Staff Applications Engineer
Redwood Materials
$167,500 - $220,000 / year
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Description
About Redwood Materials
Redwood Materials was founded in 2017 by JB Straubel, co-founder and former CTO of Tesla, on a simple but radical idea: the critical minerals powering the energy transition already exist. They just need to come back. Today Redwood is the largest lithium-ion battery recycler in North America — recovering, refining, and redeploying critical minerals from end-of-life batteries back into the supply chain. On the energy side, Redwood has deployed the largest second-life battery project in the world, delivering power to AI data centers in months rather than years using proprietary energy architecture engineered entirely in-house. The company is profitable, the market it operates in is projected to grow 20 to 50 times over the next decade, and Redwood is the only company with the supply chain, the technology, and the operational scale to lead it.
Position Summary:
The position serves as the technical bridge between Redwood's BESS product design team and the deployment, construction, and service teams who install and maintain its products in the field. Embedded with product design, the role translates field experience into design requirements and helps drive the team's technical roadmap toward products that are cheaper and easier to deploy and service. The position independently defines and executes validation of installability and serviceability, and develops the procedures, tools, and equipment that EPC and service partners use in the field. This is a fully on-site role at 100 Hooper in San Francisco, with approximately 25% travel to project sites and partners. Success requires deep system-level technical understanding combined with practical knowledge of how installers and service technicians actually work.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
- Represent deployment, construction, and service needs within the product design team, translating field feedback into clear design requirements
- Guide the BESS technical roadmap by identifying and prioritizing design changes that reduce installed cost, install time, and service burden
- Drive new product and design improvements in partnership with mechanical, electrical, and firmware engineers
- Develop and execute test plans with test engineering to validate the installability and serviceability of products
- Develop installation and service procedures, tooling, and equipment in partnership with EPC and service teams
- Support field deployments and service events on-site to diagnose issues, gather data, and close the loop on design gaps
- Advise cross-functional stakeholders on system-level technical tradeoffs affecting deployment and serviceability
Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering preferred, or equivalent experience
- 8+ years of experience in industrial battery storage or solar installation, design, or deployment
- Deep system-level understanding of BESS or PV systems, including DC and AC electrical architecture and applicable codes (e.g. NEC)
- Experience as a licensed or journeyman electrician is a plus
- Mechanical design experience (e.g. CAD) is a plus
- Demonstrated ability to work independently, set priorities, and influence cross-functional teams without direct authority
- Ability to travel up to 25% of the time, including to active construction sites
In accordance with California pay transparency laws, the salary range for this position is listed below. Actual compensation may vary based on a variety of factors, including experience, education, and skills.
The position is full-time. Compensation will be commensurate with experience.
We collect personal information (PI) from you in connection with your application for employment with Redwood Materials, including the following categories of PI: identifiers, personal records, professional or employment information, and inferences drawn from your PI. We collect your PI for our purposes, including performing services and operations related to your potential employment. If you have additional privacy-related questions, please contact us at privacy@redwoodmaterials.com.
About this role
Redwood Materials is looking for a Staff Applications Engineer to serve as the critical link between its battery energy storage system (BESS) product design team and the teams deploying and servicing those systems in the field. You'd spend roughly three-quarters of your time embedded with designers in San Francisco and about a quarter traveling to active project sites, translating what installers and technicians actually experience into concrete design requirements. The role demands that you independently validate how products perform in real-world installation and service scenarios, then develop the procedures, tools, and equipment that make those jobs faster and cheaper.
Success here requires deep technical fluency across BESS architecture—DC and AC electrical systems, applicable codes, mechanical design—combined with genuine hands-on knowledge of how field work actually happens. You'll influence the product roadmap by identifying which design changes matter most for reducing installed cost and service burden, and you'll partner with mechanical, electrical, and firmware engineers to execute those improvements. This is not a role where you hand off requirements; you'll be present at deployments diagnosing issues, gathering data, and closing loops on design gaps.
The ideal candidate has eight or more years in battery storage or solar installation, design, or deployment, ideally with a mechanical or electrical engineering background. Licensed or journeyman electrician experience and CAD skills are valuable additions. You'll need to work independently, set your own priorities, and influence teams across the company without direct authority. The position is fully on-site in San Francisco, with a salary range of $167,500 to $220,000.
How this employer is doing
average
- H1B: Sponsors Visas
- Layoffs in News
- Hiring Mentioned
- Recently Raised Funding
Typical pay for this role
$140,000
Typical range: $100,000 to $140,000
In the news
Minerals processing startup Valor hires former Redwood Materials VP of engineering, Mining Weekly
This role's local market on JobMinglr
Pay for this role
$167,500 to $220,000 per year
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