Distribution Engineering AI - Subject Matter Expert

Senpilot; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Equity

20 vacation days

5 flex days around EOY holidays

Job summary

Senpilot is hiring a Distribution Engineering AI Specialist to drive the quality and real-world applicability of our Engineering AI Agent. You will bridge utility workflows with product models, enabling customers to embed planning processes and asset management into the agent while coaching teams through pilots and live deployments.

You will collaborate across engineering, product, and commercial teams, helping utilities improve asset health, capital planning, and reliability with the latest AI

Qualifications

• 5+ years in distribution engineering at an electric utility.
• Experience translating messy utility engineering workflows into well-scoped product requirements.
• Comfort presenting to regulators or industry audiences is a plus

Responsibilities

• Own domain quality for the Engineering AI Agent: review outputs, build test cases, find edge cases, and define assumptions when data is incomplete.
• Translate utility engineering workflows into well-scoped product requirements and define the gold standard processes for each item.
• Support the commercial team as the engineering expert: lead discovery, present to leadership, and scope pilot programs to close.
• Support end-to-end implementations: onboard planning and asset teams, encode workflows as skills, and run workshops to train them.
• Work directly with customers on real engineering problems, from asset health scores to capital plan defensibility, feeding learnings back into the roadmap.
• Build the institutional knowledge layer: reusable skills, worked examples, and manuals to amplify product impact

Skills

Distribution engineering

Asset management

Capital prioritization

Load forecasting

Grid modernization

Power flow

Regulatory coordination

Customer engagement

Product quality reflex

Presentation to executives

Education

P.Eng or equivalent

Tools

GIS

SCADA

OMS

ADMS

Job description

Senpilot builds AI agents that help utilities operate smarter, faster, and more reliably, automating everything from engineering workflows to regulatory filings and compliance. Our mission is to create the intelligence layer for the modern grid: AI systems that understand utility data, reason across it, and act autonomously to improve safety, resilience, and efficiency.

We are building production-grade intelligence that sits at the heart of how the grid is planned, monitored, and regulated, helping utilities unlock the next generation of electric infrastructure.

Joining Senpilot means joining a small, high-performance team that combines deep expertise in AI systems, data engineering, and energy infrastructure. We focus on generating value and we run toward the hard problems because that's where the value is. If you want to join a fast-growing team and help build the future of intelligent infrastructure, this is the place to do it.

The role

We are looking for a SME in Distribution Engineering AI to be the resident utility engineer behind Senpilot’s Engineering AI Agent. This is the person who knows what “gold standard” looks like when the agent reasons about asset health, capital prioritization, load, or reliability, and who can sit across the table from utility asset management and planning teams as a peer.

You will be the bridge between how utility engineering actually works and how our product models it. That means three things: (1) you set the quality bar on the product, defining what good output looks like, testing it against real workflows, and telling engineering and product where it falls short; (2) you help get customers live, embedding their planning and asset management processes into the agent as reusable skills and coaching their teams through real work; and (3) you are the expert in the room on customer calls, helping prospects structure proofs of concept that solve the problem they actually have.

This role reports to the VP of Strategy and Operations. It is a doer role for a practitioner, not an advisory one: you will be in the models, in the data, and in the product, ultimately transforming how distribution engineering gets done.

What You’ll Do

• Own domain quality for the Engineering AI Agent: review outputs, build test cases, find the edge cases, and define the assumptions the product makes when data is incomplete
• Translate messy utility engineering workflows into well-scoped product requirements, and define what the “gold standard” process looks like for each one
• Support the commercial team as the engineering expert in the room: lead discovery, present and demo to utility engineering leadership, and scope pilot programs that close
• Support implementations end to end: onboard planning and asset management teams, encode their workflows as skills in the product, and run workshops to train them
• Work directly with customers on real engineering problems, from asset health scores to capital plan defensibility, helping them use the product and feeding what you learn back into the roadmap
• Build the institutional knowledge layer: reusable skills, worked examples, and manuals, so your expertise compounds into the product

What You’ll Bring

• 5+ years in distribution engineering at an electric utility with hands‑on ownership of asset management, system planning, capital planning, or reliability work, having personally built or defended the analysis
• Depth in some combination of asset management, capital prioritization, load forecasting, grid modernization, power flow, and/or storm and resiliency planning
• Working familiarity with GIS, SCADA, OMS, or ADMS data, and experience supporting grid analytics or data modernization efforts
• Fluency in the day-to-day work products of engineering, finance, and regulatory teams, and the ability to define how these artifacts seamlessly tie into the platform
• Product quality reflex: addressing customer questions, advocating for how the product must improve and building test cases and benchmarks to measure performance
• Comfort in front of customers, including articulating the platform’s value to all levels (engineers, management, executives), and running workshops or meetings
• Ability to make defensible assumptions with incomplete information and balance time across priorities to ensure the critical items get done
• Fluency with modern AI tools (Claude, Codex, etc.) and large datasets is a must; coding and tinkering with personal projects is a plus but not a requirement
• P.Eng or a history of presenting to regulators or industry audiences is a plus.

Work Location

We appreciate the flexibility of hybrid work, and we also value the energy that comes from being in the same room. We ask that you join us in person at least once a week at our Brooklyn office, with additional flexibility to travel to customer sites or conferences as needed.

What Is In For You

• Competitive Compensation: The estimated base salary range for this role is $140,000 USD - $185,000 USD with most new hires joining near the midpoint. Actual salaries may vary within the range, or above or below it, based on factors such as experience, skills, location, and business needs.
• Equity
• Comprehensive health benefits from day one, for you and your dependents
• Time Off: 20 vacation days + 5 flex days around EOY holidays

AI at Senpilot

AI is embedded in how we work, and we encourage our team to lean on it to learn new skills, sharpen their craft, and put their energy toward the work that genuinely moves the needle.

That extends to how we hire. We bring AI into our recruitment process not to take the humanity out of it, but to keep things organized and smooth so the experience feels more personal, not less. It gives our team room to focus on the parts that count: genuine conversations and well thought decisions. Above all, every decision is made by real people, drawing on genuine understanding, and rooted in our values and culture.

Senpilot is an equal opportunity employer committed to an inclusive and diverse workforce.

Accommodations are available upon request during the recruitment process.