Real-Time Microgrid Controller Firmware Engineer

Delta Electronics (Americas) Ltd.; Morrisville (NC); On-site; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Delta Electronics Americas seeks an experienced engineer to own the real-time control software for the Microgrid Controller (MGC). You will blend power-electronics control theory with deterministic embedded software, building droop, grid-forming, and dispatch logic to coordinate PCS, BESS, PV and genset assets, with HIL-verified code.

You will verify on Typhoon HIL / OPAL-RT / RTDS, implement IEC 61850 GOOSE/MMS/SV and other comms, and support testing, certification and release evidence for UL

Qualifications

• B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, Controls, or Computer Engineering (or equivalent experience).
• Strong grasp of power-electronics control — inverter current/voltage loops, PLL, droop, grid-forming/grid-following, and inverter-based-resource dynamics
• Hands-on real-time embedded software in C/C++ on RTOS (FreeRTOS/SafeRTOS/ThreadX) or PREEMPT_RT Linux, with bounded WCET, ISR, and deterministic scheduling discipline
• Practical experience with industry controllers / IEDs
• Working knowledge of IEC 61850 (GOOSE/MMS), Modbus, DNP3, and PTP time synchronization
• Experience with model-based design and HIL (MATLAB/Simulink, PLECS, Typhoon HIL / OPAL-RT / RTDS) and test automation in Python
• Ability to read SLDs, I/O lists, protection settings, control narratives, and register maps; clear technical writing for specs, test plans, and release evidence

Responsibilities

• Develop the MGC real-time control application on a deterministic RTOS/RT-Linux target — droop/VSG, PLL, GFM/GFL reference generation, P/Q dispatch, and bumpless mode transitions within ≤ 1 ms loops
• Implement secondary control (P-f and Q-V droop, virtual inertia, SOC-aware allocation, ramp-rate limiting, black-start sequencing, resynchronization) at the 1–100 ms layer
• Build protection coordination logic (50/51, 27/59, 81/81R, anti-islanding, interlock state machine, GOOSE fast trip/block) with hardware trip paths executing in ≤ 20 µs
• Design and tune power-electronics control loops interfacing to PCS/BESS unit controllers; validate stability, ride-through (LVRT/HVRT), and grid-fault behavior
• Configure and program industry controllers
• Implement deterministic comms and middleware — IEC 61850 GOOSE/MMS/SV, Modbus TCP, DNP3, PTP time synchronization, lock-free IPC (DDS / shared-memory SPSC queues), with no dynamic allocation on the RT path
• Verify all functions on HIL (Typhoon HIL, OPAL-RT, RTDS, dSPACE) for grid-tied, islanded, black-start, failover, and fault-injection scenarios
• Support certification and release evidence — UL 1741 SB, IEEE 1547, IEC 61850 conformance, IEC 62443 / NERC CIP — with clear design and test documentation.

Skills

Real-time embedded software

RTOS / PREEMPT_RT Linux

Power-electronics control

IEC 61850 GOOSE/MMS

Python (test automation)

Model-based design (MATLAB/Simulink)

HIL testing

C/C++

PV/BESS/PCS coordination

Deterministic scheduling

Education

B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, Controls, or Computer Engineering

Tools

RTOS: FreeRTOS/SafeRTOS/ThreadX

PREEMPT_RT Linux

MATLAB/Simulink

Typhoon HIL / OPAL-RT / RTDS

dSPACE

IEC 61850 (GOOSE/MMS)

Modbus

Python

Azure DevOps

Git

Job description

Delta Electronics Americas seeks an experienced engineer to own the real-time control software for the Microgrid Controller (MGC). You will blend power-electronics control theory with deterministic embedded software, building droop, grid-forming, and dispatch logic to coordinate PCS, BESS, PV and genset assets, with HIL-verified code.

You will verify on Typhoon HIL / OPAL-RT / RTDS, implement IEC 61850 GOOSE/MMS/SV and other comms, and support testing, certification and release evidence for UL