Senior Reliability Engineer

Senior Reliability Engineer

Job Summary:

As the Senior Reliability Engineer, you will lead reliability engineering activities across Array Technologies' solar tracker products, supporting both New Product Introduction (NPI) and sustaining engineering efforts. This role is responsible for improving long-term product durability, performance, safety, and lifecycle cost through structured reliability methodologies, testing, and cross-functional collaboration.

The Senior Reliability Engineer will drive reliability strategy including Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA), reliability modeling, accelerated testing, field performance analysis, and validation planning. This role will work closely with Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, and Program Management to improve product robustness and reduce failure risk throughout the product lifecycle. This position plays a critical role in improving customer satisfaction, reducing warranty exposure, and supporting the development of reliable products for demanding outdoor environments.

This position reports to the Director of Reliability.

Key Responsibilities:

Reliability Engineering & Analysis

• Lead DFMEA development and continuous improvement for new and existing products
• Support Design for Reliability (DFR) during product development and NPI
• Develop and maintain reliability models, including MTBF, RBD, Weibull, and failure trend analysis
• Define reliability requirements and targets at system, subsystem, and component levels
• Establish and monitor reliability KPIs (field failures, warranty trends, product degradation, customer returns)
• Participate in design reviews and provide risk-based reliability recommendations

Testing & Validation

• Develop and execute reliability test strategies, including HALT/HASS, ALT, environmental, fatigue, corrosion, thermal cycling, and mechanical loading tests
• Support Design Verification Plans & Reports (DVPRs) and qualification planning
• Define statistically appropriate sample sizes and confidence levels for validation testing
• Coordinate and oversee internal and third-party laboratory testing
• Analyze test results and recommend design improvements to enhance durability and performance

Warranty & Field Performance

• Analyze field failures, customer returns, and warranty trends to identify systemic reliability issues
• Develop and maintain warranty forecasting inputs and support reserve modeling
• Partner with Finance, Quality, and Engineering to improve warranty prediction accuracy
• Feed field performance lessons learned back into product development

Root Cause Analysis & Continuous Improvement

• Lead or support structured root cause investigations (8D, FTA, Weibull)
• Support corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) for recurring failures
• Improve reliability processes, data collection, and reporting practices
• Develop reliability dashboards and performance metrics as needed

NPI & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Integrate reliability engineering into stage-gate product development processes
• Partner with Design Engineering to improve product robustness early in design
• Support Sustaining Engineering with field issue resolution and design improvements
• Collaborate with Manufacturing and Quality on recurring performance issues
• Provide reliability input for new technology evaluations and product changes

Standards & Compliance

• Support qualification activities aligned with UL, IEC, ASTM, and ISO standards
• Assist with certification testing and technical documentation
• Stay current on evolving standards related to solar tracker systems and outdoor structural applications

Leadership & Strategy

• Establish and standardize reliability engineering processes, tools, and best practices
• Mentor engineers and cross-functional teams on reliability principles
• Contribute to long-term reliability strategy and roadmap development
• Support growth of the Reliability function as business needs evolve

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Reliability Engineering, or a related field
• 5+ years of experience in reliability, product development, validation, or quality engineering within a mechanical or electromechanical environment
• Demonstrated ownership of DFMEA activities and application of reliability modeling methods (Weibull, MTBF, RBD) in a product development environment
• Experience working within structured NPI or stage-gate development processes
• Familiarity with reliability testing methods and environmental qualification practices
• Strong technical communication skills, including reports, presentations, and executive summaries
• Experience analyzing field performance data to drive engineering decisions
• Experience with statistical software (Minitab, Reliasoft, JMP)

Preferred:

• Master's degree in Engineering or a related discipline
• Experience in renewable energy, solar, heavy equipment, automotive, or outdoor mechanical systems
• Familiarity with corrosion mechanisms and environmental degradation
• Familiarity with structural systems, including fasteners, bearings, drivetrains, actuators, torque tubes, and mechanical joints
• Six Sigma certification (Green or Black Belt) or Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE)

At Array Tech, Inc., we strive to lead with our culture, and believe that our people are a key enabler of our future state. Our total rewards philosophy supports Array's ability to attract, develop, and retain our employees. We offer competitive compensation, benefits and wellness programs that align with the local markets where we do business.

Array Tech, Inc. offers equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, gender, age, creed, sex, religion, national origin, disability (physical or mental), marital status, citizenship, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, or any other legally protected status.