Description
Peak Energy
Job Title: Head of Hardware
Location: Burlingame, CA
Department: ESS Engineering
Reports To: CTO
Position Type: Full-time
About Peak Energy
Peak Energy is the first American venture to advance globally proven Sodium-Ion battery systems as the storage standard for the new era of renewable energy on a resilient grid.
Sodium-Ion is cheap, readily available and safe, making it the leading contender in a rapidly evolving market.
Our leadership team is powered by decades of expertise in scaling gigawatt-level innovation at world-class companies such as Tesla, Northvolt, Apple, Powin, Enovix, Zipline, Solid Power, and Fluence. We are backed by strategic investment and product partners such as TDK Ventures and Eclipse Ventures.
We are a team of engineers, operators, entrepreneurs, and partners driven by a shared ambition to set the new performance standard for renewable energy and grid resilience.
About the Role
Peak Energy is looking for a Head of Hardware to lead all aspects of hardware development for our ESS platform — including mechanical, structural, thermal, reliability, and test domains. It's the broadest scope on the engineering team. You'll set the direction and drive execution across subsystem design, integration, validation, and reliability, ensuring our hardware is safe, reliable, and ready for scale.
You'll report to the CTO as one of the functional leaders on the engineering team, alongside Software, Programs, Cell, Systems, and Product.
This is a role for a technical leader who wants to take a hardware product from prototype through production at scale. Peak is doing genuinely novel work, the world's first fully passive megawatt-hour-scale battery storage system, built on sodium iron pyrophosphate (NFPP) chemistry with no active cooling, no coolant loops, no fire suppression, and stackable modules. As we ramp toward Q1 2027 production at our Sacramento factory, this leader owns the hardware roadmap from B2 through the first year of commercial production.
What You'll Do (Responsibilities)
- Serve as the technical lead for all ESS hardware.
- Lead system design and ensure successful integration across electrical, mechanical, structural, and thermal systems.
- Define and maintain subsystem hardware requirements for HV/LV distribution, enclosures, interconnects, cooling, and protections.
- Own the reliability function: design for reliability, DFMEA, accelerated life testing, and lifetime prediction for high-voltage electronics.
- Own verification testing: mechanical reliability, thermal cycling, HV insulation, seismic and structural performance.
- Oversee design-for-manufacturability and partner with Manufacturing Engineering and supply chain to scale production at our Sacramento factory.
- Ensure compliance with the certification and safety standards that matter for grid-scale storage — UL 9540, IEC 62933, IEEE 693, NEC Article 706 — and represent Peak with certification bodies.
- Partner with the Product, Software, Systems, and Cell functions to deliver tight end-to-end product integration.
- Recruit, mentor, and grow a multidisciplinary hardware team spanning mechanical, structural, thermal, reliability, and test engineering. Own the team's technical bar and career growth.
What You'll Bring (Qualifications)
- 10+ years of hardware engineering experience with at least 5 years in leadership roles.
- Proven track record of delivering high-voltage, high-power systems at scale — energy storage, utility-scale renewables, EV traction, or comparable large-scale industrial or automotive hardware.
- Expertise across mechanical/structural design and thermal management, with strong working knowledge of HV/LV electrical systems, bussing, and protections.
- Prior experience taking a hardware product from prototype through production ramp at scale.
- Skilled with CAD (Siemens NX, SolidWorks, or CATIA) and analysis tools (FEA, CFD), plus hands-on prototyping and validation experience.
- Strong understanding of certification and safety requirements for grid-scale storage or comparable high-reliability hardware.
- Excellent communicator and team builder with the ability to align across disciplines.
- Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience scaling hardware teams in startups or high-growth environments (10+ to 30+ engineers).
- Familiarity with manufacturing processes for BESS enclosures, interconnects, and cooling systems.
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