Member of Technical Staff

About the role

You will design and deliver the software that connects Emerald Conductor to the electric grid, translating complex market signals into reliable data center actions. You will own the full lifecycle of critical grid services software, from initial architecture and optimization logic to deployment, monitoring, and long-term operation. This role requires you to build systems that ingest real-time grid and market data, forecast behavior, and execute dispatch decisions across utilities, ISOs/RTOs, and energy market operators. You will translate intricate energy market rules, including capacity accreditation, baseline methodologies, settlement, and compliance requirements, into robust production software. As an early member of the Grid Services team, you will define technical direction and make major decisions that shape how data center flexibility is delivered to the grid. You will work closely with control systems, platform, and AI infrastructure teams to ensure grid-side decisions are executed accurately and safely in production. This position carries significant responsibility for the correctness and availability of systems that directly impact grid stability and AI compute scalability.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Design and build software integrations with ISOs/RTOIs, utilities, aggregators, and demand response platforms.
• Develop optimization and control algorithms that determine when and how data center resources, including compute workloads, on-site generation, and storage, are dispatched in response to grid signals.
• Build forecasting models for electricity demand, data center load, prices, and grid conditions to support market participation and dispatch decisions.
• Translate wholesale market and demand response program rules, including capacity accreditation, baselines, measurement & verification (M&V), settlement, and compliance, into operational software.
• Build reliable data pipelines that ingest, validate, and process real-time operational and market data with high durability and low latency.
• Own software services from design through deployment, monitoring, and long-term operation, ensuring high availability and performance.
• Collaborate with control systems, platform, and AI infrastructure teams to align grid actions with data center capabilities and AI training and inference workloads.
• Implement systems that adhere to energy market protocols and regulatory requirements, enabling data centers to participate in wholesale markets and demand response programs.
• Conduct rigorous testing and validation of optimization and forecasting logic to prevent operational and financial errors in production environments.
• Document architectural decisions, interfaces, and operational procedures to support scaling the team and maintaining complex software systems.

Requirements

• 7+ years of software engineering experience building production systems in Python.
• Strong experience designing and operating reliable, distributed software systems where correctness and availability are critical.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience building data pipelines and working with large-scale operational datasets.
• Familiarity with SQL and modern data engineering practices.
• Experience in electric utilities, ISOs/RTOs, wholesale electricity markets, demand response, or adjacent energy systems.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills to work effectively with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.
• Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related quantitative field.

Nice to have

• Experience with PJM, ERCOT, SPP and/or CAISO markets.
• Experience with optimization frameworks (OR-Tools, Gurobi, CPLEX, Pyomo, cvxpy).
• Experience building, deploying and monitoring machine learning models for time-series prediction.
• Experience with industrial communication protocols common in the energy sector (DNP3, ICCP, IEEE 2030.5, OpenADR).
• Experience integrating with SCADA or other industrial control systems.
• Familiarity with NERC/FERC reliability standards and market compliance.
• Experience building settlement, measurement & verification (M&V), or baseline calculation systems.
• Experience with Rust, C++, or other systems programming languages.
• Startup experience or a track record of thriving in highly ambiguous environments.

Practical notes

• This role is based in the Bay Area.
• The engagement is full-time.
• Compensation includes competitive pay and equity, with comprehensive benefits such as medical, dental, and vision.
• Stock options are offered to enable team members to share in the value they help create.
• The position reports to the Grid Services team and requires close collaboration with control systems, platform, and AI infrastructure peers.
• Applicants should be prepared to demonstrate deep expertise in distributed systems, energy markets, and software reliability.
• The role involves on-call responsibilities for critical grid operations software.
• Travel may be required for team meetings, customer engagements, and industry events as needed.
• Visa sponsorship may be considered for exceptional candidates in alignment with company policies.
• The company is committed to building a diverse team and encourages applications from underrepresented groups in tech and energy.
• The fast-paced environment demands comfort with ambiguity and a strong drive to deliver reliable software under tight operational constraints.