Solar Performance Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

SOLV Energy is a leading provider of infrastructure services to the power industry, designing, building and maintaining utility scale solar, battery storage and high voltage substation projects nationwide.

Job Description Summary:

Job Description:

*This job description reflects management's assignment of essential functions; it does not prescribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned

Responsibilities and Duties:

• Emphasize safety as the highest priority and ensure all field and office employees follow safe work practices.

• Collaborate with internal teams to collect and consolidate data needed to complete reports and Acceptance Tests.

• Support onboarding and commissioning of O&M/EPC projects into SOLV Energy's internal Performance Team platforms.

• Generate, maintain, deliver, and track Operations and Performance Reports, Acceptance Tests, Commissioning Plans, Test Reports, Vitals, forecasting reports, and Yearly Guarantees.

• Understand reporting requirements and deliverables for each project, including weekly, quarterly, and annual reports, commissioning deadlines, and test procedures.

• Work with Performance Engineers to track fleetwide issues (equipment, parts, manufacturers, etc.) and share findings to support optimization.

• Maintain a strong understanding of contractual guarantees and excusable events defined in O&M/EPC agreements.

• Track equipment and commissioning activities and accurately account for excusable lost energy to maintain contractual availability and performance metrics.

• Coordinate with field teams to communicate ongoing issues and remediation schedules.

• Attend internal meetings to escalate issues related to low availability, low performance, or lack of work orders.

• Identify and troubleshoot issues with analytical tools, including Vitals and the Performance Check Tool.

• Collaborate with Performance Engineers and Managers to resolve issues and support ad-hoc reporting and analysis.

• Apply understanding of project design and on-site equipment to evaluate lost energy and overall system performance.

• Maintain accurate operations documents, procedures, and internal training materials.

• Update internal and client-facing reports using internal tools and support work prioritization for field teams based on criticality and failure occurrence.

• Build and maintain strong working relationships with fellow Performance Engineers while maintaining project ownership and success.

• Support project reviews and client ad-hoc requests related to performance; escalate issues to management when necessary.

• Drive plant performance optimization initiatives and collaborate with fellow Performance Engineers and Field team.

• Review work orders & logs, commissioning documents, and turnover packages to identify root causes of equipment underperformance and failure modes.

• Calculate and analyze energy losses and system performance impacts using internal tools and ad-hoc analyses.

• Identify operational issues and support resolution efforts with OEM vendors, field technicians, SCADA engineers, and other stakeholders.

• Assist development and improvement of data analytics and software tools with Performance Engineers and Managers.

• Review performance and operations reports created by Performance Engineers to ensure accuracy and identify performance issues.

• Track contractual guarantees and participate in periodic risk assessments to identify potential improvements, remediations, or optimizations.

• Evaluate PV system energy models for utility-scale solar projects using PVsyst or similar tools.

• Verify project drawings, including site plans, system layouts, one-lines, cable management, and equipment installation details.

• Create troubleshooting and reporting templates as needed and maintain workflow templates with updates.

• Execute assigned tasks in the Performance Engineering Workflow Process while maintaining accurate and up-to-date status notes.

• Perform other duties as assigned.

Minimum Skills or Experience Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, science, or a related technical discipline

• 2+ Years' experience in PV Performance Engineering or data analytics

• Proficiency in MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and other Office tools

• Experience with programming languages like Python, VBA, MATLAB, Java, and others preferred

• Broad understanding of the Renewable Energy industry with emphasis on Service and Construction preferred

• Foster a spirit of collaboration between teams

• Experience working for a diverse multi-disciplined company

• Strong communication skills to clearly articulate vision into an executable plan and clearly communicate details and thoughts to internal/external clients

• Effective problem-solving ability and strong analytical skills. Ability to identify underlying or hidden problems; looks beyond the obvious to the essence of issues and / or tasks.

• Entrepreneurial spirit and passion for problem solving

• Able to perform the task/processes/procedure in the job description independently

• Ability to identify issues and propose changes in processes/SOPs

SOLV Energy Is an Equal Opportunity Employer

At SOLV Energy we celebrate the power of our differences. We are committed to building diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces that improve our communities. SOLV Energy prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind against an employee or applicant based on race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, national origin, or ethnicity, mental or physical disability, veteran status, parental status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Benefits:

Employees (and their families) are eligible for medical, dental, vision, basic life and disability insurance. Employees can enroll in our company's 401(k) plan and are provided vacation, sick and holiday pay.

Compensation Range:

$117,678.00 - $129,446.00

Pay Rate Type:

Salary

SOLV Energy does not accept unsolicited candidate introductions, referrals or resumes from third-party recruiters or staffing agencies. We require all third-party recruiters to communicate exclusively with our internal talent acquisition team. SOLV Energy will not pay a placement fee to any third-party recruiter or agency that has not coordinated their recruiting activity with the appropriate member of our internal talent acquisition team.

In addition, candidate introductions or resumes can only be submitted to our internal talent acquisition recruiting team if a signed vendor agreement is already on file and the third-party recruiter or agency has received formal instructions from our internal talent acquisition team to submit candidates for a particular job posting.

Any unsolicited candidate introductions, referrals or resumes sent by third-party recruiters to SOLV Energy or directly to any of our employees, or received through our website or career portal, will be considered property of SOLV Energy and will not be eligible for a placement fee. In the event a third-party recruiter submits a resume or refers a candidate without a previously signed vendor agreement, SOLV Energy explicitly reserves the right to pursue and hire the candidate(s) without financial liability to such third-party recruiter.

#LI-Remote

Job Number: J13147

If you're interested in a meaningful career with a brighter future, join the SOLV Energy Team.