Solar Performance Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

Blue Sky Utility/ Nofar USA looking for a Solar Performance Engineer who wants real ownership — not just a seat monitoring dashboards someone else built. You'll take the lead on performance monitoring, analytics, and modeling across our fleet of utility-scale and distributed generation (DG) solar (and hybrid solar+storage) sites, and as the fleet grows, you'll have the runway to build the scalable processes, tools, and systems that let our team stay ahead of it rather than react to it.

This is a strong fit for someone who has already spent a couple of years in the trenches of solar performance or O&M analytics and is ready for more autonomy: someone who's built a process, a tool, or a reporting pipeline before and wants a platform to do that at greater scale, with more responsibility, and with a direct line of sight to how their work affects portfolio-level decisions. You'll work daily with SCADA/historian data, inverter and tracker telemetry, meteorological data, and contractual performance guarantees — and you'll have real latitude in how those problems get solved.

What You'll Do

Performance Monitoring

• Monitor daily/weekly performance of a portfolio of utility-scale and DG-scale PV sites against expected (weather-adjusted) production

• Identify underperformance at the site, inverter, combiner/recombiner, and string/tracker level using SCADA and DAS platforms (e.g., AlsoEnergy PowerTrack or similar)

• Track and triage inverter faults, tracker stow/follow anomalies, and communication outages; escalate to O&M vendors with supporting data

• Maintain dashboards (e.g., in Metabase, Power BI, or similar) that give a real-time picture of fleet health

• Design and build out alarming and monitoring tools (threshold-based alerts, exception reports, automated notifications) that give O&M teams faster visibility into faults, underperformance, and communication issues in the field — with an eye toward processes that scale as the fleet grows

Performance Analytics

• Build and maintain loss-waterfall analyses that decompose the gap between actual and expected production into categories (availability, curtailment, soiling, clipping, degradation, wiring/DC losses, etc.)

• Calculate contractual availability and performance ratio (PR) metrics per O&M and PPA agreements

• Query and manipulate large time-series datasets (SQL/PostgreSQL) to support root-cause investigations

• Automate recurring reporting using Python (pandas, etc.), building repeatable processes rather than one-off spreadsheets, so analytics keep pace as the portfolio grows

• Use AI tools (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot) to accelerate data cleaning, script writing, and report generation, applying sound judgment to validate AI-assisted outputs before they inform decisions

Performance Modeling

• Build and maintain expected-generation models (e.g., PVsyst, SAM, PlantPredict, or in-house models) for new and existing sites, spanning both utility-scale and DG-scale projects

• Update models to reflect as-built conditions, equipment changes, degradation curves, and shading/soiling assumptions

• Support P50/P90 production forecasting and budget-vs-actual variance analysis

• Validate model assumptions against real operating data and refine over time

Cross-Functional Support

• Partner with O&M vendors on performance guarantee true-ups and dispute resolution

• Support procurement/engineering teams with data on equipment reliability (inverters, trackers, meters)

• Support technical due diligence for site acquisitions and portfolio growth — reviewing historical performance data, production estimates, and equipment condition to inform investment decisions

• Present findings to internal stakeholders and, occasionally, asset owners/investors

 

Requirements

What You Bring

• 2–3 years of experience in solar performance engineering, asset management, O&M, or a closely related analytical role in renewable energy, ideally with a track record of building (not just using) a process, tool, or reporting pipeline

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Renewable Energy, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience)

• Working knowledge of PV system fundamentals: inverter operation, string/central architecture, tracker systems, revenue metering, and how weather (irradiance, temperature, soiling) drives production

• Hands-on experience with AlsoEnergy PowerTrack (or a comparable SCADA/DAS/historian platform such as Locus, Power Factors, or PI), including familiarity with the PowerTrack API to build automated reporting and data pull processes

• Proficiency in SQL for querying large datasets; comfort with Python for analysis/automation (pandas, matplotlib/plotting libraries)

• Familiarity with performance modeling tools (PVsyst, SAM, PlantPredict, or similar) — or strong quantitative aptitude and willingness to learn

• Ability to read electrical single-line diagrams and site layout/LBD drawings

• Excellent written and verbal communication — comfortable turning messy data into a clear narrative for non-technical stakeholders

• A builder's mindset: energized by taking a manual or ad hoc process and turning it into something scalable, rather than just maintaining what already exists

• Self-directed and comfortable owning ambiguous problems; this is a lean, growth-oriented team where you'll have real agency to shape how performance monitoring and analytics evolve as the portfolio expands

• Comfortable using AI tools (LLMs, coding assistants) to speed up day-to-day analysis and scripting, paired with the technical judgment to catch errors and verify AI-generated output rather than accepting it at face value

Nice to Have

• Experience with Modbus register-level troubleshooting or inverter fault code analysis (e.g., Sungrow, SMA, or similar OEMs)

• Exposure to BESS (battery energy storage) performance and dispatch data

• Experience with BI tools (Metabase, Power BI, Tableau)

• Familiarity with O&M contract structures, availability guarantees, and liquidated damages calculations

Benefits

What We Offer

A Lean Team Where Your Work Actually Matters
We operate with a lean, highly capable team, which means there aren’t layers of people between you and the work that matters. You’ll have real ownership, direct access to decision-makers, and the opportunity to influence how we build and grow the business. If you want to be a meaningful voice rather than a small part of a very large machine, you’ll find that opportunity here.

A Fast Pace and a High Bar
We believe in being transparent about what it’s like to work here: we move quickly, the workload can be demanding, and our expectations are high. This is an environment for people who enjoy being challenged, solving problems, taking initiative, and figuring things out as we grow. In return, you’ll gain exposure, responsibility, and influence that can take years to earn in a more traditional organization.

Who Thrives Here
The people who do best at Blue Sky are proactive, resourceful, and comfortable taking ownership. They don’t wait to be told what to do next, and they’re willing to step outside the boundaries of a job description when the business needs it. They care about outcomes more than watching the clock, bring solutions instead of simply identifying problems, and genuinely enjoy the energy — and occasional ambiguity — that comes with building a growing company. If you’re a go-getter who wants room to run, you’ll fit in well here.

Benefits That Invest in You
We offer medical, dental, and vision insurance, short-term disability, life insurance, and a 401(k) with a generous 6% company match.

Hybrid, With Purpose
We believe there is real value in being together. Our hybrid model creates regular opportunities for in-person collaboration, faster decision-making, and stronger relationships while still providing flexibility outside of the office.

What to Expect From Our Hiring Process

We’re Choosy — On Purpose.
We fiercely protect the culture we’ve built, and our hiring process reflects that. Skills and experience matter, but so does how you work, how you collaborate, and what you’ll add to the team. We want to get to know the person behind the résumé — and we want you to have plenty of opportunity to get to know us, too.

Our typical hiring process looks like this:

HR Screen → Hiring Manager Interview → Culture Assessment → Case Study, when applicable → Cross-Team Interview → CEO Meet & Greet → Offer

Not every role requires a case study, but for certain positions we use one to better understand how you think, approach problems, and tackle the type of work you would actually be doing here.

It Sounds Like a Lot. It Doesn’t Take a Lot of Time.
We’re deliberate in our hiring decisions, but we’re also decisive. Our average turnaround from initial HR screen to offer is less than two weeks . We move quickly and respect that candidates have jobs, lives, and other opportunities in motion.

You’ll Always Know Where You Stand.
Clear communication is an important part of our candidate experience. We’ll be transparent about the process and expectations from the beginning, keep you informed as you move through each stage, and close the loop when a decision has been made. We believe every candidate deserves clarity and respect for the time they invest in getting to know us.

We’re intentional about who joins our team because every person on a lean team has an outsized impact. When we make an offer, it’s because we’re genuinely excited about what you can bring to the team.