Staff Reliability Engineer

Peak Energy•Burlingame, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

Peak Energy is looking for a Staff Reliability Engineer to help scale ESS hardware reliability with a focus on HV electronics, devices, and power conversion. You will work cross-functionally to realize industry-leading reliability across all aspects of the product life cycle, from concept development through field deployment. This role sits at the intersection of design, testing, manufacturing, and field operations — with direct influence on architecture decisions and reliability outcomes that matter most. You will creatively apply reliability expertise in a fast-paced, hands-on environment where your work has immediate and measurable impact. The ideal candidate brings deep technical expertise, a proactive ownership mindset, and the ability to think critically and act decisively in a dynamic startup environment.

Requirements

Bachelor's or master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Reliability Engineering, Materials Science, or a related field
5+ years of experience in hardware reliability engineering in power electronics, high-voltage systems, or consumer electronics
Strong understanding of reliability engineering principles including statistics, data analysis, physics-of-failure, lifetime prediction models, accelerated life testing, and DFMEA
Demonstrated ability to independently lead product reliability through multiple stages of development
Proficiency using statistical analysis tools in Python or equivalent for modeling and data analysis
Strong documentation and technical communication skills — able to clearly present findings and reliability principles to cross-functional and leadership teams
Ability to think critically and act decisively to efficiently grow reliability confidence in a fast-paced startup environment

Nice To Haves

Direct reliability experience with high voltage batteries, DC-DC converters, inverters, battery management systems, or PV solar products
Hands-on experience designing, executing, and reporting complex electromechanical reliability tests (HTHE, PTCE, HTOE, HALT, vibration, corrosion)
Experience with PCBA failure analysis tools such as SEM and X-ray
Experience using DOEs, accelerated life testing, and field failure data to develop physics-based models for design margin analysis and lifetime failure prediction

Responsibilities

Take independent DfR ownership for existing subsystem reliability and a lead DfR role for future products, with a focus on HV electronics, devices, and power conversion
Fully develop reliability test programs (DV, PV, ORT) by leading DFMEA, defining mission profiles, analyzing test acceleration, and specifying test requirements
Build and contribute to custom Python reliability analysis and modeling tools to automate workflows for life prediction, test design, test/field data, and reporting
Define reliability requirements and acceptance criteria at key program milestones and clearly communicate risk and reliability confidence to engineering leadership
Develop physics-of-failure lifetime models and close the loop by performing failure root cause analysis and statistical analyses of test and field reliability data
Partner with the SIE team and suppliers to verify component quality by overseeing outsourced testing and defining qualification and inspection requirements
Collaborate across all teams to embed DfR principles into engineering decisions throughout the product cycle, including early architecture decisions, manufacturing process development, and cost-down projects