Jobs

ESS is committed to the safety and wellbeing of our employees and community therefore we require COVID-19 vaccinations as a condition of employment.

Catalyzing a cleaner future

At ESS (NYSE: GWH), our mission is to accelerate global decarbonization by providing safe, sustainable, long-duration energy storage that powers people, communities, and businesses with clean, renewable energy anytime and anywhere it’s needed. As more renewable energy is added to the grid, long- duration energy storage is essential to providing the reliability and resiliency we need when the sun is not shining, and the wind is not blowing.

Our technology uses earth-abundant iron, salt, and water to deliver environmentally safe solutions capable of providing up to 12 hours of flexible energy capacity for commercial and utility-scale energy storage applications. Established in 2011, ESS Inc. enables project developers, independent power producers, utilities, and other large energy users to deploy reliable, sustainable long-duration energy storage solutions. For more information visit www.essinc.com.

ESS is seeking a Head of Quality for our team who will be responsible for overall quality and reliability for the entire site. This person will be expected to continuously assess product quality and reliability and based on this, lead the site with strategic initiatives. In this effort, hands-on experience and the ability to connect with all levels in the organization is required.  Identifying issues will require personal connections with the manufacturing personal, engineering team, sales force, as well as time spent working alongside technicians and engineers for basic troubleshooting.

Improving product quality and reliability will be accomplished through a series of projects. Most projects will be conducted by other organizations so the ability to influence change, drive initiatives, and work closely with cross functional teams is essential. Remaining projects will be run within the quality organization and strong project management skills are required for these projects. The candidate must have experience with common practices in Quality and Reliability Engineering: RCCA, SPC, failure mechanism, reliability modeling/prediction, failure probability distributions, reliability by design methods, testing methods, etc. 

Management of the team is the key to success in this position. Each employee must be provided with strategic direction, empowered, have a trustful relationship with their manager, and most importantly lead to a new level of greater contribution. As a manager, it will be necessary to identify employee motivations, strengths, weaknesses, and develop training plans and coaching for improved performance.   

Through these personal interactions, demonstrated results, and other communications this individual will be responsible for the development of a quality culture.

A successful candidate will require a unique set of personal characteristics. A strong work ethic is required to meet the occasional high intensity workload for customer commitments. A persuasive personality with strong communications skills is needed to influence organization to accept change and develop a quality and reliability culture. While the focus is on quality improvement, and not policing, this position requires an individual to have the fortitude to make difficult decisions and ensure processes are followed even when such decisions are not popular.

What you’ll do at ESS:

• Motivate and empower the team, identify strengths, areas for training, and coach for needed improvements.
• Walk the floor, develop awareness of quality issues, and work alongside others for hands on evaluations.
• Define and lead quality and reliability improvement projects.
• Develop a quality and reliability culture.
• Define, track, and communicate performance to targets and KPI’s.

What you bring to the table:

• Bachelor’s degree in related field (preferably Masters).
• 5+ years in quality/reliability engineering.
• The ability to make, and get acceptance for, tough decisions in highly interdependent organization.
• Strong analytical and skills.
• Quality system awareness.
• Experience with the properties of common plastics used in manufacturing.
• Knowledge of ISO a plus.
• Demonstrated project management skills.
• Superior organizational and analytical skills with keen attention to detail and quality.
• Demonstrated strong and effective verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Engineering management experience.
• Ability to follow job required Standards and Safety Protocols, per pre-defined processes.
• Must be able to wear Personal Protection Equipment according to OSHA rules and regulations.

Benefits of working at ESS:

In addition to the value of working with and helping grow a global reaching clean technology, ESS offers Cigna medical, dental, and vision insurance, HSA and FSAs, 8 paid holidays, ESPP, 401k with generous company match, and a competitive PTO accrual.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are open to considering every qualified candidate who is eligible and legally authorized to work in the United States on a full or part-time basis, without a need for sponsorship.

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.