Power Systems Engineer

About American Terawatt

American Terawatt is building a new industrial electric grid for the United States. Power systems engineering is at the core of what we do.

We design and deploy advanced power transmission systems, serving large industrial loads, gigawatts at a time. Our systems deliver electric power to everything from frontier AI datacenters to advanced automated manufacturing, refineries, mines, and more.

We make interconnection fast, simple, and cheap. On our network, generation owners get their projects online faster, delivering abundant power at competitive prices.

The backbone of American Terawatt’s network is HVDC transmission, anchored by our unique terminal design. American Terawatt’s HVDC terminals are standardized, modular, and natively integrate energy storage. Each terminal is designed to expand to operate as a full node on our future HVDC transmission network.

About the role

As a Power Systems Engineer at American Terawatt, you will:

• Contribute to the specification and design of our HVDC systems, including developing and validating terminal subsystems in both simulation and physical hardware. Over time you will know the design inside and out.

• Adapt our designs according to evolving requirements from users and customers, component availability from vendors, and project timelines. You will find creative solutions to difficult problems so that we deliver reliably and on time.

• Work closely with our test engineers and test technicians to push equipment to its absolute limits. You’ll break stuff, learn, help us build it better, and then push it back up to its new limit and try to break it again. Then get out into the field and help reliably and safely deliver our systems to our customers.

This is a technically rigorous role within R&D Engineering, reporting to a Principal Engineer and supporting the planning and execution of critical company programs.

Required Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field.

• 3+ years of commercial experience in power systems or electrical engineering.

• Hands-on experience with power systems modeling and simulation tools across industrial/distribution, transmission planning, and electromagnetic transients (e.g., PSCAD, EMTP, ETAP, SKM PowerTools, PSLF, PSSE, DIgSILENT PowerFactory).

• Experience in the full engineering lifecycle from concept through design, development, testing, deployment, and commissioning of a functioning commercial system.

Preferred Experience

• Master's or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Controls, or Power Systems.

• Direct experience designing across the entire spectrum of power delivery and generation infrastructure (medium-voltage and high-voltage applications).

• Experience with grid interconnection processes, utility coordination, and applicable codes and standards (NEC, NERC, IEEE, IEC, CIGRE, ANSI, NESC).

• Experience performing advanced power system studies, including harmonic analysis (e.g., IEEE 519 compliance), control interaction studies (e.g., sub-synchronous control interaction), and protection studies (e.g., short circuit analysis, relay coordination) for complex electrical systems.

• Background in data center or other high-density compute power infrastructure, or exposure to AI infrastructure or hyperscale facility development.

• Familiarity with DC transmission architectures.

• Experience designing and operating islanded power systems supporting critical loads.

Compensation & Benefits

• Compensation: Competitive compensation package commensurate with experience, including salary and material equity participation.

• Healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage, including 75% coverage for dependents and spouses.

• Wellness: Up to $300/month reimbursement for gym and wellness expenses, or Bay Club membership for SF-based employees.

• Meals: Lunch provided daily when working from an office.

• Time off: Unlimited PTO with manager approval, plus company-wide office closures for July 4 week and one week in December.

• Additional perks: Laptop of choice provided, convenient SF office location on the Embarcadero and near public transit (pre-tax transit benefit), and employee contribution 401(k) program.