Power Engineering Lead (Data Centers)

Power Engineering Lead
Full Time | Remote (or local to San Francisco)

The Opportunity

Our client designs, builds, and operates modular natural gas power plants for AI data centers. Their plants use reciprocating engines and are deployed behind the meter, so sites can energize in months instead of years. As AI demand outpaces what the grid can deliver, they are building the fast path to power.

The company is venture backed and led by repeat founders with large exits in compute and software, plus deep investing experience across power and real estate.

This is the senior electrical engineering hire. You will own the electrical design of two behind the meter products, a packaged gas reciprocating engine module and the ePod (medium voltage switchgear, transformers, battery storage, UPS, controls, and electrical house), from architecture through commissioning. You will also own the IP that makes them proprietary. These units run islanded and in parallel, serving AI loads that step by tens of percent in milliseconds.

What You’ll Own

Electrical Architecture

• Set alternator sizing, medium voltage bus design, transformers, and grounding
• Size storage for load steps and define how units parallel across a site

Studies and Specifications

• Own the full study set: load flow, short circuit, protection, arc flash, harmonics, and transient simulation
• Turn study results into the design spec and acceptance criteria

Controls Design

• Design synchronizing, load sharing, and grid forming storage coordinated with governors and AVRs
• Develop plant controller logic

Equipment and Vendors

• Specify equipment, write bid specs, manage OEMs, and secure allocation

Commissioning and Fleet Performance

• Lead factory acceptance testing and site commissioning
• Own electrical performance across the deployed fleet

Team

• Build the power systems team from the ground up

What You’ll Build

Engines, switchgear, and batteries are bought. You create the system around them, and patent it:

• Transient management, where storage, controls, and engine loading are coordinated so packaged engines serve GPU load steps without oversizing
• A standard, type tested ePod electrical design that is identical unit to unit and needs minimal site engineering
• Protection, grounding, and paralleling that stay stable from a few units to a large islanded fleet
• The plant side interface that links live plant state to the company’s compute controls

What We’re Looking For

Required

• 5+ years in power systems engineering, 480 V to 35 kV, on islanded or paralleled generator plants serving critical loads
• Ownership of the full study set in ETAP, PSCAD, PowerFactory, or SKM, including authoring the relay settings

Strongly Preferred

• Designed and commissioned engines and inverter based storage running in parallel on live loads, with a solid grasp of governor, AVR, and inverter dynamics
• Fluency in alternators, medium voltage switchgear and relays, transformers, grid forming inverters, UPS, and plant controllers
• Working knowledge of NEC, IEEE 1547/519/C37, NFPA 110/855, UL 9540/1741, and ISO 8528
• Experience writing bid specs, negotiating with OEMs, and securing allocation

Nice to Have

• PE license
• MS or PhD in power systems or power electronics
• Patents

Why This Role

• You set the electrical architecture and own the IP, not inherit someone else’s design
• Real authority to build the power systems team and set technical standards
• A first mover position in behind the meter power for AI data centers, a market attracting serious capital
• Senior leadership level, reporting directly to the CEO and Founders
• Competitive cash plus meaningful equity at an early stage company
• San Francisco based team, with site travel

Compensation

Competitive cash plus meaningful equity. This is a senior leadership role at an early stage company, so we do not have a set minimum or maximum range for this role.

Interested?

This is a confidential search conducted by root/edge. To learn more, contact Emily Walker at emily@root-edge.com.