Senior Reaction Controls Engineer

Mainspring Energy · Menlo Park, CA

Level: Senior
Team: Controls
Degree: Required
Experience asked: 5+ years
Industry: Industrial
Posted: 30+ days ago

The role in 30 seconds

A senior controls role at Mainspring Energy (industrial) in Menlo Park, CA. Design, execute, and analyze experiments using Python on virtual or real generators to realize the impact of your work on real generators.

They ask for: 5+ years · degree required
Tools it names: Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ), Automation

Read from the posting. The full description is below.

From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026

Controls Engineer roles in California: typical posted base $123k–$179k.

Median of the low and high ends of 57 live postings that list pay, out of 111 controls engineer openings in California, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.

California plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →

How this role compares

Against 110 other live controls postings in California.

Base pay: Not listed in this posting
Experience asked: Typical (5+ years)

Skills these teams ask for most

✓ Automation 68%
PLC 46%
Robotics 42%
✓ Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ) 37%
✓ Python 33%
Root cause 21%

✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.

It asks for 5+ years. If you're close, apply anyway: requirements are a wish list. Talk to someone doing this work there first.

At a glance

Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.

How to get in at this plant

Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.

1
Pick 2–3 people on the Controls team at Mainspring Energy
Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. Use the team search on this page to find them.
2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.

This plant: Mainspring Energy in Menlo Park

14 other open roles at this site.

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Staff Materials and Process Engineer · Process · Senior
Director, Reliability Engineering · Reliability · Director+

All 15 roles at Mainspring Energy →

Full description from Mainspring EnergyAs posted on their careers site.Show

Responsibilities

Implement models, algorithms, and continuous-integration (MIL, SIL, PIL) tests in C++

Develop novel fuel, air, compression ratio, and cooling automation and control strategies to improve performance, reliability, and expand the capabilities of the generator to address customer needs

Design, execute, and analyze experiments using Python on virtual or real generators to realize the impact of your work on real generators

Collaborate with other controls engineers on designs and architectures

Debug sensors, actuators, and subsystems for noise and disturbances and assist in calibration, verification, and validation. Communicate algorithms with block-diagrams, pseudo-code, code, etc.

Analyze complex thermodynamic-mechatronic systems with experimental data and create representative plant models

Support reliability and manufacturing testing of systems under control

Analyze data to assess performance capabilities and inform

requirements

and design decisions

Support fleet generator operation to enhance reliability and performance

Show full description ↓

Job Overview

Do you love thermodynamics and dynamic system control? Have you thought about thermodynamic cycles as both continuous and discrete dynamic systems? As other industries convert their thermodynamic machines to electromagnetic machines and electrify their platforms, would you like to help generate that clean electricity?

Linear generators are a new platform that take advantage of mechanically unconstrained piston motion to cleanly and efficiently oxidize a variety of environmentally friendly fuels with disparate properties (like biogas, hydrogen, and ammonia). The linear generator reaction is close to an ideal Otto cycle, so knowledge and intuition of engine control, thermodynamics, and reaction kinetics are applicable here.

Mainspring has a high-impact opportunity for a Senior Controls Engineer on our reaction control team to help optimize the system performance by incorporating physics-based models with modern control algorithms to improve reliability, prolong service intervals, and increase power and efficiency.

Driven and self-directed enthusiastic contributor

Excellent communicator with demonstrated collaboration across multidisciplinary teams

Multiple years of experience designing, implementing, and testing algorithms in thermodynamic machines - experience with engines is a plus

BS + 5 years relevant experience, MS + 3 years, or Ph.D. in mechanical engineering or related degree