Principal Electrical Engineer - Islanded Power / Microgrids

The opportunity

A well-funded, founder-led venture is building fully off-grid, behind-the-meter power plants that run AI data centers — solar, battery storage, and gas generation combined into a single islanded microgrid, with no utility behind it. The mandate is to deliver clean, firm, gigawatt-scale power on timelines the industry has never hit, and the company is already building against a signed offtake with a top-tier hyperscale compute partner.

This is a hands-on principal role, not an oversight seat. You own the two hardest engineering problems on the project: how the power electronics behave in an inverter-dominant island, and the control architecture that ties every asset together and keeps the plant stable on its own while it carries a 24/7 data center load. You report to the Director of Power Systems Engineering and drive the day-to-day electrical engineering.

What you'll own

You take the plant architecture and turn it into reality at the control level. That means:

• The control hierarchy for the islanded plant. Author the control philosophy, define exactly where OEM grid-forming firmware ends and a third-party microgrid controller (MGC/PPC) begins, write the functional specs for the MGC and EMS, and own multi-vendor controls integration end-to-end so no function falls into a gap between vendors.
• Power electronics integration. Specify, evaluate, and validate grid-forming inverters and BESS PCS. Model and verify GFM control behavior, fault response, ride-through, and inverter-to-inverter interactions in an IBR-dominant plant with limited fault current — including EMT/PSCAD validation against OEM models.
• Islanded power-system studies. Load flow, short-circuit, protection coordination, grounding, load following, load smoothing, and transient/load-step stability for a continuous high-density IT load. You solve the islanded protection problem directly: when fault current collapses to roughly 1.1–1.5× rated and conventional overcurrent coordination stops being reliable, you specify the differential, communication-assisted, or adaptive scheme that stays selective across every operating mode.
• OEM technical engagement on PCS, BESS, and controls, including tracking FEOC-compliant equipment options where ITC eligibility is at stake.
• Commissioning and validation. Write the test plans, then support bring-up, acceptance testing, and field troubleshooting at the pilot and beyond.

Two things this role is not. You integrate utility-scale OEM equipment — you don't design converters at the silicon level, and you won't be laying out gate drivers. And you own the control architecture and its validation, not the implementation: a controls/automation engineer and the MGC and EMS vendors write the PLC logic and stand up the SCADA under the architecture you set.

What we're looking for

• BSEE, power systems, or a related STEM discipline.
• 7–10+ years in utility-scale solar, BESS, or power electronics, with hands-on ownership of SLDs and power-conversion integration.
• Fluency with electrical CAD and study tools (SKM, ETAP, AutoCAD Electrical, or similar).
• Real understanding of grid-forming vs. grid-following inverter architecture and BESS PCS behavior — able to read control specs critically, not just datasheets.
• Strong NEC and UL 1741-SB knowledge for PV, AC/DC coupling, and energy storage.
• Experience with islanding controls, microgrid EMS/MGC, and inverter/PCS integration.
• Ability to model islanded systems, transient load response, and short-circuit/coordination studies — and to explain why islanded fault behavior breaks conventional overcurrent protection.

Nice to have: MSEE with a power electronics or microgrid focus; direct islanded / off-grid / BTM microgrid experience; field-validated GFM behavior in a real IBR-dominant plant; EMT modeling of PV+BESS powering a large variable load; hardware-in-the-loop validation; and a test-like-you-fly background (e.g., Tesla Energy, Fluence, SpaceX, Array, Nextracker, or comparable) where validation rigor is the norm.

Why this role

The genuinely hard problems in off-grid power for AI live in controls and protection under islanded conditions — and this role owns the engineering answer to them. You'll work under a seasoned operating team, on critical physical infrastructure, with the authority to make the calls and see them run in the field on a fast timeline. If you want your fingerprints on how civilization-scale energy infrastructure actually gets built, this is that seat.

Location: on-site, Southwestern US. Relocation support available.

Package: competitive base + bonus + equity, full health/dental/vision, unlimited PTO, and daily meals provided.