Plant Optimization Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

We're a team of friends bound together by a mission to preserve our planet for future generations through innovative energy solutions and modern infrastructure. Intersect develops, constructs, and operates the most ambitious power and data center infrastructure in the country by co-locating industrial demand with dedicated gas and renewable power generation.
Intersect was acquired by Google in March 2026 and operates as an independent subsidiary. We are developing and constructing multiple gigawatts of energy and data center projects in the U.S., enabling more data center and generation capacity to come online faster. We're on an aggressive growth trajectory and looking for people hungry to tackle the largest energy challenges on the planet.
Location & Team Gatherings
Intersect has been a fully flexible workplace since its founding in 2016. We've been very intentional about the way we do things. We are not work-from-home, hybrid, or in-office - we are any and all of those options! Deepening social connections and offering shared experiences is a cornerstone of the way we work. We connect as a team at our Team Week experiences four times a year and at our recently established Hub locations - SF Bay Area, NYC Metro Area, NY; Denver, CO; Austin, TX; Calgary, AB; and Toronto, ON.
We are currently looking for candidates located within 60 miles of any of the listed hubs to foster more in-person connections while maintaining our flexible remote culture.
About This Role
Intersect is building the integrated energy infrastructure that the future demands, and this role sits at the center of that mission. The Optimization Engineer will provide technical leadership in the creation of a programmatic optimization platform that transforms real-time data, forecasting models, and asset intelligence into automated ERCOT and gas market decisions.
This role reports to the Optimization Analytics Lead and delivers long-term portfolio value by enabling sophisticated, reliable optimization across a diverse mix of storage, solar, wind, thermal generation, and load assets. You will partner closely with trading, engineering, and operations teams to drive performance and scalability.
Team Overview
The Origination & Trading team is responsible for Intersect's revenue generation through long-term contracting on the Origination side and market optimization and short-term hedging on the Trading side. This team plays a critical role in advancing Intersect's mission by translating asset capabilities and market opportunities into durable financial performance through data-driven decision-making and operational excellence.
What You'll Do
Build the Optimization Engine that Drives Intersect's GW-Scale Microgrids

• Design, implement, and maintain production code for optimization, bidding, simulation, and forecasting workflows.
• Develop orchestration frameworks to enable parallelization, reliability, and reproducibility.
• Guide technical decisions related to data architecture, software design, and system reliability.
• Establish patterns, tooling, and best practices to support scalable optimization capabilities.
• Incorporate uncertainty, probabilistic forecasts, and financial risk into algorithm design while balancing performance and interpretability.

Enable Trading and Operational Excellence

• Collaborate across engineering and business teams to ensure optimization systems perform reliably in live market conditions.
• Partner with trading and operations teams to create feedback loops between real-world performance and algorithmic improvements.
• Advance simulation tools to accelerate parameter tuning and expand analytical capabilities.

What You'll Bring

• 5+ years of experience formulating and solving optimization problems (LP, MILP, nonlinear) in production environments.
• Familiarity with solvers such as Gurobi, XPRESS, HiGHS, or CPLEX and modeling frameworks like Pyomo, JuMP, or AMPL.
• Experience providing technical leadership and guiding system architecture decisions.
• Hands-on experience with production code, continuous deployment, and designing for scalability and reliability.
• Working knowledge of orchestration tools such as Airflow, Temporal, Dagster, Flyte, or Argo.
• Strong systems thinking and ability to collaborate across teams to ensure cohesive, high-performing solutions.
• Ability to leverage AI tools to accelerate development while maintaining high code quality standards.

Strongly Preferred

• Graduate degree in operations research, engineering, economics, or a related field with a strong mathematical foundation.
• Strong knowledge of energy systems, wholesale power markets, or power plant operations.
• Experience in environments where latency and reliability directly impact business outcomes.
• Experience building and operating production infrastructure on cloud platforms such as GCP, AWS, or Azure.

Total Rewards
Total Compensation: $217,500 - $237,000 (total compensation includes base salary + bonus in USD)
Equity: Beyond your salary, you'll receive an Equity Grant, giving you a meaningful stake in our parent company.
Health & wellness: 100% premium coverage for you and your dependents on medical, dental, and vision
Time to recharge: Unlimited PTO, plus two company-wide breaks (Fourth of July & end of year)
Family support: Up to 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave, plus 6 additional weeks for birth parents; access to family planning and family care support through Carrot and Maven
Mental health: Free access to Spring Health, including 5 free therapy and psychiatry sessions, plus a Headspace account for mindfulness and meditation through our physical health vendor, Wellhub+
Perks & extras: $150 monthly food stipend, $150 monthly reimbursement for cell phone and internet, pet insurance allowance, full home office setup, free access to UrbanSitter with $625 in quarterly company-paid credits, ActiveHero, and One Medical
Intersect maintains a work environment free from discrimination, one where all employees are treated with dignity and respect. All employees share in the responsibility for fulfilling Intersect's commitment to equal employment opportunity. Intersect does not discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by and consistent with applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. We adhere to these principles in all aspects of employment, including recruitment, hiring, training, compensation, promotion, benefits, social and recreational programs, and discipline.
We sometimes use AI-powered note taking tools during interviews to support our team. They're used only for documentation and don't replace human judgment.