Director of Systems Engineering R&D

ON.energy; Houston (TX); Remote; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Bonus eligibility

Medical/dental/vision

401(k) match

Paid time off

Job summary

ON.energy is seeking a Director of Systems Engineering, R&D to lead the Systems Engineering team and translate product strategy into verifiable system solutions for grid-scale energy storage and UPS products.

The role requires 12+ years in complex power and energy hardware, governance experience, cross-functional leadership, and strong communication with executives, customers, and suppliers. Based in Houston or Denver, with travel.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in complex power, energy, or electromechanical product development with systems engineering leadership.
• Proven success leading multidisciplinary teams, including resource planning and performance management.
• Strong command of requirements engineering, architecture, interface control, and risk management.
• Experience with grid-scale BESS, power conversion, UPS, or related hardware preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Systems Engineering team and governance across architecture, requirements, interfaces, risk, verification, and design transfer.
• Build capability and technical ownership for grid-scale energy storage, power conversion, UPS, and power quality products from concept to deployment.
• Define roles, hire, and manage workload across product and customer programs; communicate with executives and customers.
• Document major technical decisions and ensure design evidence supports manufacturing, commissioning, and service.

Skills

Systems Engineering Leadership

Governance & process

Architecture & trade studies

Requirements Engineering

Verification & Validation

Stakeholder Communication

Education

B.S. in Engineering

M.S./Ph.D. preferred

Job description

ON.energyis setting the standard for large load interconnection. ON’s patented AI UPS™ is a medium-voltage UPS that serves as a firewall, protecting the data center from the grid, and the grid from the data center.With multiple gigawatts currently under construction, we are enabling grid-safe data centers.

Job Description: Director of Systems Engineering, R&D

Role Objective

• Lead ON.energy’s Systems Engineering team and the practices that translate product strategy, customer needs, grid requirements, and technology opportunities into complete, verifiable system solutions.
• Establish practical systems engineering governance across product architecture, requirements, interfaces, technical risk, verification, qualification, and design transfer.
• Build team capability and technical ownership for grid-scale energy storage, power conversion, UPS, and advanced power quality products from concept through field deployment.

Team Leadership and Capability

• Lead, coach, and develop Systems Engineers; define roles, ownership, capability gaps, hiring priorities, and workload balance across active product and customer programs.
• Set objectives, provide feedback, support performance management, and build the technical depth required for ON.energy’s product roadmap.
• Act as product lead engineering interface to sales, sales engineering, and project engineering

Systems Engineering Practice and Governance

• Define and improve the lifecycle for concept definition, requirements, architecture, interfaces, design reviews, technical risk, verification planning, configuration control, and design transfer.
• Establish practical templates, tools, review criteria, decision records, interface documents, and evidence expectations without creating unnecessary process burden.

Product Architecture and Technical Direction

• Guide system architectures for grid-scale energy storage, power conversion, UPS, and advanced power quality products across performance, safety, controls, protection, thermal, mechanical, cybersecurity, serviceability, and lifecycle requirements.
• Assign design authorities, resolve cross-disciplinary conflicts, and ensure structured trade studies covering performance, cost, schedule, manufacturability, supplier capability, reliability, and product risk.
• Document major technical decisions, assumptions, constraints, and rationale in a way that can be reused across future programs.

Requirements, Interfaces, and Risk

• Ensure requirements are complete, testable, traceable, and aligned with product strategy, customer commitments, regulations, grid codes, and standards.
• Oversee disciplined flow-down to subsystems, components, software, controls, verification, and release criteria.
• Establish management of electrical, mechanical, thermal, controls, communications, and operational interfaces across internal teams, suppliers, customer systems, and project applications.
• Maintain technical risk visibility across the product portfolio and drive early retirement through modeling, prototyping, supplier testing, design reviews, and root-cause investigations.

Verification, Qualification, and Product Execution

• Direct system-level verification and validation linking requirements to analysis, simulation, inspection, hardware testing, and field evidence.
• Define acceptance criteria, evidence plans, review readiness, and qualification strategy early in the product lifecycle.
• Coordinate qualification across laboratory, factory, national lab, supplier, and field environments.
• Align product intent, technical scope, schedules, and release criteria with Product Management, Program Management, discipline engineering, Supply Chain, Operations, Deployment, and Service.
• Set expectations for supplier technical deliverables, reviews, interface compliance, and qualification evidence; ensure validated designs transition effectively into manufacturing, commissioning, and service.

Stakeholder Communication

• Present architecture, decisions, risk, requirements maturity, verification status, interface dependencies, and review readiness clearly to leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Coordinate communications and engineering efforts across integrated product teams of disciplinary subject matter experts and product managers who report into other functional leaders
• Represent Systems Engineering in strategic customer, partner, supplier, standards, and technical due diligence discussions.

Experience and Requirements

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related field; M.S. or Ph.D. preferred.
• 12+ years in complex power, energy, industrial, or electromechanical product development, including significant systems engineering responsibility and leadership of technical teams.
• Demonstrated success managing and developing Systems Engineers or multidisciplinary teams, including resource planning, hiring, performance management, and capability development.
• Proven success leading products through concept, requirements, architecture, detailed development, qualification, production release, and field deployment.
• Direct experience with grid-scale BESS, power conversion systems, uninterruptible power supplies, or adjacent power and energy hardware is strongly preferred.
• Strong command of requirements engineering, architecture, interface control, trade studies, technical risk, verification and validation, configuration management, and design review governance.
• Working knowledge of relevant grid, safety, product, and reliability standards, with the ability to resolve complex issues and communicate clearly with engineers, executives, suppliers, and customers.

This role is based in Denver, Colorado or Houston, Texas,or remotewith regular travel betweenON.energyoffices, vendor facilities, national lab partners, and customer project sites to support product development, qualification, and deployment.

For US-based roles - What you’ll get:

• Competitive salary + annual performance-based bonus eligibility
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• Paid time off and company holidays

For Mexico-based roles - What you’ll get:

• Competitive salary + annual performance bonus eligibility
• Major medical expenses and life insurance
• Paid time off and holidays (per local policy)

For all roles:

• Professional development and growth opportunities
• Opportunity to grow with a mission-driven team shaping the future of clean energy
• Equal Opportunity: ON.energy is committed to equal employment opportunity and to maintaining a work environment free of harassment, discrimination, or retaliation.
• Benefits vary by role and location and are subject to change.