Platform Engineering & AI Operations Lead

Job Description

Job Description

Platform Engineering & AI Operations Lead

Full Time | Hybrid | Chicago Metro Area

Build the platform foundation for POWR:Suite and IG’s AI-assisted operating model
Intelligent Generation’s mission is to empower businesses to engage the clean energy grid. 

Intelligent Generation builds and operates POWR:Suite , a software platform that helps battery energy storage assets make highly profitable economic decisions.

POWR:Suite connects distributed energy assets to wholesale power markets while also optimizing behind-the-meter value: reducing utility bills, managing demand charges, improving asset performance, supporting resilience, and helping customers capture the full economic value of their energy assets.

Our work sits at the intersection of energy markets, grid operations, customer savings, software automation, telemetry, and AI-assisted decision-making.

We are looking for a platform engineering leader who can own the infrastructure foundation behind POWR:Suite and help IG scale an AI-assisted engineering and operating model.

This is a leadership role. You will be hands-on early, but the expectation is that you will grow into leading people, establishing platform standards, and orchestrating AI agents that improve engineering delivery, reliability, security, and operations.

Why this role matters
Battery assets are only valuable when they are operated intelligently. Every decision matters: when to charge, when to discharge, when to participate in the market, when to preserve state of charge, when to reduce customer demand charges, when to support resilience, and how to prove the economic value created.

The platform behind POWR:Suite must be reliable, observable, secure, automated, and ready to support both human operators and AI-assisted workflows.

You will help define that foundation.

What you will lead and own
Cloud platform and infrastructure
Lead the architecture and operation of IG’s cloud platform on GCP, including Cloud Run, GKE, Cloud SQL, Pub/Sub, IAM, Terraform, networking, observability, and deployment standards.

CI/CD and engineering enablement
Build and lead the practices that make engineering delivery faster, safer, and more repeatable. Own CI/CD, release automation, environment strategy, deployment quality, and platform guardrails.

Edge-to-cloud reliability
Strengthen the communication layer between field assets and cloud systems. Partner with software, controls, and operations teams to improve telemetry, command paths, failure detection, and recovery patterns.

Security and operational controls
Own practical security and IT operations standards for a company operating live energy infrastructure, including IAM lifecycle, endpoint standards, secrets management, access controls, and production system hygiene.

Agent operations foundation
Build, maintain, evaluate, and govern agents that support platform engineering work, including deployment assistants, infrastructure review agents, security review agents, incident summarizers, documentation agents, and operational troubleshooting agents.

People and agent orchestration
Over time, build and lead a platform engineering function. Establish how work is divided between engineers and agents, how agent outputs are reviewed, and how platform knowledge compounds over time.

What success looks like
First 90 days

• Understand current platform architecture, cloud services, deployments, edge/cloud interfaces, and operational pain points
• Establish a platform ownership map and priority risk list
• Improve documentation around environments, deployment flow, access, and operational dependencies
• Identify high-value opportunities for agent-assisted platform work

First 6 months

• Improve CI/CD maturity and release reliability
• Strengthen observability and alerting for critical platform services
• Build or deploy early internal agents that assist with platform review, troubleshooting, documentation, or deployment support
• Establish platform standards that engineering teams can follow

First 12 months

• Lead the platform function for POWR:Suite
• Improve engineering independence, reliability, and operational control
• Mature agent-assisted engineering workflows
• Build the foundation for a team that can scale with IG’s growth

What we are looking for
Required

• 8+ years in platform engineering, infrastructure engineering, DevOps, SRE, cloud architecture, or senior software engineering
• Experience leading technical work across teams or mentoring engineers
• Strong production GCP experience
• Terraform or infrastructure-as-code experience
• CI/CD ownership in production environments
• Strong Python or equivalent engineering/scripting ability
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, reliability, observability, and operational failure modes
• Security-first mindset around IAM, access control, secrets, production systems, and operational risk
• Hands-on experience using AI tools as part of engineering work
• Ability to build, maintain, evaluate, govern, or orchestrate agents that support engineering workflows
• Strong systems thinking and ownership mindset

Strongly preferred

• Energy, industrial, IoT, SCADA, or OT-adjacent experience
• Familiarity with DNP3, Modbus, ICCP, or similar protocols
• Experience with agentic AI systems, tool use, evals, or AI-assisted operations
• GCP Professional certification
• Experience building or leading a platform engineering team

Why this is exciting

You will help define the platform foundation for a company operating at the intersection of energy storage, virtual power plants, cloud infrastructure, market automation, customer savings, and AI-assisted engineering.

This is a chance to build systems, standards, agents, and eventually a team that will shape how IG scales POWR:Suite and optimizes the full economic value of distributed battery assets.

This position is hybrid and includes both remote and in-person work.

Intelligent Generation participates in the E-Verify process for all new hires.