Senior Microgrid Controls Engineer

Delta-Electronics-; Morrisville (NC); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Delta Electronics Americas seeks a Senior Microgrid Controls Engineer to lead end-to-end EMS optimization, real-time control, and protection-coordinated strategies for utility-scale and hyperscale microgrids. You will translate business and reliability objectives into deployable control functions, ensuring safe operation across grid-connected and islanded modes.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams, validate designs with SIL/HIL methods, and deliver robust control architectures aligned with

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Power Systems, Controls, or related field.
• 3–8+ years of experience in microgrid controls, EMS/supervisory control, real-time control, and/or protection-coordinated design.
• Strong understanding of inverter-based resources and microgrid operating modes.
• Experience defining command arbitration across EMS, real-time control, SCADA/HMI, and protection relays.
• Experience supporting SIL/HIL validation, FAT/SAT, commissioning, and cross-functional integration.
• Professional working proficiency in English; travel up to ~15%.
• Ability to work across cross-functional and cross-region teams.

Responsibilities

• Design EMS optimization algorithms (economic dispatch, reserve management, resilience planning, emissions objectives, and degradation-aware operation)
• Implement day-ahead, intraday, and rolling-horizon optimization with robust fallback strategies and operator override handling
• Translate EMS schedules and setpoints into supervisory control intents that respect real-time stability, ramp limits, and protection constraints
• Define EMS constraints and feasibility checks (asset limits, network limits, N-1/contingency policies) and document assumptions
• Analyze operational performance, tune objectives/constraints, and drive continuous improvement of optimization outcomes
• Design and implement real-time control algorithms for grid-connected, islanded, transition, resynchronization, and black-start operation
• Coordinate frequency, voltage, and active/reactive power objectives across PCS, BESS, generators, and DER assets
• Develop fast control loops, setpoint tracking, limit enforcement, and event-response logic aligned with protection systems
• Define and enforce command prioritization/arbitration between real-time control, EMS intents, SCADA commands, and local unit control autonomy
• Support tuning and performance optimization across operating modes, including weak-grid and disturbance recovery behavior
• Design protection-aware control limits, interlocks, and adaptive constraints aligned with relay behavior and unit controller protection functions
• Coordinate inverter-based and traditional protection strategies for grid-connected and islanded operation
• Define authority boundaries between protection systems, real-time controllers, and EMS to avoid unsafe command conflicts
• Collaborate with protection engineers to validate relay settings assumptions and evaluate protection–control interactions
• Document protection logic interactions, operating constraints, and recommended mitigations for known protection/control edge cases
• Define interface contracts and data models between EMS, real-time control, protection relays, unit controllers, SCADA, and operator/HMI systems
• Specify command validation, sanity checks, and safety gating for setpoints and mode transitions across control layers
• Support integration planning including signal lists, latency/update requirements, event/alarm semantics, and time synchronization expectations
• Produce clear technical documentation for control logic, state machines, limits, operating modes, and interface behavior
• Support SIL/HIL validation (including RTDS where applicable) with scenario-based testing of transitions, black-start, faults, and abnormal grid events
• Support FAT, SAT, commissioning, and utility/customer witness testing; provide troubleshooting and root-cause analysis for field issues
• Create and maintain test procedures, acceptance criteria traceability, and closure evidence for defects and corrective actions

Skills

Communication

Analytical thinking

Documentation

Stakeholder management

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering/Power Systems/Controls

Tools

RTDS

Job description

Delta Electronics Americas seeks a Senior Microgrid Controls Engineer to lead end-to-end EMS optimization, real-time control, and protection-coordinated strategies for utility-scale and hyperscale microgrids. You will translate business and reliability objectives into deployable control functions, ensuring safe operation across grid-connected and islanded modes.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams, validate designs with SIL/HIL methods, and deliver robust control architectures aligned with