Plant Controls Lead (EMS/PPC)

Fluidstack; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 330,000 - 390,000; Full time

Job summary

Fluidstack, Seattle, seeks an experienced controls engineering leader to own the plant controller and EMS for our GW-scale data-center campuses, integrating PV, BESS and thermal generation. You will translate control philosophy into sequences of operation and ensure safe, reliable energy delivery.

You will ship control software to live plants, manage vendors, and guide field commissioning across multiple sites, with a focus on fast, autonomous operation and end-to-end responsibility.

Qualifications

• Own plant controller or EMS on a utility-scale hybrid plant with PV/BESS/thermal, and name the sites and dispatch megawatts today.
• Written sequences of operation for source transitions, islanding or blackstart and demonstrated on energized equipment.
• Shipped control software as a product, version-controlled, tested and released to running plants.
• Brought in third-party controllers or components to a live plant, hit dates, and later replaced with own code without outages.
• Designed interfaces between control systems with defined data, timing and failure behavior.
• Tuned plant frequency/voltage response, ramp rates, and load steps, with rationale.
• Clearly written documents to satisfy OEM controls engineers, commissioning agents and executives.

Responsibilities

• Own the control stack for fully off-grid campuses, the site energy management system, and the dispatch logic across PV, BESS and gas.
• Translate the control philosophy into sequences of operation our code executes, covering all modes and transitions.
• Hold the generation side of the control contract between the plant and data center, scaling from one plant to many blocks.
• Decide which components to energize first and replace bought parts with our code on a planned schedule.
• Build a plant model library and hardware-in-the-loop bench for testing controllers before shipment.
• Lead controls commissioning and tuning in the field, with real AI load profiles and fast transitions.
• Hire controls software and test engineers to build the stack with you.

Skills

EMS experience

SOP writing

Control software release

Vendor management

System integration

Plant tuning

Documentation

Job description

About Fluidstack

We exist to make humanity more free. For most of human history, you farmed or you starved. Technology gave people more time for the things they wanted to do, instead of things they had to do. Powerful AI will be the biggest lever for human choice we've ever built - but only if models are aligned with what humanity actually wants. There are groups building AI who don't share these goals. Whoever deploys frontier compute infrastructure fastest will decide whether AI expands human freedom or shrinks it.

About Fluidstack

We exist to make humanity more free. For most of human history, you farmed or you starved. Technology gave people more time for the things they wanted to do, instead of things they had to do. Powerful AI will be the biggest lever for human choice we've ever built - but only if models are aligned with what humanity actually wants. There are groups building AI who don't share these goals. Whoever deploys frontier compute infrastructure fastest will decide whether AI expands human freedom or shrinks it.

We're singularly focused on delivering 10 to 100s of GWs of compute faster than anyone else, rethinking every layer of the stack. We acquire power, design and build data centers, and operate them - with teams spanning hardware and software. Speed and scale are our key differentiators. Come be a part of building civilization-scale infrastructure for AI.

We hire people who care deeply about this problem space.

How We Operate

• Be a barrel. Full autonomy. Own things end to end, take on scope without being asked, no permission required to operate outside your core role.
• Insane urgency. We drive everything forward as fast as possible.
• Reason from first principles. Challenge every assumption. Zero analogy thinking, no egos, the best idea wins.
• Love of the game. The frontier of AI is the most interesting problem of our time. We put in long hours at high intensity to push the frontier forward.
• Build something that actually matters. If you're going to spend your time, spend it on something that matters to the world.

The Power Generation Team

Examples of key problems the team is working on

• Build an islanded grid at gigawatt scale, from a blank sheet. Generation, storage and compute running with no utility behind them, where the machine you design is the only thing holding frequency. No playbook exists at this size, so the architecture you set becomes the reference.
• Get power online in months, not years. Interconnection queues are measured in years and we do not have them. Generating our own power is how a site goes from signed lease to live compute inside six months, and the power system is the long pole in that plan.
• Make one power block, then build it a thousand times. A repeatable block and cluster unit, validated once and stamped across the fleet, is the only route to the scale we are targeting. Every bespoke site is schedule we do not get back.
• Design a grid whose largest load answers back. Compute is not passive demand here. Load behaviour, curtailment and shedding are design variables you negotiate and specify, a lever almost no power system engineer has ever been handed.

Role Scope

• Own the control stack for fully off-grid campuses, the site energy management system, the plant controller for each power block and the dispatch logic across PV, BESS and gas, as one standard architecture that scales from a single block to a GW-scale campus energized in six months.
• Turn the control philosophy into sequences of operation our own code executes, covering every operating mode, source transition, blackstart path, emergency shed and degraded state, with each one proven in simulation and hardware-in-the-loop before the plant is energized.
• Hold the generation side of the control contract between the power plant and the data center, and extend it from one plant and one facility to many blocks feeding many buildings, with load reduction deadlines measured in seconds that both sides are measured against in production.
• Decide which components we bring in to energize the first campuses faster and which we build first, then replace each bought piece with our own code on a planned schedule, holding every supplier to our specification and conformance tests so Fluidstack keeps its configuration, its data and a clean exit.
• Build the controls test capability, a plant model library and hardware-in-the-loop bench where any controller, vendor or our own, is tested against our plant before it ships to site.
• Lead controls commissioning and tuning in the field, through frequency and voltage response, load-step testing against real AI load profiles and every mode transition, and fold each finding back into the standard so the next campus starts tuned.
• Hire the controls software and test engineers who build the stack with you, sequenced against the components we replace first.

What We're Looking For

The below is a starting point. We always make space for exceptional people, so if you don't fit this role exactly, tell us where you would.

• You've owned the plant controller or EMS on a utility-scale hybrid plant combining at least two of PV, BESS and thermal generation, and you can name the sites and the megawatts it dispatches today.
• You've written sequences of operation for source transitions, blackstart or islanding, and you've stood on site when they ran against energized equipment, including the times they did not work.
• You've shipped control software as a product, version-controlled, tested and released to running plants, and you know what changes when the loop closes on a real turbine or inverter fleet.
• You've brought a third-party controller or component into a live plant to hit a date, held the vendor to a specification through factory and site acceptance, and later replaced it with your own code without an outage.
• You've designed an interface between two control systems owned by different parties, with the data, timing and failure behavior written down and tested, not left to whoever integrated it.
• You've tuned a plant in the field, frequency and voltage response, ramp rates and load steps, and you can explain the tradeoff behind each setting you left in place.
• You write clearly enough that an OEM controls engineer, a commissioning agent and a CEO each get the decision they need from the same document.
• Bonus: Islanded or weak-grid operation (island utilities, mining and remote microgrids, offshore). Real-time simulation and hardware-in-the-loop (RTDS, OPAL-RT, Typhoon HIL). Commercial plant controller platforms (FlexGen HybridOS, Tesla, Schneider EcoStruxure, SEL RTAC). Industrial control protocols and OT security (DNP3, IEC 61850, IEC 62443). Real-time and control software languages (Go, Rust or C++, IEC 61131-3).

We are committed to pay equity and transparency.

Fluidstack is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Fluidstack will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law.

Compensation Range: $330K - $390K