Sr. Reliability Engineer

Location: Mountain View/San Jose Bay Area
Team: System Engineering

The Impact You’ll Make:

We are seeking an experienced Senior Reliability Engineer to define and lead the reliability strategy for next-generation renewable energy products, including utility-scale photovoltaic systems, battery energy storage systems (BESS), power conversion systems (PCS), high-voltage power electronics, intelligent energy management systems, and supporting infrastructure. This individual will own reliability engineering from architecture through field deployment, ensuring products meet aggressive performance, availability, warranty, and 20+ year lifetime objectives.

The successful candidate will partner with Hardware, Firmware, Systems, Validation, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Product Management, and Field Service teams to proactively eliminate failure mechanisms, develop accelerated qualification plans, improve product robustness, and drive continuous reliability growth using data-driven engineering practices.

Key Responsibilities:

Reliability Strategy & Product Development

• Own the reliability strategy across the complete product lifecycle.
• Define quantitative reliability requirements, availability targets and warranty objectives.
• Develop mission profiles representing utility-scale solar, BESS, microgrid and data-center applications.
• Lead reliability design reviews and reliability sign-off before production.

Reliability Engineering & Modeling

• Weibull analysis, MTBF/MTTF, Reliability Block Diagrams (RBD), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA).
• Physics of Failure (PoF), stress-strength analysis, derating, reliability growth modeling.
• Predict product lifetime using analytical and field data.

Accelerated Life Testing

• Develop HALT, HASS and ALT programs.
• Plan thermal cycling, power cycling, humidity, thermal shock, vibration, shock, salt fog, UV, ingress protection and endurance testing.
• Correlate accelerated testing to expected field life.

Power Electronics & Energy Systems

• Lead reliability for PV inverters, PCS, DC/DC converters, battery systems, SiC MOSFETs, IGBTs, capacitors, magnetics, busbars, contactors, sensors and cooling systems.
• Evaluate electrical, thermal and mechanical failure mechanisms.

Failure Analysis

• Lead structured root cause investigations using 8D, Fishbone, 5-Why and FTA.
• Coordinate SEM, EDS, X-ray, CT scanning, cross-sectioning and thermal imaging.
• Drive corrective/preventive actions and verify effectiveness.

Validation & Qualification

• Create DVP&R and reliability qualification plans.
• Review supplier qualification and production validation.

Field Reliability & Analytics

• Analyze warranty, fleet, manufacturing and field-return data.
• Develop reliability dashboards and KPIs.
• Identify trends and prioritize design improvements.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Mentor junior engineers.
• Interface with customers, suppliers and certification agencies.
• Influence design decisions using reliability data.

The Skills You Bring:

• BS or MS in Electrical, Mechanical, Reliability Engineering or related discipline.
• 8+ years in reliability engineering for renewable energy, power electronics, industrial power systems or electrification.
• Experience with accelerated life testing, statistical reliability and failure analysis.
• Experience with DFMEA, PFMEA, DRBFM and root cause methodologies.
• Strong communication and technical leadership.

Nice to Have:

• ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE).
• Six Sigma Green/Black Belt.
• Utility-scale solar or BESS experience.
• Knowledge of SiC-based power electronics.
• Experience with ReliaSoft Weibull++, JMP, Minitab, MATLAB or Python.

About the Tech Stack 

• Standards: UL 1741, UL 62109, UL 9540, UL 9540A, IEEE 1547, IEC 62477, IEC 60068, IEC 62093.
• Test equipment: power analyzers, oscilloscopes, thermal chambers, vibration systems, environmental chambers, DAQ.
• Design tools: MATLAB, Python, JMP, Minitab, Weibull++, Altium (preferred).

Benefits and Perks:

Competitive Compensation Package

Health Insurance: We offer 100% coverage of employee premiums under a Gold-level PPO plan. Dental & Vision Insurance: 50% of employee premiums are covered.

Retirement Plan: A 401(k) plan with a 6% employer match.

Additional Information:

Minimum salary of $210,000 to maximum salary of $265,000 + equity + benefits.

The range provided is 1AP’s reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role. The actual amount will be based on job-related and non-discriminatory factors such as location, experience, training, skills, and abilities. Consult with your Recruiter during the initial call to determine a more targeted range based on these job-related factors.

About 1st Avenue Power:

At 1st Avenue Power, we are on a mission to deliver simple, fast-to-deploy, customer-centric and intelligent power systems leveraging the abundance of solar to provide inexpensive and reliable clean energy to global customers from data centers to energy starved communities around the world. We envision a future where every community, business, and nation thrives on the limitless potential of clean energy, united in a shared commitment to a sustainable and equitable world.

You will be working with Dr. Tom Buttgenbach, one of the most successful clean energy technology innovators and entrepreneurs who has been a driving force in making solar-based energy solutions the cheapest and most reliable energy option. Tom founded and led Avantus (formerly known as “8minute Solar Energy“), to become one of the largest and most profitable solar and energy storage companies in the United States and the largest in California, including delivering over 17% of Los Angeles’ power.  

When Tom sold his interest in Avantus’ development business  to KKR in mid-2024, it had delivered over $1 billion in profit and secured over $10 Billion in power purchase agreements and project financings with a pipeline of over 30 GW of solar and 90 GWh of energy storage, capable of powering the homes of more than 20 million Americans day and night. 

Tom’s family office investment firm, 1st Avenue Capital, is building teams for the next generation of advanced solar power system architecture and AI to aggressively drive down the cost of and equitable access to clean and reliable energy.[1] 1st Avenue’s advanced large scale power systems are addressing the increasing inadequacy of the grid to meet the massively growing power demands of the digital economy, while its intelligent distributed solar utilities are leapfrogging the grid to provide equitable access to inexpensive, clean and reliable power to underserved communities around the world.

1AI Energy, the employing entity for 1st Avenue Power, and 1st Avenue Power are committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee based on race (inclusive of traits associated with race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles), color, religion, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding), age, veteran or military status, marital status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, reproductive decision-making, or any other legally recognized protected class under federal, state, or local law.  We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.. Applicants with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), and local laws. A reasonable accommodation is a change in the way things are normally done which will ensure an equal employment opportunity without imposing undue hardship on 1AI Energy or 1st Avenue Power. Please inform the company's personnel representative if you need assistance completing an application or to otherwise participate in the application process. 

Join our team and make a real difference in the world.

[1: Additionally, 1st Avenue is in the business of acquiring projects where there has been a final notice-to-proceed or financial close.]