Controls & Embedded Systems Engineer - Field Deployment

American Turbines; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 165,000 - 215,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Medical insurance

Vision insurance

Dental insurance

401(k) matching

Job summary

American Turbines is seeking a Controls Engineer to own on-site operation of microturbines, first as a single unit and then as a fleet. You will be based in San Francisco, with weeks on-site for installation and commissioning, troubleshooting live in the field and communicating data to HQ.

The role emphasizes hands-on field work, reading unfamiliar control logic, and quickly getting equipment running in challenging environments.

Qualifications

• Experience with real-time controls on complex, safety-critical electromechanical systems.
• Ability to read schematics and control logic you didn’t write and work under pressure.
• Hands-on experience on-site, troubleshooting and getting systems running quickly.

Responsibilities

• Own running microturbines on-site, first as a single unit and then as a fleet.
• Provide real-time field troubleshooting and issue resolution.
• Relay turbine data back to HQ for analysis and integration.

Skills

Real-time controls

Electromechanical systems

Schematic reading

On-site fault diagnosis

Job description

About American Turbines

The power grid was built for a world that no longer exists. Centralized generation, hundred-mile transmission lines, decade-long permitting cycles. Meanwhile, demand is exploding: AI data centers, industrial electrification, remote operations that need megawatts yesterday and can't wait for utilities to catch up.

American Turbines is designing small modular gas turbines, purpose-built for distributed power generation. Machines designed from a blank sheet to be manufactured at scale, clustered in arrays. Hundreds of units operating in parallel, dynamically matching load like a compute cluster matches demand. We are a seed-stage company backed by the investors behind SpaceX, Boom Supersonic, and Hadrian.

About the Role

The Controls Engineer for our installation program will own running the microturbines we bring on-site, first as a single unit and then as a fleet, on their existing controls. You are the person who gets these machines started, keeps them running, and relays every bit of turbine data back to HQ.

You'll be based in San Francisco, but plan on stretches of weeks on-site during installation and commissioning, not just the occasional trip. You will be on-site for our first installation, working directly with the equipment rather than managing it remotely. You'll troubleshoot control issues in the field, in real time, on hardware we're still getting to know. Down the line, this work may also inform how we approach controls on our own turbines.

This is not a desk job, but it's not permanent field presence either. You should want to be at a remote industrial site for weeks at a time when the work calls for it, hands-on with the equipment, not just willing to tolerate it.

What We're Looking For

Experience with real-time controls on complex, safety-critical electromechanical systems, whatever the domain. Turbines, generators, industrial robotics, autonomous vehicles, anything where you had to get a physical system running and keep it running. What matters more than the specific system is that you get productive fast on unfamiliar hardware, reading schematics and control logic you didn't write and finding your way around them under pressure.

You're the kind of engineer who wants to be at the site, not in the office reading the logs after the fact. You're comfortable being the person who has to figure out why something isn't working the way the manual says it should, on a system you didn't design.

Compensation

$165,000 to $215,000 base.

Generous stock package.

Medical, vision, and dental care.

2% matching on 401(k).