Sustaining Engineering Manager

Job Description

Yaskawa - Solectria Solar is America's leading manufacturer of high power photovoltaic inverters for solar applications. Join a driven and innovative team working in a fast paced and challenging high technology environment. Let your talent fuel one of the nation's fastest growing industries. We offer an excellent benefit package, the ability to work with cutting edge technology, and room for professional growth and career advancement within the company. Yaskawa - Solectria Solar is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

DUTIES :

1. The Sustaining Engineering Manager and their team must be capable of driving hard to solve field and design issues causing customer dissatisfaction

2. Provide hands-on management and prioritization for all activities and initiatives related to Sustaining Engineering

3. Recommend and implement new features, modifications and upgrades to existing products in order to improve reliability and the customer experience

4. Lead the Sustaining Engineering team from a technical perspective and act as the final arbiter in technical decisions when necessary

5. Plan and execute root cause analysis of failures and timely execution of appropriate reaction plans

6. Coordinate directly between sustaining hardware, embedded software, application software, quality, reliability, and manufacturing teams to understand, correct, and eliminate complex electronics and software failure modes

7. Schedule work assignments and communicate priorities to meet design and business goals

8. Lead software code reviews for maximum product quality and team learning

9. Mentor less experienced team members in engineering principles and management

10. Manage the release of product software configuration files and provide software documentation to internal customers

11. Effectively manage changes using internal processes such as ECO's, Deviations, etc.

12. Monitor and continuously improve performance, administer ongoing performance reviews, and other duties as needed to effectively manage the team

13. Oversee detailed technical and safety training of employees

14. Additional duties may be assigned, as business circumstances require

REQUIREMENTS :

Skills / Knowledge / Abilities :

1. The candidate should be a results-oriented team player who leads by example, takes ownership, and

champions process improvement initiatives

2. Proven experience as a working manager who is able to evaluate and develop talent while holding team members accountable for meeting goals and competencies

3. Ability to understand complex designs and failure modes with software / hardware interactions

4. A high level of initiative and a proactive nature, good communication skills and strong organizational and time management skills. Fluency in English is essential.

5. Hands on experience in software engineering practice including :

a. Real time embedded systems programming in C

b. Knowledge of computer architectures including DSP and high performance processors

c. Embedded communications systems including TCP / IP, Ethernet, CAN, Modbus, and wireless

protocols

d. Lead code reviews and static code analysis

e. Validation planning and execution

f. A strong understanding and advocacy of defensive programming methods to defeat issues

such as noise, intermittent communications, erroneous configuration entry, and

communications data over-runs or errors.

g. Significant understanding and work experience of software quality assurance and software

testing principles and standards.

h. Ability to use design tools, system debuggers, programmers, word, excel, power point, -

databases, web interfaces, etc.

i. Design and validation of safety critical software including compliance with safety standards

such as UL1998 or DO-178B.

6. Hands on experience with power electronics :

a. Failure modes of power electronics parts

b. Failure modes of electromechanical parts

c. Best practices for electrical noise immunity

d. Design for harsh outdoor environment

e. Excellent circuit trouble shooting skills

7. Some lifting required (up to 55 lbs. individual lift, up to 115 lbs. team lift).

8. Willingness to travel domestically and internationally up to 25% to support critical goals and interface with external stakeholders.

Desired Skills :

1. Direct experience with safe operation and testing of high power (up to 1.5MW) and high voltage (up to 600VAC, 1500VDC) equipment.

2. Controls firmware design for 3-phase inverter systems

3. Photo-voltaic and / or energy storage system design experience

4. Prior experience in power electronics hardware development

5. Project management skills, project planning, schedule creation and maintenance

6. Product agency certification for UL, CE, FCC, etc.

7. Advanced testing experience including unit test, functional test, system test, white box testing, black box testing, boundary testing, stress testing, and regression testing

8. Operating system theory and implementation, including both hard real time and Embedded Linux systems

Education / Experience :

• BSEE, BSCS, BSCE with 8 or more year's relevant experience. OR
• MSEE, MSCS, MSCE with 6 or more year's relevant experience.
• Minimum 6 years of experience in embedded software design and validation
• Minimum 3 years of supervisory leadership experience in an engineering environment