BESS Lead Engineer, Power Generation

Fluidstack; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Fluidstack in Austin seeks an experienced electrical engineer to own the design and sizing of multi-hundred-megawatt storage plants, from single-line protection to augmentation strategy across several gigawatt sites.

You will qualify BESS vendors, conduct factory witness tests, drive NFPA 855 compliance, and ensure the plant can dispatch with generation and load to maintain a firm, reliable performance.

Qualifications

• Experience designing grid-scale storage plants and protection schemes.
• Experience evaluating BESS vendors and witnessing tests.
• Familiarity with NFPA 855 and hazard mitigation.
• Ability to integrate storage with generation and load for firm dispatch.

Responsibilities

• Own electrical design and sizing of multi-hundred-megawatt storage plants across gigawatt sites.
• Qualify and source BESS vendors; oversee factory witness testing and warranties.
• Define dispatch strategy for storage, solar and on-site generation.
• Drive NFPA 855 compliance and hazard mitigation analyses with AHJ and insurer.
• Lead commissioning, testing and controls integration before training loads.

Skills

Electrical design

BESS integration

Power systems

Vendor evaluation

NFPA 855 compliance

Tools

PSCAD

ETAP

PLEXOS

HOMER

Job description

About Fluidstack

We exist to make humanity more free. For most of human history, you farmed or you starved. Technology gave people more time for the things they wanted to do, instead of things they had to do. Powerful AI will be the biggest lever for human choice we've ever built - but only if models are aligned with what humanity actually wants. There are groups building AI who don't share these goals. Whoever deploys frontier compute infrastructure fastest will decide whether AI expands human freedom or shrinks it.

We're singularly focused on delivering 10 to 100s of GWs of compute faster than anyone else, rethinking every layer of the stack. We acquire power, design and build data centers, and operate them - with teams spanning hardware and software. Speed and scale are our key differentiators. Come be a part of building civilization-scale infrastructure for AI.

How We Operate

• Be a barrel. Full autonomy. Own things end to end, take on scope without being asked, no permission required to operate outside your core role.

• Insane urgency. We drive everything forward as fast as possible.

• Reason from first principles. Challenge every assumption. Zero analogy thinking, no egos, the best idea wins.

• Love of the game. The frontier of AI is the most interesting problem of our time. We put in long hours at high intensity to push the frontier forward.

• Build something that actually matters. If you're going to spend your time, spend it on something that matters to the world.

The Energy Team

Examples of key problems the team is working on

• Put solar, storage and gas in the ground at an install rate no one in the construction market has hit. We are building generation across multiple gigawatt sites at once, on a schedule traditional EPC delivery cannot meet.

• Secure supply at a scale and timeline the supply chain cannot meet, and reshore it ourselves. Cells, containers, transformers and turbines are all constrained, so we qualify new suppliers and stand up domestic capacity instead of waiting in line.

• Make solar, gas and storage combine into power steady enough to run AI workloads. A training run does not tolerate a dip, so the hybrid plant has to behave like firm generation even when the resource behind it does not.

• Clear balancing authority certification, firm load rights, permits and interconnection against long clocks and a shifting policy environment. These approvals sit on the critical path to every gigawatt, so we work them years ahead of the build.
  

Role Scope

• Own the electrical design and sizing of multi-hundred-megawatt storage plants, from single line, protection and grounding through power and energy ratings and augmentation strategy, across several concurrent gigawatt sites.

• Qualify and dual-source BESS vendors on technical merit, running factory witness testing, failure mode review and warranty terms alongside supply chain.

• Define how storage, solar and on-site generation dispatch together so the plant holds a firm load profile through resource swings and generator trips.

• Drive NFPA 855 compliance, hazard mitigation analysis and large-scale fire test evidence through the AHJ and the insurer before equipment reaches site.

• Take each plant through commissioning, capacity and round-trip performance testing and controls integration before the first training load connects.

What We're Looking For

The below is a starting point. We always make space for exceptional people, so if you don't fit this role exactly, tell us where you would.

• You've taken grid-scale battery storage from single line to energized plant, and you can name the sites and the megawatts.

• You've sized a storage system against a real duty cycle and lived with the result, including the augmentation call and the places the model turned out to be wrong.

• You've chosen between BESS vendors on technical grounds, sat through factory witness testing, and pushed back on a datasheet that did not survive scrutiny.

• You've argued NFPA 855 and hazard mitigation analysis in front of an AHJ or an insurer and got to approval.

• You've integrated storage controls with generation and load so the combined plant behaves as one machine rather than three.

• You write clearly enough that a procurement lead, a fire marshal and a CEO each get the decision they need out of the same document.

• Bonus: Hybrid plant and dispatch modelling (PLEXOS, PVsyst, HOMER). Power system studies (PSCAD, ETAP, protection coordination, arc flash). Behind-the-meter and islanded microgrid operation. Interconnection and market processes (FERC, ERCOT, MISO). Professional Engineer license.

We are committed to pay equity and transparency.

Fluidstack is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Fluidstack will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law.