Staff Solar Field Reliability Engineer, Energy Products

TeslaPalo Alto, CaliforniaOn-siteFull-timeSenior, 5–8 yearsListed 3 hours ago

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About this role

Tesla Energy operates the largest distributed fleet of residential solar systems on the planet. Our solar portfolio spans hundreds of thousands of systems across multiple generations of inverters, panels, and gateways, both Tesla-designed and third-party hardware. This fleet generates terabytes of telemetry data daily, creating an unparalleled opportunity to understand & improve our solar hardware reliability across diverse climates, grid conditions, and usage patterns over years of operation. This role is responsible for all Solar products, coordinating with engineers responsible for fleet health monitoring, automated diagnostics, and field quality across Tesla's full solar portfolio. We are seeking a multi-faceted engineer who will be responsible for all aspects of identifying, analyzing, root causing, implementing countermeasures, and reporting on issues affecting products. You will have direct visibility to senior leadership, the autonomy to shape reliability strategy, and the opportunity to build something meaningful at scale.

Monitor products field performance, identify trending issues.  Prioritize based on severity, occurrence, and/or cost of each failure mode  Field Escalations and Product Quality: Own critical / top product issue escalations, thermal event response,  drive the field quality workstream, raise and advance hardware failure investigations, and NPI field quality oversight   Coordinate Failure Analysis Investigations: from identification through root cause to countermeasure implementation, coordinating with vendors, FA/FQ labs and teams, and design teams to close the loop on hardware failures   Communicate with Leadership: Produce clear, concise summaries for leadership on team priorities, active investigations, and fleet health, proactively flagging risks and decisions needed   Drive corrective actions to closure: design changes, manufacturing process improvements, firmware mitigations, or field service campaigns, tracking implementation and confirming efficacy   Drive continuous improvement in design and performance by providing direct and accurate feedback to design owners  Share Lessons Learned from previous field issues; Provide upfront feedback by participating in design reviews to ensure product performance, reliability, and manufacturability issues are identified and risks mitigated (DFMEAs)

5+ years of experience in hardware reliability, field quality, systems engineering, energy service engineering, or related field and 2+ years of experience leading or coordinating a team of engineers (formal management, tech lead, or team coordination role)  Demonstrated expertise in structured investigation methodologies: 8D, FMEA, fault tree analysis, Weibull analysis, or equivalent root cause techniques   Strong data analysis skills: ability to query large fleet datasets (SQL, Python) to identify failure trends, calculate failure rates, and quantify field impact   Experience producing executive-level technical reports and presenting complex reliability findings to senior leadership   Track record of driving corrective actions to closure across cross-functional teams without direct authority   Hands-on experience with power electronics hardware: inverters, DC-DC converters, gate drivers, capacitors, thermal management systems   Background in solar panel reliability: hotspot analysis, degradation characterization, EL/IR testing, cell-level failure modes   Familiarity with UL1741, IEEE 1547, or other grid-tied inverter safety standards

Benefits
Along with competitive pay, as a full-time Tesla employee, you are eligible for the following benefits at day 1 of hire:

- Medical plans > plan options with $0 payroll deduction
- Family-building, fertility, adoption and surrogacy benefits
- Dental (including orthodontic coverage) and vision plans, both have options with a $0 paycheck contribution
- Company Paid (Health Savings Accounts) HSA Contribution when enrolled in the High-Deductible medical plan with HSA
- Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
- 401(k) with employer match, Employee Stock Purchase Plans, and other financial benefits
- Company paid Basic Life, AD&D
- Short-term and long-term disability insurance (90 day waiting period)
- Employee Assistance Program
- Sick and Vacation time (Flex time for salary positions, Accrued hours for Hourly positions), and Paid Holidays
- Back-up childcare and parenting support resources
- Voluntary benefits to include: critical illness, hospital indemnity, accident insurance, theft & legal services, and pet insurance
- Weight Loss and Tobacco Cessation Programs
- Tesla Babies program
- Commuter benefits
- Employee discounts and perks program
- Earned Wage Access: Real-time pay access paid daily, subject to eligibility and schedule (applicable for below Sr. Managers levels)
Expected Compensation $109,600 - $234,000/annual salary + cash and stock awards + benefits
Pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements dependent on the position offered. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.