Performance Engineer II, EPC (Remote)

SOLV Energy; North Dakota; Hybrid; USD 118,000 - 129,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

401(k) Plan

Paid vacation

Paid holidays

Job summary

SOLV Energy is seeking a Performance Engineer II to oversee the day-to-day operational activities on active projects. The role offers full remote or hybrid work with regular in-office presence in San Diego, CA or Bend, OR, and discussions about location during interviews.

The position emphasizes safety, data-driven analysis, and collaboration with internal teams to monitor and optimize PV assets and reporting. Strong modeling and debugging skills are required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, science, or a related technical discipline.
• 4+ years’ experience in PV Performance Engineering, capacity testing and PV data analytics.
• Experience with PV modeling software such as PVSyst, PlantPredict, and SAM.
• Proficiency with MS Excel and Office tools.
• Experience with programming languages like Python, VBA, MATLAB, Java.

Responsibilities

• Safety is the top priority and all team members follow safe practices on site and in the office.
• Collaborate with internal teams to collect data for reports, tests, and analytics.
• On-board active projects into SOLV Energy’s internal Performance Team platforms.
• Track issues with other engineers and analysts to optimize fleet performance.
• Troubleshoot performance data and correlate with workorder data for reporting.
• Lead Performance Engineers & Analysts in coordinating operational activities across projects.
• Maintain understanding of site design, equipment, and issues affecting projects.
• Analyze energy losses and performance impacts of outages and underperformance for internal/external stakeholders.
• Maintain analytical tools and reporting best practices for performance calculations.
• Identify issues using analytical tools and assist with troubleshooting.
• Update client reports including Commissioning Plans, Test Reports, and Operation reports.
• Help prioritize field work based on criticality and failures.
• Communicate with OEMs, field technicians, SCADA engineers, and others to resolve issues.
• Work with teammates on data analytics and software tool development.
• Review reports to identify operational/performance issues within projects.
• Support plant performance optimization initiatives with project teams and clients.
• Monitor contractual guarantees and conduct project risk reviews.
• Create and maintain internal documentation and training materials.
• Foster strong collaboration within the Performance team to ensure project success.
• Support ad-hoc client reviews and escalate issues as needed.
• Review turnover docs to identify root causes of failures.
• Run PV system energy models using PVsyst or other tools; evaluate terrain, horizon losses, shading, snow/soiling.
• Grow into a subject matter expert for PV power plants.
• Other duties as assigned.

Skills

PV Performance Engineering

Capacity Testing

PV data analytics

PVSyst

PlantPredict

SAM

MS Excel

Python

VBA

MATLAB

Java

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, science, or a related technical discipline

Tools

PVSyst

PlantPredict

SAM

Job description

SOLV Energy is a leading provider of infrastructure services to the power industry, designing, building and maintaining utility scale solar, battery storage and high voltage substation projects nationwide.

Job Description Summary:

The Performance Engineer II is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operational activities of active projects.

This role can be fully remote or hybrid with regular in office presence in San Diego, CA or Bend, OR. Specific location details and expectations will be discussed during the interview process.

Job Description:

• This job description reflects management's assignment of essential functions; it does not prescribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned

Position Responsibilities and Duties:

• Stresses the importance that safety is the most important function, ensures that all employees from field team to office follow safe practices while working.
• Collaborate with internal teams to collect and consolidate necessary data to complete reports, Acceptance tests, other analytical tools, and deliverables.
• Responsible for the on-boarding of active projects into SOLV Energy’s internal Performance Team’s platforms.
• Collaborate with fellow Performance Engineers & Analysts to track critical issues within the construction and/or operational fleet (equipment, parts, manufacturers, etc.) and share findings with internal teams with a common goal of fleet optimization.
• Troubleshoot performance data/equipment to determine and track challenges associated with commissioning and correlate with workorder data for accurate reporting.
• Lead Performance Engineers & Analysts in day-to-day coordination and management of operational activities relating to projects.
• Maintain a thorough understanding of site design, equipment and current issues affecting projects.
• Calculate and analyze energy losses and system performance incurred from equipment outages/underperformance and communicate impacts to relevant internal and external teams using internal tools and ad-hoc analyses.
• Maintain a thorough understanding of analytical tools and performance calculations and best practices.
• Identify and assist with troubleshooting potential issues using analytical tools.
• Using internal tools, update existing reports for clients including Commissioning Plans, Test Reports, Operation reports, Vitals, forecasting, and Yearly Guarantees.
• Help support work prioritization for field teams based on criticality and occurrences of failures.
• Identify operational issues and initiate problem resolution while working with OEM vendors, field technicians, SCADA engineers, and other parties as needed.
• Work with Performance Engineers and Performance Engineering Managers in assisting and supporting data analytics and other software tools development.
• Review performance and operations reports and analyses generated by Performance Engineers & Analysts to ensure accuracy and to identify operational/performance issues within projects.
• Manage plant performance optimization initiatives and collaborate with fellow Performance Engineers, Field & Project Management team and client.
• Track and understand contractual guarantee and conduct periodic meetings to assess projects risk and any possible improvements, remediations, or optimizations.
• Maintain clear and accurate documents/procedures for internal reference and training purposes.
• Facilitate a strong working relationship with fellow Performance Engineers while prioritizing project ownership and project success.
• Facilitate project reviews and ad-hoc requests from clients as needed to address performance of projects. Escalate issues to management as needed.
• Review turnover documentation to review/monitor various root causes for equipment underperformance and failure modes.
• Run and evaluate PV system energy models for Utility Scale Solar PV Projects using PVsyst or other modeling software as needed.
• Verify project drawings including site plans, system layout, one lines, cable management, and equipment installation details.
• Create project specific troubleshooting/reporting templates as applicable and also maintain or improve the workflow task templates with new updates as needed.
• Execute all tasks as assigned in the Performance Engineering Workflow Process while maintaining accurate and up-to-date status notes.
• Perform and track different simulations in the PVsyst such:
  • Impacts of terrain
  • Horizon losses
  • Tree or external shading
  • Snow, Soiling and Spectral Losses
• Grow into a role of subject matter expert in PV power plants.
• Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Skills or Experience Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, science, or a related technical discipline
• 4+ Years’ experience in PV Performance Engineering, Capacity Testing (ASTM E2848 & IEC standards) and PV data analytics
• Experience in modeling using software like PVSyst, PlantPredict, SAM, and so on
• Proficiency in MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and other Office tools
• Experience with programming languages like Python, VBA, MATLAB, Java, and others preferred
• Ability to travel up to 20% of time
• Broad understanding of the Renewable Energy industry with emphasis on Service and Construction preferred
• Foster a spirit of collaboration between teams
• Experience working for a diverse multi-disciplined company
• Strong communication skills to clearly articulate vision into an executable plan and clearly communicate details and thoughts to internal/external clients
• Effective problem-solving ability and strong analytical skills. Ability to identify underlying or hidden problems; looks beyond the obvious to the essence of issues and / or tasks.
• Entrepreneurial spirit and passion for problem solving
• Able to problem solve and engineer the solution
• Able to explain to both internal and external clients
• Able to mentor and oversee Performance Engineers & Analysts

SOLV Energy Is an Equal Opportunity Employer

At SOLV Energy we celebrate the power of our differences. We are committed to building diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces that improve our communities. SOLV Energy prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind against an employee or applicant based on race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, national origin, or ethnicity, mental or physical disability, veteran status, parental status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Benefits:

Employees (and their families) are eligible for medical, dental, vision, basic life and disability insurance. Employees can enroll in our company’s 401(k) plan and are provided vacation, sick and holiday pay.

Compensation Range:

$117,678.00 - $129,446.00

Pay Rate Type:

Salary

SOLV Energy does not accept unsolicited candidate introductions, referrals or resumes from third-party recruiters or staffing agencies. We require all third-party recruiters to communicate exclusively with our internal talent acquisition team. SOLV Energy will not pay a placement fee to any third-party recruiter or agency that has not coordinated their recruiting activity with the appropriate member of our internal talent acquisition team.

In addition, candidate introductions or resumes can only be submitted to our internal talent acquisition recruiting team if a signed vendor agreement is already on file and the third-party recruiter or agency has received formal instructions from our internal talent acquisition team to submit candidates for a particular job posting.

Any unsolicited candidate introductions, referrals or resumes sent by third-party recruiters to SOLV Energy or directly to any of our employees, or received through our website or career portal, will be considered property of SOLV Energy and will not be eligible for a placement fee. In the event a third-party recruiter submits a resume or refers a candidate without a previously signed vendor agreement, SOLV Energy explicitly reserves the right to pursue and hire the candidate(s) without financial liability to such third-party recruiter.

Job Number:

J13940