Principal Mechanical Engineer

Mainspring Energy manufactures and delivers fuel-flexible, low-emissions local power solutions that rapidly add new capacity and deliver reliable, affordable, and sustainable electric power. The company began commercial shipments of its Mainspring Linear Generators in 2020 and today has hundreds of megawatts in advanced development and field operations for leading Fortune 500 companies, data centers, and utilities. Mainspring also partners with global energy leaders including AEP, NextEra Energy Resources, Schneider Electric, and more.

The core values that ground our work, guide our decisions, and connect us together:

• Pragmatic Optimism
• Excellence without Ego
• Proactive Collaboration

Responsibilities

Lead company-critical technical direction in a mechanical engineering domain with high ambiguity, high consequence, and broad cross-functional impact.
Define or strongly influence technical architecture, design principles, standards, methods, and long-term product direction that affect product capability, reliability, cost, scalability, manufacturability, serviceability, and business outcomes.
Solve the organization’s most difficult and unprecedented engineering problems, especially where existing methods, assumptions, or design approaches are insufficient.
Advise senior leadership on technical decisions with long-term product, customer, operational, financial, or business consequences.
Define evidence and learning strategies for high-consequence decisions, including the right mix of analysis, testing, modeling, field data, production learning, external expertise, and engineering judgment.
Create durable organizational leverage through technical frameworks, review practices, architecture decisions, standards, methods, or risk approaches that improve how teams execute engineering work.

Qualifications

BS, MS, or PhD in Mechanical Engineering or a similar engineering field, with a distinguished track record of solving high-consequence mechanical engineering problems in a company-critical domain.
Demonstrated ability to shape technical direction across major systems, platforms, product areas, or organizations, not only within a single project or team.
Exceptional mechanical engineering judgment, including the ability to balance product capability, reliability, cost, scalability, manufacturability, serviceability, safety, customer needs, and business priorities.
Proven ability to solve novel, ambiguous, cross-functional problems where requirements, ownership, evidence, methods, or tradeoffs are not initially clear.
Deep experience using analysis, testing, modeling, field learning, production learning, and engineering judgment to guide long-term technical strategy and high-consequence decisions.
Strong executive-level communication and influence skills, including the ability to align senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders around technical strategy, risks, tradeoffs, and recommended direction.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience serving as a company-level technical authority, principal engineer, architect, or equivalent senior technical leader in a critical hardware domain.
Experience developing hardware for energy systems, engines, generators, compressors, pumps, thermal systems, fluid systems, structures, high-cycle fatigue environments, precision alignment systems, electromechanical systems, or industrial equipment.
Experience defining architecture, design principles, validation strategies, technical standards, risk frameworks, or engineering methods that improved execution across multiple teams or product generations.
Experience influencing long-term product strategy, platform architecture, reliability strategy, production scalability, field performance, cost reduction, or serviceability at an organizational level.
Experience advising senior leadership on technical investments, product tradeoffs, risk posture, technical debt, or long-term engineering strategy.
Experience developing other senior technical leaders through design reviews, technical strategy work, decision frameworks, and high-quality engineering judgment.

Does your experience not meet all of our posted requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to positions unless they meet every listed requirement. At Mainspring, we are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, flexible, and collaborative environment, so if you want to help us transition the world to clean and affordable electricity, and don’t meet all posted requirements for a particular role, we’d still love to hear from you. Mainspring can sometimes be flexible enough to shift responsibilities for the right person, or otherwise identify open or upcoming roles that may better fit your professional background.

In more traditional words, Mainspring Energy, Inc is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

This compensation and benefits information is based on Mainspring Energy's estimate as of the date of publication and may be modified in the future. We generally do not negotiate on salary once we have made an offer. The level of pay within the range will depend on a variety of job-related factors that may include location, relevant prior experience and/or education, or particular skills and expertise. New hires joining the company tend to be paid within the starting base pay range noted above, with opportunities to increase pay over time based on development of additional skills, competencies, and company-specific knowledge.