Senior Power System Control Engineer

Our Mission  

At SPAN, we are building products to enable the rapid adoption of renewable energy and decarbonization of buildings. As more distributed energy resources like solar and storage come integrated into the power grid, it is increasingly important to be able to improve the technology that interfaces the power grid, the home, and those distributed energy resources. Span’s smart panel replaces the electrical panel to become the center for connected power in the home.  With Span, homeowners receive all the safety features of a standard panel with revolutionary insights and edge-of-grid controls through our mobile app.

The Role 

SPAN’s Power System’s group is seeking a driven power system control engineer to lead the development of modern control techniques for integration and automations of SPAN technologies that would aid acceleration of home electrification. Ideal candidates are desired to possess an in-depth knowledge of power systems and power electronics as well as system-level integration, control theory, and embedded systems, for the development of analytical and computational models that accurately predict the dynamic component and systems-level physics behavior for currently available and future home electrification technologies.

In this role, you will:

• Contribute to building an automated efficient physics-informed power system control and automation infrastructure for a better integration of DERs for electrification purposes.

• Developing modern control and automation methods for operation and integration of behind the meter resources and grid supporting functionalities.

• Collaborate with the hardware engineers to specify product experiments to verify and validate component and system modeling efforts; collaborate with engineers and scientists across teams to interpret test data.

• Lead integration studies with various technologies across a number of manufacturers, including electric vehicle batteries, home energy storage systems, solar arrays, power electronics inverters and converters, and home appliances and thermal systems.

• Collaborate with the software and modeling team to evaluate compute technologies and services for improving the accuracy, efficiency, security, and computational time of power systems simulations.

• Evaluate the scalability of hardware component and home electrical system models for integration into utility-level power systems and interactions with the grid under a wide range of operating conditions, and incorporate high granularity and accuracy where simulation acceleration is a priority.

• Collaborate with controls and firmware teams to integrate the physics-informed modeling infrastructure with a development environment that accurately emulates the code, processor architecture, analog-to-digital measurement sensors, and logic-level actuators for the Span Panel, Span Drive, and partner home electrification hardware.

• Support Span’s executive staff, product, and business team with techno-economic simulation and analysis to evaluate the viability of research and development projects, technology partnerships, and our product roadmap.

• Build and manage a resource plan and timeline for model development, including key hires that enrich Span’s modeling capabilities.

About You 

We are seeking senior modeling engineer who has:

• MSc/PhD in Power Systems, Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Applied Mathematics, or similar technical field

• 3+ years of experience of working in power utility (distribution or transmission utilities), balancing authorities, or energy market operators (ISO).

• Expert in one of the following platform; PSLF, PSCAD, PSS/E, DigSilent, CYME, or OpenDSS

• Experience of programming in C/C++ as well as MathWorks/Simulink, Python, and/or Julia as a scientific analysis.

• Expert in power system automation and control processes, day-to-day utility operation, and market operation, and preferably experience of working with EMS, DMS, ADMS, or DERMS

• Experience in physics-based/informed electromechanical, electrochemical, and electrothermal models for electrical components used in power electronics converters, electric machines, energy storage systems, and solar panels.

• Expert in data aggregation, analysis, and visualization skills.

Life at SPAN

SPAN embraces diversity and equal opportunity in a serious way. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. 

Headquartered in San Francisco’s vibrant SoMa neighborhood, we are an eclectic group of creative thinkers who value open communication, teamwork, and a ‘make it happen’ approach to addressing complex challenges. 

We’re hiring talented individuals who are driven by success and are passionate about shaping the future of renewable energy. If that sounds like you, we’d love for you to consider joining the rapidly growing team at SPAN.

The Perks:

⚡ Competitive compensation + equity grants at a well-funded, venture-backed company

⚡ Comprehensive benefits (including medical; dental, vision, life and disability insurance)

⚡ Comfortable, sunny office space located near BART and Caltrain public transit

⚡ Strong focus on teambuilding and company culture (events, meet-ups, clubs)

⚡ Flexible hours and unlimited PTO

Interested in joining our team? Submit an application today and we’ll be in touch with next steps!