Staff Project Engineer
Mainspring Energy
Other Engineering
Menlo Park, CA, USA
USD 131k-154k / year + Equity
Posted on Dec 10, 2025
Company Overview
Mainspring Energy is revolutionizing power generation with the world’s most flexible and adaptable local power generation technology, the Mainspring Linear Generator. Commercial, industrial, and utility leaders are choosing Mainspring over traditional options like engines, turbines, and fuel cells to quickly and reliably deliver local power for EV charging, commercial facilities, data centers, and grid-scale operations. The Mainspring Linear Generator is fuel flexible, ramps up and down to meet demand, and utilizes a flameless reaction with near-zero NOx emissions.
Backed by top-tier investors including Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, American Electric Power, Lightrock, and General Catalyst Mainspring designs, manufactures and delivers its products to customers across the U.S. today, and we’re quickly scaling for international expansion.
Inspired by our vision of the affordable, reliable, net-zero carbon grid, Mainspring is rapidly expanding within the $816B global electricity equipment market, and we’re hiring the best talent to meet growing customer demand around the globe. We welcome a broad range of backgrounds, experiences, and talents to bring fresh perspectives and ongoing innovation to our customers.
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.
More information can be found at www.mainspringenergy.com
Job Overview
Project Engineers report to the Project Engineering Manager within the Project Delivery department. A key enabler of Mainspring’s mission is the ability of its team to deliver solutions based on our linear generator technology that solve customer problems in the cross-section of resiliency and clean power supply.
The project engineering team provides the technical expertise, guidance, and support to deploy linear generators into the field efficiently—building customer confidence and enabling future scalability.
Responsibilities
- Leading the overall technical definition and direction of assigned projects that includes site layouts, equipment selection, sequences of operation, controls and communication schemes, electrical protection schemes, code compliance, utility interconnection requirements, fuel systems, safety systems, etc. to ensure project success
- Guiding selection of electrical and mechanical equipment such as panelboards, networking hardware, breakers, transformers, ground-fault protection, electric meters, gas regulators, valves, etc. best suited for the application; supporting procurement activities as needed
- Working directly with clients & engineering partners to interpret needs and ensure correct translation of project requirements to official plan sets, use of best practices, QA/QC standards & policies, and presence of due diligence through the project lifecycle
- Answering RFIs, approving submittals, and reviewing project documents and designs to identify/close gaps in function, performance, scope, and responsibility to ensure project success during the permitting, design development, construction, commissioning, and testing phases
- Conducting engineering reviews, site assessments, inspections, load study analyses, report creation, and other technical tasks inherent in the assessment, development, and implementation of onsite energy projects
- Providing the technical background necessary for the development of specifications, design standards, diagrams, testing procedures, and other documentation needed for interconnection applications and proposal requests
- Collaborating cross-functionally with project managers and other stakeholders to provide engineering guidance and support
- Participation in, and development of, improvement initiatives that support increased operational efficiencies within a rapidly growing project delivery department
- Traveling to project sites at varying stages based on availability
- This role may provide mentoring to other employees
Qualifications
- B.S. degree in Engineering or related discipline (Electrical, Mechanical, Controls or Mechatronics Engineering degree preferred). Technical degree and equivalent experience may be substituted
- Proven working experience as a project engineer or power systems engineer with 10+ years of relevant experience with onsite power generation projects utilizing at least some of the following:
- Solar PV, Diesel Gensets, Central Power System or Microgrid Controls, Transfer Switches, Switchgear, Energy Storage Systems, Cogen/CHP, Fuel Cells, Microturbines, EV Charging Systems
- Experience with most of the following is essential: project management, data acquisition systems (DAS/SCADA), understanding of technical drawings & construction plan sets, power system design, and electrical system troubleshooting
- Familiar with rules, regulations, best practices, and standards for the power generation industry, including the proper sizing/installation/use of power system equipment
- Comprehension of low and medium voltage electrical protection functions, devices, and their use
- At least a basic understanding of automated controls and industrial network protocols and devices
- Excellent decision making, communication, time management, documentation, and organizational skills
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.
131000 - 154000 USD a year
This position is remote. The salary will be adjusted to reflect local market conditions based on employee location as well as the experience of the employee. Along with the base salary, Mainspring offers pre-IPO stock options + benefits + bonus.