ON.energy is building the power infrastructure that makes the AI era possible. As AI demand surges past what the grid and traditional data centers can support, ON.energy provides a new class of power technology proven at gigawatt scale and trusted by the world's leading cloud and AI companies. Our systems are already deployed across 2.5 GW of hyper-scale campuses, validated by top U.S. national labs, and certified for grid-safe operation by major utilities. With real products in the field, we're scaling faster than the grid can, transforming power from a bottleneck into a competitive advantage for the companies building the future.
Role Overview
The Principal Electrical Engineer (Product/Hardware) is the supreme technical authority for ON.energy's hardware ecosystem. This role is responsible for the overarching technology roadmap of multi-megawatt Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and high-voltage UPS systems. You will lead the next-generation architecture of 1500VDC topologies and medium-voltage (MV) grid integrations, ensuring perfect, zero-transfer-time uptime for the world's largest hyperscale AI data centers.
Key Responsibilities (What Changes at the Principal Level)
- Architectural Ownership: Define the standard product topologies for modular, utility-scale power platforms. You choose the underlying electrical framework for how the next generation of power electronics, transformers, and switchgear seamlessly combine.
- Grid Interconnection & ISO Authority: Serve as the company's leading Subject Matter Expert (SME) on complex ISO/RTO grid codes (such as ERCOT, PJM, and CAISO). You orchestrate how the hardware behaves during transient grid events and voltage ride-through testing.
- Strategic Vendor & OEM Selection: Establish strategic technical partnerships with Tier-1 battery (e.g., CATL, Sungrow) and Power Conversion System (PCS) OEMs. You define the custom procurement specifications that OEMs must meet to fit ON.energy's product stack.
- Ultimate Escalation Point: Act as the highest engineering escalation point for critical root-cause analysis (RCA) regarding power electronics failures, thermal anomalies, or major system interactions in the field.
- Regulatory & Compliance Strategy: Partner with compliance divisions to dictate the testing, listing, and certification roadmaps (such as UL 9540, UL 1741, and NFPA 855) for all new product introductions (NPI).
- Technical Mentorship: Drive engineering excellence across the organization, mentoring senior electrical, controls, and project engineers to scale the technical capability of the team.
Required Qualifications & Technical Skills
- Education: Master's or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with a heavy specialization in Power Electronics or Utility Power Systems. A active Professional Engineer (PE) License is highly preferred.
- Experience: 10 to 15+ years of definitive engineering leadership in utility-scale energy storage, high-voltage data center substations, or large-scale industrial grid tie-ins.
- Deep Hardware & Controls Synthesis: Extensive experience modeling battery sizing, degradation lifecycles, and validating how EMS/SCADA plant controllers communicate (via Modbus/DNP3) with localized hardware components.
- Advanced Simulation Mastery: Mastery of advanced power system analysis tools (like ETAP, SKM, or PSCAD) to oversee complex short-circuit, protective device coordination, harmonic distortion, and arc flash studies.
- Advanced Standards Authority: Beyond knowing the codes, you have a deep history of physically leading products through NRTL (Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories like UL, CSA, Intertek) certification programs, specifically regarding thermal runaway testing (UL 9540A).
- Executive Communication: Proven track record of presenting complex technical concepts, risk mitigations, and design optimization strategies directly to C-suite leadership and enterprise cloud/hyperscale clients.