Form Energy

Director, Software & Firmware Engineering

Form Energy • $166K — $200K *
Energy & Utilities
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 15+ years in software, firmware, embedded systems, or product systems engineering with leadership of diverse engineering teams.
  • Proven history delivering complex, software-enabled products through all development phases.
  • Strong knowledge in embedded software, operating systems, networking, and hardware/software integration.
  • Experience in establishing technical governance and engineering processes across multiple teams.
  • Successful in recruiting and retaining engineering talent while fostering organizational ownership.

Responsibilities

  • Lead and develop managers, technical leaders, and engineers across various software and firmware domains.
  • Establish a comprehensive engineering strategy covering requirements, architecture, and operational support.
  • Drive a requirements-first and tooling-first approach in software development and compliance.
  • Build reusable software platforms encompassing various systems and secure delivery mechanisms.
  • Oversee firmware integration, release readiness, and operational support across deployed products.
  • Manage software deployment and fleet operation, ensuring reliability and observability.
  • Provide continuous software support throughout the product lifecycle and coordinate across teams.

Benefits

  • Competitive salaries and stock options.
  • 100% coverage for employee medical, dental, and vision premiums, and 80% for dependents.
  • At least 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents, up to 20 weeks for birthing parents.
  • Generous vacation policies to promote work-life balance.
Full Job Description
Role Description

Form Energy is seeking a Director of Software & Firmware Engineering to lead the organization responsible for the software and firmware that operate our energy storage products. Reporting to the Senior Director of Software Engineering & Test Engineering, this leader will oversee embedded software and firmware, the applications used to commission and service our products, and the engineering support required throughout development and the deployed lifecycle. You will bring together product software, firmware, lifecycle applications, and operational support into a cohesive engineering organization with clear ownership and strong technical discipline. This is an opportunity to shape the architecture, teams, and operating model behind a complex, software-enabled energy product with meaningful impact on the electric grid.

Relocation assistance is available.

What you'll do:
  • Lead and develop engineering managers, senior technical leaders, individual contributors, and contractors across embedded software, firmware, systems engineering, manufacturing software, and fleet operations.
  • Establish an integrated engineering strategy across requirements, architecture, reusable product platforms, firmware delivery, deployment, and operational support.
  • Drive a requirements-first and tooling-first approach to software development, safety, security, compliance, and technical evidence.
  • Build reusable software and firmware platforms spanning operating systems, middleware, networking, device runtime, simulation, build systems, release tooling, deployment interfaces, and secure OTA delivery mechanisms.
  • Lead the organization responsible for product firmware delivery, integration, debugging, release readiness, system bring-up, rapid prototyping, fixtures, and supporting engineering tools.
  • Oversee the production rollout and operation of deployed software, including fleet observability, production SRE, OTA execution, commissioning and service applications, incident response, and long-term fleet reliability.
  • Ensure commissioning, service, field, product, and test organizations receive effective software and firmware support throughout the product lifecycle.
  • Develop integrated staffing and execution plans, identify technical and organizational risks early, and drive clear prioritization decisions across competing product needs.
  • Partner closely with Product Management, hardware, controls, manufacturing, field operations, regulatory teams, Engineering Automation, and Product Quality.
  • Build a strong engineering culture centered on accountability, technical rigor, rapid learning, maintainability, modularity, reuse, and long-term fleet operability.


What you'll bring:
  • 15+ years of experience in software, firmware, embedded systems, or product systems engineering, including significant experience leading managers and multidisciplinary engineering organizations.
  • Demonstrated success delivering complex software-enabled physical products through architecture, implementation, integration, verification, production, deployment, and field operation.
  • Strong technical depth in embedded software and firmware, operating systems, middleware, networking, distributed systems, and hardware/software interfaces.
  • Experience establishing requirements, systems architecture, technical governance, verification strategy, and engineering processes across multiple teams.
  • Proven ability to recruit, develop, and retain strong engineering managers and technical leaders while building clear organizational ownership and accountability.
  • Demonstrated ability to translate product priorities into staffing, investment, sequencing, and delivery decisions, make difficult tradeoffs, and communicate technical and organizational risks to executive and cross-functional audiences.

#LI-Onsite

#LI-TR1

Humanity is a cornerstone of Form Energy's culture, and we make sure our compensation and benefits reflect that. Form Energy offers competitive salaries, stock options, and a holistic benefits package to ensure all employees have what they need to thrive while working here.

When it comes to you and your family's health, we cover 100% of medical, dental, and vision premiums for full-time employees - and 80% of healthcare premiums for dependents. This starts from day one. We also offer at least 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents (up to 20 weeks for birthing parents), and generous vacation policies to give employees time to recharge when needed.

To build America's energy future, we need everyone at the table.

About Form Energy

Form Energy is an American energy storage technology and manufacturing company that is developing and commercializing a pioneering iron-air battery capable of storing electricity for 100 hours at system costs competitive with legacy power plants. Form’s multi-day battery will reform the global electricity system to reliably run on 100% low-cost renewable energy, every day of the year. Form Energy was founded by energy storage veterans who came together in 2017 with a unified mission to reshape the global electric system by creating a new class of low-cost multi-day energy storage systems. Driven every day by Form’s interlocking core values of humanity, excellence, and creativity, our team is deeply motivated and inspired to transform the energy landscape and create a better world.
Learn more about Form Energy
Size
50 employees
Industry
Founded
2017

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