Job Details: Reliability Economics Engineer

Job Title Reliability Economics Engineer
Company SunPower Corporation
Location San Jose CA (US)
Date Posted 06/01/10
The solar electric industry is an exciting and rapidly growing business, providing excellent career opportunities and the great satisfaction of having a positive impact on the environment. SunPower Corp. (www.sunpowercorp.com) is a top-three global provider of large-scale solar power systems, with over a thousand megawatts contracted or in construction. We design, manufacture and deploy the world’s highest efficiency solar panels.

The company is fully integrated from the silicon wafer all the way to the end-customer, with a very strong emphasis on maintaining high quality at every step, and world-class reliability in the final products. SunPower’s R&D team developed the original 20% all-back contact solar cell in 2005, released the 22% cells in 2007 and is presently working on the next generation technology.

- We are looking for an exceptionally smart and motivated candidate who has demonstrated a capacity for working across teams in different disciplines to study the intersection of engineering and economics.
- This person should have the engineering background to enable understanding of how the products and systems work, and the business training to evaluate cost and performance trade-offs in the complex market of economic drivers associated with the project financing of major power plants.

Must haves:
1. High horse-power in terms of high energy and smarts.
2. Likes to work with people … data will come from finance, engineering, O&M, projects, etc. This person needs to be a compelling influencer to get time on people’s calendars.
3. Possesses a keen interest in how engineering decisions influence the business economics throughout the full lifecycle of a product. Uses technical common sense to know when he/she is getting snowed on the engineering side of things.
Likely a business-school-headed person who’s fairly recently graduated with a technical degree. This is an excellent entry point for someone with no solar background looking to break into this field.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities
• People-oriented problem solver who will innovate, and provide technical leadership for solving challenging problems using a positive, solution-oriented approach.
• Research quality records from sales, finance, construction, supply chain, and R&D to understand and explain to others the total cost of ownership for PV power plants.
• Analyze engineering decisions to quantify and illustrate the economic tradeoffs of reliability.
• Study competitive systems to establish benchmarks, including technical details about reliability rates & costs. Identify the best opportunities for viable improvements that can differentiate PV.
• Present findings and recommendations to other engineers; sponsor projects to implement.

Education, Experience, and Qualifications
• B.S. or Masters in a technical field (Engineering, Economics, Applied Math or Physics).
• Capability in economic analysis and engineering trade-offs; expert spreadsheet power user.
• Creative, self-directed, and able to thrive in a fast-paced environment.
• Clear written and verbal communication style, with the ability to create compelling presentations for varied audiences, from scientists and engineers to executives.
• Additional background in solar industry and statistics is a plus.

SunPower offers an attractive compensation package that consists of a competitive salary and equity. The company also offers an array of generous employee benefits.

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