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Our Mission 

SPAN develops products that accelerate the rapid adoption of renewable energy in the home. The flagship SPAN Smart Panel is the first true evolution for the traditional home electric panel, harnessing enhanced technology for metering, monitoring, and control. Additionally, an expanded product suite of intelligent, integrated solutions radically lowers the cost and complexity of energy upgrades–including solar, batteries, and EVs–empowering homeowners to be active, resilient, and informed players in the energy market.

The Role

We are seeking an experienced Director of NPI Operations who will lead and direct all facets of manufacturing new product introduction (NPI) for SPAN including, but not limited to NPI Program Management, NPI Engineering (Mechanical and Electrical), Manufacturing and Process Engineering, Manufacturing Test Engineering, Span’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) process, and sustaining hardware improvement projects. This position will provide leadership and direction on a cross-functional basis.

In this position, you will:

  • Lead the NPI Team responsible for new product development activities tied to supply chain and manufacturing from concept through product launch. Includes determining the goals, objectives, risks, deliverables, schedules, resources, budgets, communication and reporting strategies, supplier engagement and driving team alignment.
  • Ensure the successful management and coordination of NPI activities across all functional groups including design engineering, supply chain operations, hardware quality, product teams, and other core operations functions.
  • Work with Finance to develop, monitor, and meet cost targets according to the NPI project plan. Support detailed communication and explanation to senior executives on high dollar project expenses.
  • Oversee all NPI build activity through the course of product development (to include locations, quantities, dates, costs, quality requirements, clear-to-build). Identifying, analyzing, and then responding to any risks that arise. Implementing systems to manage key elements of build planning and tracking.
  • Develop and maintain working relationships with global supply chain partners through the NPI phase to ensure supply continuity, material readiness, and overall supplier performance (to include leading engagements, negotiations, and kicking off supply agreements). Drive routine communications with contract manufactures and appropriate cross-functional teams through the NPI phase.
  • Coordinate the resolution of technical issues in NPI production with appropriate cross functional teams (Engineering, hardware quality, manufacturing test, suppliers and contract manufacturing partners).
  • Manage manufacturing engineering activities specific to DFx, part number creation and BOM structuring, manufacturing line development and optimization, production line transfers and bring up, and engineering change management.
  • Be responsible for the manufacturing test architecture and strategy on all Span products. Determine what gets tested, where in the manufacturing process, while ensuring alignment to engineering strategies from the product development cycle. Includes overseeing the full manufacturing test infrastructure development process, including test plan development, fixture build, software, data capture and infrastructure deployment and implementation.
  • Own Span’s product lifecycle management (PLM) process working with tools like Arena. Collaborate to drive and implement a company wide document control system.
  • Lead the NPI team in executing best practices and measuring performance through agreed upon Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
  • Help SPAN counterparts in driving quality improvements in the product and with CM’s and suppliers.

About You

Required Qualifications

We are seeking a highly capable Director of NPI Operations who has:

  • 15+ years of well-rounded experience in various NPI functions, including manufacturing engineering, program management, and process engineering.
  • BA or BS in engineering or equivalent experience.
  • The ability to think strategically with confidence and speed in execution.
  • Self-starter with the ability to adapt, improvise, and problem solve.
  • Strong background in product launch environments, with extensive experience bringing new products from concept to first customer shipment.
  • Deep breadth of experience working with contract manufactures and component suppliers ranging from finished goods assemblies to mechanical and electrical components.
  • Demonstrated strong communication, excellent analytical, negotiation, and organizational skills.
  • Strong knowledge of continuous improvement methodologies.

Bonus Qualifications

We would love to hire someone who has:

  • An advanced degree (Masters or MBA preferred).
  • Experience working at a startup and in new product launch environments.
  • A demonstrated ability to develop NPI strategies and structures that yield long-term success in rapidly growing engineering environments.

The U.S. base salary range for this position is $182,000 - $215,000 plus benefits, equity and variable compensation for Sales-related roles. This range represents SPAN’s good faith estimate of competitively-priced salary for the role based on national, real-time industry data from companies of a similar growth stage. This range reflects minimum and maximum new hire salaries for the role in San Francisco county. Within the range, individual pay is determined by location and individual factors including relevant skills, experience and education or training. This range correlates to the relative level of the candidate we believe we need for the role and may require an adjustment for candidates of a different level.

Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the location this role is based during the hiring process.

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. 

Our CEO, Arch Rao⁠—former head of the Tesla Powerwall team⁠—fosters an energetic and collaborative environment, with a strong emphasis on maintaining work-life-balance across the organization.

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:

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

⚡ Comprehensive benefits (including medical; dental, vision, life and disability insurance)

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

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

⚡ Flexible hours and unlimited PTO

Our Mission & Values:

At SPAN, we believe that powering your home with clean energy should be a simple and delightful experience that is at its essence human-centered and technology-forward.

Our core values include:

  • Making home energy more accessible, intuitive, and convenient.
  • Enabling homes and vehicles to be powered by the sun.
  • Building resilient homes with reliable power.
  • All-electric everything.
  • A more flexible & distributed grid.

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

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Confirmed 17 hours ago. Posted 30+ days ago.

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