---
title: 'Manager, Field Quality at Base Power Company'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/manager-field-quality-base-power-company-austin-cgdwmq3agr7p'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-10'
---

# Manager, Field Quality at Base Power Company

- **Company:** [Base Power Company](https://feeny.ai/companies/base-power-company)
- **Location:** Austin, TX
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-11-06
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/base-power/8916f0b1-7852-4aa9-95ae-062aa71c8816

## Job description

## About Base

Base is America’s next-generation power company. We’re rebuilding the foundation of modern civilization–electricity–by deploying a vast network of distributed batteries that is transforming today’s fragile, centralized grid into a resilient and abundant system. We are engineers, operators, and creatives solving some of the most complex, interdisciplinary challenges of our time.

## About the Role

Base is hiring a Senior Manager of Field Quality to own what happens after hardware ships. Reliability testing tells us what we think will break. The field tells us what actually breaks, usually in a way the test protocol didn't anticipate. You'll lead the team that sees it early, sorts out what matters, and gets it fixed in design and in our supply base. You'll build this function as the fleet scales.

## What You'll Do

- Own fleet return rate. Set targets, report the real numbers, and own it when a failure mode starts trending.
- Hire and grow field quality, failure analysis, and test engineers and technicians. Set the technical bar.
- Drive root cause to closure: field signal, RMA triage, teardown, failure recreation, corrective action, and verification in the fleet. Personally lead the investigations that matter.
- Make the field calls: swap, pull, stop ship, firmware mitigation, or retrofit campaign.
- Turn field failures into design changes with evidence, and hold each change through implementation.
- Own the data: dashboards, failure taxonomy, and Paretos that are only worth something if the failure coding is honest.
- Close the loop on supplier performance with supplier industrialization through 8D/CAPA and scorecards.
- Own the failure analysis lab and the methods to recreate failures and confirm fixes.
- Manage cost of poor quality. Warranty spend, truck rolls, and scrap are engineering metrics.

## What You'll Bring

- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials, Physics, or a related field.
- 7+ years in field quality, reliability, failure analysis, or hardware design engineering, including 3+ years leading engineers.
- You've owned a deployed fleet at scale, caught a failure mode in the data, and driven it to closure.
- Strong fundamentals in electronics, battery, thermal, or electromechanical systems. You can hold your own in a teardown and argue failure physics.
- Triage instinct and sound judgment on high-stakes field calls where acting and waiting both cost real money.
- Comfort with Grafana, SQL/BigQuery, and Python.
- You can brief an exec on fleet risk in five minutes and debug a PCBA with an engineer for five hours.

## Preferred Skills

- Battery energy storage, inverters, or other grid-connected power hardware.
- Scaling a field quality function alongside a fast-growing fleet.
- Safety-critical hardware, UL/NFPA compliance, or field safety escalations.
- Hands-on failure analysis: cross-sectioning, X-ray, thermal imaging, and materials characterization.
- Driving supplier corrective actions and holding suppliers to schedule.

## About the Team

Our hardware reliability and test team breaks Base products before our members can. We run mechanical, electrical, environmental, and abuse testing from component to full system, track how the fleet holds up in the field, root-cause the failures that matter, and feed fixes straight back to design. Homeowners across the country rely on Base for whole-home backup and lower electricity bills. Our network of home batteries also helps keep the grid stable as demand climbs from AI, electrification, and extreme weather. We build in-house and expand at a speed and cost incumbents can't match, and this team makes that possible.

Please note: Base is a startup, which means priorities shift and evolve quickly. Your role may expand or change based on the needs of the business at any given time, so the responsibilities listed may not be exhaustive.

## Our Values

- First Principles Thinking: Question assumptions. Principles > rules.
- Operate at Base Pace: Focus on what matters, act quickly, and learn by doing.
- Give & Get Feedback: Be direct, be humble, and maintain a growth mindset.
- Everyone’s an Owner: Follow through on commitments and own results.
- Strong Opinions, Loosely Held: Drive clarity and make calls with imperfect information.
- Committed to the Mission: Rebuilding the grid is a big challenge. We work hard because we care deeply about the impact we’re creating. We work in-person. It’s not a 9-to-5. We are all-in.
- Fun & Optimism Coexist with Grit: Collaboration and celebration coincide with the intensity of building real things.

Do the best work of your life at Base.

## About Base Power Company

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Base Power is a technology-driven energy provider deploying a network of distributed home batteries in Texas to provide reliable, affordable backup power and grid-balancing services.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series C, $1.3B+ raised to date)
- **Headquarters**: Austin, Texas, United States
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Zach Dell (CEO & Co-Founder), Justin Lopas (COO & Co-Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Energy Technology (Energy-as-a-Service, Grid Storage, Distributed Energy)
- **Target customers**: B2C (Texas homeowners), B2G (grid operators / ERCOT)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Build the future of American power." — The company aims to protect American families from outages, strengthen the aging U.S. grid, and move toward energy abundance by deploying a large-scale network of home batteries.

## Products & Services
- **Home Battery + Energy Membership**: A vertically integrated service where Base installs a large battery (25–50 kWh) at a customer's home for a low one-time fee ($695–$995). Customers pay a fixed energy rate (8–4¢/kWh) and a small monthly membership ($19–$29/mo). Base earns revenue from the grid (grid-balancing services), not from customer bills, enabling rates legally guaranteed to stay below market average. The system provides whole-home backup, protecting against 97% of outages.
- **Grid Services Platform**: Proprietary software that orchestrates the distributed battery network — charging when demand is low and discharging when the grid needs support — generating revenue and grid resilience.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (Private company with $1.3B+ total funding)
- **Key Metric (Funding)**:
  - **Series A** (May 2024): $68M led by Thrive Capital
  - **Series B** (April 2025): $200M led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and others
  - **Series C** (November 2025): $1.0B from 26 investors
  - **Total raised**: ~$1.27B (converted from 1,268,000,000)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz (also key talent source: 42 former Tesla employees, 6 from SpaceX, 4 from Anduril Industries)
- **Growth Signals**:
  - **Headcount**: 266 (as of mid-2026), with **+186.4% YoY growth** and a rapid monthly growth rate of +12.6%
  - Named one of **TIME's 10 most influential energy companies of 2026**
  - Operating in 5 countries (primarily US, with presence in Canada, Philippines, France, India)
  - 100+ active job postings with +104% increase YoY
  - 12,500+ batteries installed; serving thousands of monthly customers
  - CEO cited in the careers page as saying the company has 400+ team members ("400+" likely includes contractors and field installation/service workforce)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Vertically Integrated Model**: Base designs, manufactures, and installs every battery system itself, controlling the full stack from hardware through software to field operations.
- **Unique Business Model / No-Customer-Profit**: Base earns revenue from grid balancing, not from customer energy bills. This allows guaranteed-below-market rates and a low-cost battery membership, making it dramatically cheaper than competitors (e.g., Tesla Powerwall equivalents).
- **Strong Investor and Talent Backing**: World-class VC backing combined with a heavy talent influx from Tesla, SpaceX, and Anduril (companies known for high-velocity hardware/software execution).
- **Massive Capital Advantage**: $1B+ Series C provides a significant moat for scaling hardware production, dealer network, and software.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale distribution in Texas**: Continue deploying home batteries at a rapid pace across Texas, entering new zip codes and neighborhoods.
- **Grid partnership expansion**: Deepen relationships with ERCOT to expand the value of grid-balancing services.
- **Product development**: Improve battery technology (safety, capacity, cost), increase whole-home backup coverage (currently 97%), and develop new hardware/firmware generations.
- **Geographic expansion**: potential to move beyond Texas into other states (currently operating in 5 countries for support functions, but service is Texas-focused).

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as "intense, fast-paced, and deeply mission-driven." The company demands high output, ownership, and a bias toward action. It's explicitly stated as "not for everyone, and that's by design." This is a high-ownership, low-ambiguity environment.
- **Work Model**: **On-site at Base HQ in Austin, Texas.** Proximity to the product and team is central to how they move fast. "Do I need to be based in Texas? Yes."
- **Hiring Speed**: Fast process — aim for 1st conversation to offer in ~2 weeks.
- **Interview Process**: 3-4 hour on-site including technical assessments and behavioral/team conversations. Focus on "how [you] approach problems, communicate tradeoffs, and collaborate."
- **Non-traditional backgrounds**: Explicitly welcome: "We care about what you've built and how you think, not the logos on your resume. Some of our best people came from non-traditional paths."
- **Engineering Culture**: Heavy focus on hardware + software + field operations. Talent sources heavily from Tesla, Anduril, SpaceX — firms known for hardcore engineering and manufacturing excellence. Roles span hardware engineering, firmware, software, manufacturing, field installation/service, operations, growth, and design.
- **Team Composition**: ~29% of employees are in technical roles; ~15% in operations; significant representation of trades workers (11).
- **Notable Perks**: Opportunity to work on physical infrastructure deployed at scale; chance to contribute meaningfully to grid modernization and American energy resilience.

## Sources
1. [Base Power Careers Page](https://www.basepowercompany.com/careers)
2. [Base Power About Page](https://www.basepowercompany.com/about)
3. [Base Power Home Page (Product & Pricing)](https://www.basepowercompany.com/)
4. [Base Power LinkedIn Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/basepowercompany)
5. [Base Power Open Roles (Ashby)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/base-power)

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