R. Steve Sellers
Tesla Cybercab photographed in a studio with both doors open.

San Mateo, California

Reliability for difficult physical products.

I build and lead technical teams across high-voltage batteries, Google Pixel, startup wireless infrastructure, moonshot energy systems, and utility-scale solar power.

LinkedIn Scholar Resume

Tesla Cybercab reliability validation.

Profile

Engineering leader, product builder, and cofounder focused on making ambitious hardware survive the real world.

I'm Steve, currently doing high-voltage battery reliability validation at Tesla. My work has spanned Cybercab and Semi battery demonstrations, seven generations of Google Pixel phones, X moonshots, cofounding Hexagon Wireless, and India-scale solar engineering.

I am drawn to innovative hardware at the edge of what a team can prove: new platforms, new infrastructure, hard reliability questions, and startup environments where engineering judgment has to turn ambiguity into a shipped product.

This page is a compact reference for collaborators and agents: current work, selected project context, publications, and public external links.

Experience

Recent work

  1. Tesla Motors

    Staff Tech Lead / Manager, High Voltage Battery Test

    Lead a team responsible for reliability validation of electric vehicle high-voltage batteries, notably Model 3/Y, 2026 Semi and Cybercab.

  2. Hexagon Wireless

    Co-founder, CTO

    Cofounded and built an innovative wireless infrastructure startup; partnered with major real estate firms and helped close seed / Series A funding.

  3. Google Pixel

    Tech Lead / Manager, Hardware Reliability Engineering

    Across seven Pixel phone generations I built teams and led reliability programs at Asia-based CMs from NPI to MP.

  4. Google X

    Hardware Reliability Engineer

    Reliable first flights for Makani and early de-risking for Malta.

  5. Areva Solar

    Test Engineer II

    Achieved first light at India’s largest solar thermal plant.

Visual Portfolio

Products and systems

Images carry descriptive alt text and captions so humans, search engines, and agents can understand the work without guessing.

Tesla Semi tractor in a white studio environment.
Tesla Semi

High-voltage pack reliability validation for commercial electric vehicle duty cycles.

Tesla Cybercab concept car in warm studio lighting with both doors raised.
Tesla Cybercab

Mechanical and environmental reliability demonstrations for a new vehicle platform.

Large Tesla factory team gathered around battery manufacturing equipment.
High-voltage batteries

Validation infrastructure and test programs for electric vehicle packs.

Lineup of ten generations of Google Pixel phones in multiple colors.
Google Pixel generations

Reliability engineering across seven generations of high-volume consumer electronics launches.

First-generation Google Pixel phones in multiple colors.
Pixel launch era

Reliability programs from NPI through mass production for global phone launches.

Google Pixel 2 phones in four colors.
Pixel reliability

Cross-functional root-cause work across product design, manufacturing, and field returns.

Google Pixel 4 phones in white, orange, and black.
Pixel hardware

Reliability engineering for complex, tightly integrated handheld hardware.

Transparent electric vehicle rendering showing a red high-voltage battery pack in the floor.
Battery architecture

Failure analysis, validation, and product salability work in high-voltage systems.

Makani energy kite flying near an offshore test platform.
Makani

Reliability work for autonomous airborne wind-energy systems at X.

Engineers standing with wireless telecom hardware on a rooftop.
Hexagon Wireless

Cofounder and CTO work building wireless PropTech and neutral-host infrastructure.

Engineer standing between polished solar thermal reflectors in a desert solar field.
Areva Solar

Concentrated solar power field engineering and molten-salt receiver testing.

Engineers and test equipment in a desert concentrated solar power test field.
Sandia testing

Molten-salt and receiver test work tied to solar thermal reliability.

Wide desert test field view of concentrated solar hardware and receiver structures at Sandia.
Sandia test field

Another vantage point on the concentrated solar receiver test work.

Aerial view of a concentrated solar power plant in Rajasthan, India.
Reliance CSP

125 MW solar thermal project in Dhursar, Rajasthan.

Engineers in cleanroom clothing during product work in Huizhou, China.
Asia NPI

Reliability programs moving hardware from development through mass production.

Makani aircraft and team gathered in front of a hangar.
Flight test

Test and reliability work in a fast-moving moonshot hardware program.

Large factory team standing in front of a Cybercab production sign.
Factory launch

Reliability work connected to new product launch under aggressive timelines.

Credentials

Engineering foundation

Registered Professional Engineer in California. B.S. and M.S. Mechanical Engineering.

  • Reliability analysis
  • Startup cofounding
  • New product launch
  • RCCA and failure analysis
  • Environmental and mechanical validation
  • JMP, Python, SQL, Weibull++
  • LabVIEW, UG NX, SolidWorks
  • SEM, EDS, FTIR, FIB, XRD, EBSD
Publications

Selected writing and research

Research papers, thesis work, and engineering reports remain available here, with Google Scholar as the canonical external publication profile.

Composite pultrusion structural health monitoring

Proceedings of The International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring, Stanford University, 2017.

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Impact of Reduction-Oxidation Agents on High Temperature Corrosion of Materials in LiF-NaF-KF

Master's thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2012.

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Corrosion of 316L and Hastelloy-N in molten eutectic LiF-NaF-KF salt and interaction with graphite

Nuclear Technology, 188, 2014.

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Zirconium Effect on the Corrosion Behavior of 316L Stainless Steel Alloy and Hastelloy-N Superalloy in Molten Fluoride Salt

Nuclear Technology, 183, 2013.

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Google Scholar profile

Contact

Public links

LinkedIn Google Scholar Resume LLM-readable summary