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.

The Team

SPAN’s Systems Integration and Test team is responsible for ensuring that our devices meet the needs of the customer by testing them against defined requirements. To accomplish this, we will have to integrate with everything you might find in a typical home. 

Designing and sustaining this broad and high-quality portfolio of technical integrations is the core mission of our Systems team. Our team drives systems architecture, does systems integration, root-causes problems, and builds internal infrastructure to keep our energy platform running smoothly and reliably. We are a team of generalists and tinkerers that have an eye for detail and a passion for taking on multidisciplinary challenges.

We are looking for friendly, excellent engineers who enjoy working with their peers to solve complex problems. We prioritize autonomy, trusting that the people we hire are capable of great things when supported by a team, and encourage everyone to exercise their agency in pursuing solutions. Engineers work directly with the implementing engineers, product team, and other test teams to make sure that our products meet the needs of our customers.

The Role

Depending on your interests and aptitudes, in this role you will do a combination of:

• Working with other interns and full time engineers to 
• automate test plans and oversee test execution of a complex electromechanical device
• set up test rigs that simulate elements of a home and include various test equipment
• Exploring opportunities for workflow improvement with scripting or other automation tools

As we are a startup, this list is neither exhaustive nor complete. We are excited for people to explore responsibilities outside their areas of expertise if the need or interest arises. We also do not expect every candidate to do all of these things; we each work on the areas of our interest and skill set.

Representative Projects

During a typical internship on the SPAN Systems Integration and Test team you might expect to work on projects such as

• Building a test rig to simulate signals like spoofing temperature readings on a PCBA
• Writing a hardware emulator to parallelize testing
• Taking a set of manual test cases and engineering solutions to refine and automate them, adding new elements to existing test automation tooling

About You

Required Qualifications

We are seeking a candidate who

• Is working towards a BS or MS in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related field
• Is excited to learn and grow in a cooperative team environment, working on robust solutions to complex problems
• Has experience tinkering with electronics and is comfortable with electronics tools (eg oscilloscope, DMM, power supplies)
• Experience with a Linux CLI

Bonus Qualifications

We do not expect any engineer to have all skills, but we do want you to be excited to grow. The systems team touches every part of the panel and therefore a wide breadth of skills is welcome but not required. Some additional qualifications that would benefit the work are:

• Experience with home automation and web technologies like Home Assistant and MQTT
• Basic Python skills
• Experience working with line voltage or high voltage DC

The Internship position has a duration of 12 weeks and will start in May or June of 2024. Candidates must be enrolled in an accredited college or university, and have not graduated prior to end of the Internship term.

The hourly rate for this role is $32/ hour for undergrad students, and $35/hr for Masters or PhD students.

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:

⚡ Great opportunity to begin your career at a mission driven climate focused company

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

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

⚡ Strong focus on team-building and company culture (events, meet-ups, clubs)

Interested in joining our team? Submit an application today and we’ll be in touch with next steps!