Senior Manager - Service Engineer, Energy Storage
Redwood Materials · San Francisco, United States · 8d ago
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.
About Redwood Materials
Redwood is localizing a global battery supply chain that seamlessly integrates recovery, reuse, and recycling—keeping critical minerals in circulation and driving the energy transition. Founded in 2017, we're delivering low-cost and large-scale energy storage and producing battery materials in the U.S. for the first time, all from batteries we already have.
Position Summary
Redwood Materials is seeking a Senior Manager, Field Service Engineering & Technical Operations to build, lead, and scale our Service Engineering department for our expanding Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) product line. In this role, you will transition the team from hands-on escalation support to a structured, high-performing organization.
You will own the technical operational boundary between field operations and core engineering—establishing Tier-2/Tier-3 support frameworks, defining O&M handoff protocols, and driving root-cause engineering solutions straight into product design. The ideal leader combines technical depth in power electronics and energy storage with a track record of scaling service engineering organizations in fast-paced startup environments.
Key Responsibilities
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Team Leadership & Organizational Growth: Recruit, mentor, and scale a multi-tiered team of Service Engineers providing advanced technical support across deployed BESS assets.
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Escalation & Operational Governance: Define clear SLAs, handoff criteria, and escalation thresholds between Operations & Maintenance (O&M), Service Engineering, and core Product/R&D Engineering teams.
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System Failure Analysis & Root Cause: Lead complex technical investigations across electrical, thermal, controls, software, and power conversion systems (PCS/inverters).
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Design for Serviceability & Feedback Loops: Translate field telemetry and failure data into actionable product requirements to directly influence next-generation system reliability and maintainability.
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Technical Knowledge & Field Training: Oversee the development of enterprise service documentation, decision trees, service bulletins, and upskilling programs for field technicians.
Qualifications
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Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related field.
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Experience: 10+ years supporting complex electromechanical, power electronics, or renewable energy infrastructure (BESS, solar, grid-scale systems), with 3+ years in a direct engineering management or team lead role.
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Technical Mastery: Deep operational knowledge of BESS architecture, including energy management systems (EMS), battery management systems (BMS), PCS, protection systems, and thermal controls.
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Framework Experience: Proven history designing and managing structured escalation models (Tier-1 O&M $\rightarrow$ Tier-2/3 Service Engineering $\rightarrow$ Product Engineering).
Working Conditions & Physical Requirements
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Ability to work in challenging field environments (noise, dust, extreme temperatures) with proper PPE.
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Travel: Up to 40% travel to field sites and manufacturing locations.
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On-call availability during escalation events or off-hours as required.
The position is full-time. Compensation will be commensurate with experience.
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