Technical Support Engineer / Field Engineer

Job Description

Community Energy Labs (CEL) is looking for a California based Technical Support Engineer / Field Engineer to help deliver our innovative, money- and carbon-saving solutions to our customers. In this role, you'll be a main point of contact for our customers, supporting site integrations, troubleshooting, debugging, and onboarding of new sites, both remotely and on-site. You'll also collaborate closely with our product and engineering team to improve our technology and customer experience. The role is about 75% customer operations and technical support and 25% field engineering. Occasional travel is required (especially in spring and summer) for site visits, installation and troubleshooting. If your colleagues describe you as disciplined, organized, and a great communicator of technical information then we want to hear from you.

What We Do

Community Energy Labs enables buildings to use energy when clean sources of power are available and to use less energy overall by making smart decisions about when and how energy is used. We primarily work with communities and schools, whose buildings make up nearly 30% of the commercial floor space in the US!

Community Energy Labs, its employees, and its customers are driven to be a part of the solution to saving our planet. Our software combines cutting edge control algorithms, machine learning, and traditional control techniques to lower cost and manage energy. We combine that with an intuitive user interface that doesn't require a PhD in mechanical engineering to make saving money and the planet easy for everyone - even cash-strapped schools with overworked building operators.

CEL's core AI-powered clean building control platform concept was a regional winner of CleanTech Open's 2020 international accelerator, an overall winner in the 2020 Madrona Venture Labs Go Vertical challenge, a three time SBIR winner with the Department of Energy, USDA, and NSF. CEL is a community member in Elemental Excelerator, Google for Startups and other prestigious accelerators. Follow CEL on LinkedIn.

Essential Functions & Responsibilities

Product & Customer Support

• Work with customers and control vendors to integrate HVAC systems and thermostat APIs with CEL's platform.
• Configure and monitor local services, validate data flows, and monitor system performance.
• Install and commission gateway devices, electrical meters, and sensors at customer sites to enable secure, two-way communication between HVAC control systems (e.g., BACnet/IP, Modbus, proprietary thermostats) and the CEL cloud backend.
• Act as a project manager for new site onboarding.
• Document site-specific integrations, IP assignments, network diagrams, and device configurations.
• Collaborate with the development team to test, report technical issues, solve problems, and improve product functionality.
• Provide remote customer support (diagnosis, troubleshooting, secure updates) and maintain deployed gateway systems using secure access methods (SSH, SFTP, VPN) as needed to resolve issues.
• Understand and use CEL's internal software tools, observability, and admin systems.

Ongoing Customer Support

• Monitor existing or new sites to track system performance, report results, and flag issues to the team. Troubleshoot and resolve issues for the customer ASAP.
• Join customer meetings to provide insight and address technical and occupant concerns about product implementation.
• Resolve unexpected technical and engineering issues that impact product performance and customer satisfaction, ensuring seamless communication with internal and external stakeholders.
• Help onboard new customers, provide technical support for product implementation, and ensure we meet customer expectations.

Field Responsibilities

• Travel to customer sites to meet with facility and energy managers, electricians and controls technicians.
• Walking the facility, entering mechanical & electrical rooms and climbing up ladders to the roof to document building equipment using a tablet/phone.
• Provide excellent on-site customer support and communicate respectfully with customers.
• Coordinate with multiple stakeholders (customers, vendors, internal teams) for scheduling site work and updating technical documentation.
• Keeping customer onboarding moving forward with clarity and efficiency.
• Coordinate with the Operations team to order, prepare and commission parts, schedule labor & equipment, update inventory, and prepare reports.
• Oversee and support licensed electricians during installations.
• Propose bill of materials (BOM), manage inventory processes, and report on site performance.

Qualifications

Required Experience

• 3+ years working in the trades, construction management, field operations or similar experience.
• 2+ years in vendor management, customer service, or client-facing work (or equivalent experience).
• This role requires travel to customer sites. A valid driver's license and reliable transportation are necessary for this portion of the job.

Necessary Skills/Abilities

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to effectively communicate technical information to non-technical audiences.
• Skilled in documenting processes and decisions comprehensively for team reference.
• Expertise in using methodical approaches to problem-solving, organization, and project management to develop, maintain, and optimize software solutions systematically.
• Strong understanding of HVAC control logic and terminology (setpoints, schedules, economizers, VAVs, RTUs).
• Familiar with Debian/Ubuntu, secure protocols (SSH, SFTP), and networking principles (VLANs, DHCP, static IP setup, etc.)
• Ability to interface with local and cloud-based APIs (e.g., REST or MQTT), and understand payload structures (JSON, XML).
• Scripting ability (Bash, Python) for automating common tasks.
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, project management, and documentation skills.

Nice to Have but Not Required

• Experience with configuring and integrating networked HVAC interfaces (BACnet/IP, Modbus, cloud thermostat APIs).
• Experience as a Controls Engineer or Technician.
• Experience with HVAC and building automation systems (BACNet or Modbus).
• Experience working with Github, AWS, IoT device setup (thermostats and energy meters ideal but not required).

Collaboration, Communication, & Documentation

• Communicate and collaborate effectively using our tools, such as Slack, LastPass, GSuite, Miro, Zoom, GoogleMeet, Monday.com, etc.
• Plan and prioritize your work, communicate tradeoffs, and meet deadlines.
• Write and maintain technical and process documentation, tool documentation, and process steps related to product implementation.

Role Basics

Workspace Requirements and Expected Hours of Work & Travel

• This position is currently only open to Candidates in CA with Southern California preferred.
• Dedicated workspace with two (2) monitors. Reliable and fast internet connection.
• This is a fully remote role with some travel responsibilities. Occasional overnight trips for site visits and on-site installation, customer prospect visits, and annual company get-togethers.
• This position is a full-time, exempt position that may occasionally require extra hours and weekend work that is not compensated as overtime.
• CEL is a small team where versatility is essential and a range of responsibilities and functions are embraced.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• This position initially has no supervisory responsibilities. As an integral part of CEL's product team, you'll operate with a high degree of autonomy while actively collaborating with the product team and senior engineers for direction, support and mentorship.

Salary

• The annual salary for this position is expected to be $75k-$100k per year commensurate with experience for a 40 hours per week work schedule.

Physical Requirements

• This role may involve physical activity during site visits:
  • Ability to stand for extended periods and navigate rugged/unstable conditions (reasonable accommodations will be made where possible).
  • Work in outdoor or adverse weather during site visits.
  • Enter mechanical/electrical rooms, climb ladders, crouch/kneel as needed.
  • No heavy lifting expected.

Attributes

Ideal CEL community members demonstrate:

• Curiosity
• High accountability
• Empathy for customers and team
• Transparency
• Ability to task switch and stay focused
• Attention to detail
• Intrinsic drive to achieve results
• Willingness to communicate and teach
• Willingness to listen and learn
• Solid work habits and organization

Yes, That Means You!

We've read the research and we know that certain underrepresented groups in tech might read our post and think "Oh, gee, well I only have nine out of ten qualifications." If our mission and this job speak to you and you have the interest and ability to work smart, learn, and grow with us then we want you to apply for this job!

Community Energy Labs is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by state or federal law.