hiring talented individuals who are driven by success and are passionate about shaping the future of renewable energy. If that sounds like you, we’d love for you to consider joining the rapidly growing team at SPAN.

The Perks:

⚡ Competitive compensation + equity grants at a well-funded, venture-backed company

⚡ Comprehensive benefits: 100% employee premiums for base plans on medical, dental, vision with options for additional coverage.  Parental leave up to twenty four (24) weeks depending on eligibility

⚡ Comfortable, sunny office space located near BART and Caltrain public transit

⚡ Strong focus on team building and company culture: Employee Resource Groups, monthly social events, SPANcakes recognition breakfast, lunch, and learns

⚡ Flexible hours, one holiday per month, and flexible time off

Interested in joining our team? Apply today and we’ll be in touch with the next steps!