Director of SparkShop

Spark Innovation Center supports advanced energy and hard tech companies in East Tennessee. SparkShop is the product development and MVP arm of Spark. It helps founders move early hardware concepts into testable products, technical validation, and customer conversations that shape the next build and move the company toward market.

SparkShop is built in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the University of Tennessee, and East Tennessee’s regional manufacturing base. The program operates under a federal cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Director of SparkShop will work directly with founders to define products, scope MVPs, test key assumptions, and move companies toward commercial traction. This role is hands-on. It requires hardware judgment, founder management, resource coordination, and the ability to turn company progress into commercial outcomes.

The Director reports to the Executive Director and supports SparkShop’s federal reporting, metrics collection, quarterly DOE calls, and documentation requirements.

• Work directly with founders to scope hardware MVPs and make the next build testable.
• Set company objectives tied to pilots, contracts, technical validation, regulatory progress, or other external evidence.
• Track whether companies are making progress against those objectives.
• Help founders resolve blockers in engineering, testing, regulatory, supply chain, and commercialization.
• Manage Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) and mentor assignments, and recommend changes based on company need, founder progress, and mentor effectiveness.
• Help companies access labs, fabrication resources, testing facilities, and regional prototyping support.
• Maintain and expand the SparkShop resource map so companies can find and use MVP resources across the region.
• Place and manage students and interns on company projects tied to MVP progress.
• Review microgrant requests, recommend awards to the Executive Director, and track whether funded work produces the expected result.
• Collect company metrics, maintain required documentation, support quarterly DOE reporting, and participate in DOE quarterly review calls.

• Direct experience building, testing, or managing hardware development in a shop, lab, prototyping, manufacturing, or product development environment.
• Experience taking at least one product from concept to a testable MVP that informed a commercial, regulatory, or technical decision.
• Experience working with labs, fabrication partners, testing facilities, or technical vendors to advance product development.
• Ability to set and enforce safety expectations across hardware projects.
• Experience managing founders, technical teams, vendors, mentors, students, or project contributors.
• Strong judgment in allocating limited resources and making recommendations that affect project progress.
• Experience with federal grants, technical reporting, audit documentation, or comparable external review is preferred.
• A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field is preferred. Equivalent hardware experience will be considered.
  

$80,000 to $110,000, depending on experience.

Send your resume and a short description of one hardware product you helped move from concept to a testable MVP to SparkShopHiring@gmail.com