Senior Power Plant Engineer — Field Startup & Optimization

SpaceX; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a Sr. Power Plant Engineer to own the design, build, startup, and operation of utility-scale gas turbine power plants. This is a hands-on role requiring field construction oversight and commissioning in the control room during startup.

You will coordinate with OEMs, plan inspections, analyze performance data, and develop operating procedures to ensure safe, reliable power generation. You will also lead root-cause analyses for outages and drive corrective actions to prevent

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or Electrical Engineering.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience with utility-scale gas turbines in commissioning, operations, or maintenance roles.

Responsibilities

• Support the full lifecycle of gas turbine power generation assets — installation, commissioning, startup, operations, and long-term maintenance.
• Lead or support commissioning activities including combustion tuning, control system checkout, protective relay testing, and performance/reliability run verification.
• Own root-cause analysis and corrective action for turbine trips, forced outages, and performance degradation; drive fixes that prevent recurrence.
• Develop and refine operating procedures, startup/shutdown sequences, and abnormal operating condition playbooks.
• Interface directly with OEMs (GE, Siemens Energy, Mitsubishi Power, Doosan) on warranty issues, LTSA scope, outage planning, and technical issues.
• Plan and execute major/minor inspections, hot gas path outages, and combustion inspections in line with OEM maintenance intervals.
• Analyze turbine performance data (heat rate, capacity factor, degradation curves) to identify efficiency losses and recommend corrective action.
• Coordinate with balance-of-plant teams (HRSG, steam turbine, cooling systems, water treatment) to ensure integrated performance.
• Build and maintain relationships with EPC contracts during construction handoff to ensure a clean transition from construction to commercial operation.
• Develop spare parts strategy, critical spares inventory, and maintenance budgets.

Skills

Gas turbine operations

Root-cause analysis

DCS/turbine control

Performance monitoring

CAD software

P&ID interpretation

Outage planning

OEM coordination

Field troubleshooting

Startup/shutdown procedures

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering

Tools

SOLIDWORKS

Siemens NX

Mark VIe

SPPA-T3000

Job description

SpaceX is seeking a Sr. Power Plant Engineer to own the design, build, startup, and operation of utility-scale gas turbine power plants. This is a hands-on role requiring field construction oversight and commissioning in the control room during startup.

You will coordinate with OEMs, plan inspections, analyze performance data, and develop operating procedures to ensure safe, reliable power generation. You will also lead root-cause analyses for outages and drive corrective actions to prevent