IOT Engineer Austin

TAR; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

TAR is building the world’s first off-grid power plant for data centers powered by renewables. As an IOT Engineer, you will design the IT/OT network and integrate vendor equipment into a single, verifiable data model, ensuring reliability as the island transitions modes and loads.

You will test and maintain the network for the life of the site. The role emphasizes cross-vendor protocol integration, latency budgeting, and strong cybersecurity practices, with on-site work required to install and

Qualifications

• Software engineering or related STEM discipline.
• 4+ years of IT/Network Engineering experience.
• Ability to spec out and design a network from scratch and implement it.
• Protocol fluency at the packet level; deep experience with network tracing tools.
• Hardened industrial networking: VLAN, QoS, redundancy, time distribution.
• Cybersecurity best practices: Firewalls, DMZs, VPNs.
• Willingness to go on-site for installation and commissioning.

Responsibilities

• Define and implement the OT communications strategy including PRP/HSR, MRP, RSTP.
• Engineer every communication path to meet latency budgets and fast response.
• Interface control documents and point lists for PV inverters, BESS PCS, Gensets, switchgear, relays, metering.
• On-site setup of network equipment, support commissioning, and troubleshoot.
• Ensure cybersecurity during design and operation.
• Provide technical direction and own the work-stream end-to-end.

Tools

Wireshark

Triangle MicroWorks

ASE-2000

IEDScout

Job description

TAR’s mission is to power intelligence for the world. We are building the world’s first off-grid power plant for data centers powered by renewable technologies.

We firmly believe AI should be built in the US for the benefit of all people. For that, power must be fast, clean and scalable. We are singularly focused on delivering GW-scale power faster than anyone has ever done, by rethinking every layer of the stack.

To deliver on this vision, TAR manufactures, deploys and operates off-grid energy assets with a renewable backbone. We vertically integrate to solve every bottleneck, from racking systems to power electronics to dispatch algorithms to on-site construction.

Leave your mark by powering the future of civilisation-scale energy infrastructure.

We hire people who care deeply about this problem space.

Company

We are a team of seasoned operators run by founders who previously scaled a company to over 80 people and $350M in annual sales. We know how to operate and we move fast.

We are working directly with one of the largest compute providers to make our vision come true and plan to deploy 5GWs by 2028.

TAR is both a hardware and software company, we are building out massive, critical, physical infrastructure.

• High ownership. High Agency. Own project end-to-end. Great people don’t need to be managed.
• Speed. We achieve great things on incredible timelines. We always push ourselves to go faster.
• First principles. No ego. No hierarchy. Challenge every assumption.
• Passion. Solving the energy problem is one of the largest challenges that faces the world now and in the future. We put in long hours and hard work to solve this.

About the role

As an IOT Engineer, you build the network that runs the island, and the standard that makes the next island faster. You design the IT/OT network and communications architecture, integrate every vendor's equipment into one coherent point database, verify all of it point by point before the plant carries load, and then keep it running for the life of the site. When the island transitions modes at 3 a.m. with a data center on the other side of the bus, it works because you tested it.

Responsibilities

• Define and implement the OT communications strategy. Make decisions on (PRP/HSR, MRP, RSTP), VLAN segmentation and QoS, and time synchronization (PTP, IRIG-B, NTP).
• Engineer every communication path against its latency budget. Make sure Fast load shed and unplanned-island responses are fast.
• Understand multi-vendor protocol integration and ensure it can be supported. Interface control documents and point lists for PV inverters, BESS PCS and BMS, gensets, switchgear, relays, metering, etc.
• Able to go on-site to setup network equipment, support commissioning and solve problems if needed.
• Ensure Cybersecurity during the design phase and during operation.
• Commission it, then own it, and lead the work-stream. Provide the technical direction that OEM and integrator controls teams build against.

Qualifications

• Software engineering, or related STEM discipline. Equivalent field experience considered.
• 4+ years of IT/Network Engineering experience.
• Ability to spec out and design a network from scratch - and the hands-on experience to implement it.
• Protocol fluency at the packet level. Deep experience with tools like Wireshark, Triangle MicroWorks, ASE-2000, IEDScout.
• Hardened industrial networking: managed switching, fiber and loss budgets, ring and parallel redundancy, VLAN and QoS design, precision time distribution.
• Cybersecurity best practices, setting up Firewalls, DMZs and VPNs.

Nice to have

• 2+ years Networking experience in industrial or utility controls in energy, utilities, or generation environments.
• Able to read a one-line, a three-line, and an AC/DC schematic, and able to validate and identify potential network issues.
• Direct islanded, off-grid, or BTM microgrid commissioning experience.
• Data center facility exposure: BMS, DCIM, or hyperscale commissioning.
• OT cyber security programme experience, or GICSP, ISA/IEC 62443, or comparable credentials.
• Test-like-you-fly culture (Tesla Energy, Palo Alto, or comparable) where validation rigor is the norm.