Principal Power Systems Control Architect

About American Terawatt

American Terawatt is building a new industrial electric grid for the United States. Power systems engineering is at the core of what we do.

We design and deploy advanced power transmission systems, serving large industrial loads, gigawatts at a time. Our systems deliver power to everything from frontier AI datacenters to advanced automated manufacturing, refineries, mines, and more.

We make interconnection fast, simple, and cheap. On our network, generation owners get their projects online faster, delivering abundant power at competitive prices.

The backbone of American Terawatt's network is HVDC transmission, anchored by our unique terminal design. American Terawatt's HVDC terminals are standardized, modular, and natively integrate energy storage. Each terminal is designed to expand to operate as a full node on our future HVDC transmission network.

About the role

As the Principal Power Systems Control Architect at American Terawatt, you will:

• Own end-to-end Control and Protection (C&P) design for our terminals and transmission systems, from protection philosophy through deployed controls, partnering with OEMs, in-house engineers, and key consultants to drive major architecture changes.

• Architect and own the development, testing, deployment, and maintenance of control systems software deployed to OEM and American Terawatt's hardware.

• Work closely with the power systems engineering team to co-design transmission systems and components to serve both regional Macrogrids and the larger HVDC transmission network.

• Develop simulation and physical testing platforms to verify performance and robustness of control systems before deployment at scale.

• Lead in-situ commissioning of controls software for deployment sites.

• Define and own the team’s controls software development practices, including CI/CD pipelines, version control workflows, issue tracking, testing standards, and design review processes.

Required Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field.

• 15+ years of commercial engineering experience architecting and delivering control systems in safety-critical domains (aerospace, robotics, EV, or similar).

• Proficiency in control theory fundamentals: feedback/feedforward control, state estimation, and stability analysis.

• Hands-on experience with real-time embedded control systems development (e.g., C/C++ on RTOS or bare-metal platforms).

• Experience developing and validating controls using simulation tools such as PSCAD, EMTP, MATLAB/Simulink, or PLECS.

• Experience using hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL) validation platforms (e.g., RTDS, OPAL-RT).

• Experience with version control, CI/CD pipelines, and software development best practices in an embedded systems or controls context.

• Strong debugging and root-cause analysis skills across software, firmware, and hardware boundaries.

Preferred Experience

• Master's or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Controls, or Power Systems.

• 20+ years of experience driving major controls architecture changes end-to-end.

• Direct experience with power electronics control (inverters, converters, rectifiers), ideally on Voltage Source Converter (VSC) HVDC systems.

• Experience working across the HVDC control hierarchy, from valve and submodule control through pole, converter, and system-level control.

• Experience with control of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and plant-level control (EMS, PPC, or dispatch), including grid-forming and grid-following inverter control strategies.

• Background in protection coordination and fault-tolerant control architectures (e.g., hot-standby failover, redundancy).

• Experience deploying control systems to production hardware and participating in system commissioning.

• Exposure to power systems modeling, load flow analysis, or transient stability studies.

• Experience with distributed or networked control systems where multiple controllers coordinate autonomously.

• Familiarity with power-system communication standards (e.g., IEC 61850, DNP3); exposure to industrial and balance-of-plant (BOP) protocols (e.g., Modbus, CAN) is a plus.

• Familiarity with industrial/OT cybersecurity practices (e.g., IEC 62443, NERC CIP); exposure to functional safety frameworks (e.g., IEC 61508) is a plus.

Position Details

• This role reports directly to the CTO. You will be responsible for planning and executing engineering programs in your specific area of responsibility.

Compensation & Benefits

• Compensation: Competitive compensation package commensurate with experience, including salary and material equity participation.

• Healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage, including 75% coverage for dependents and spouses.

• Wellness: Up to $300/month reimbursement for gym and wellness expenses, or Bay Club membership for SF-based employees.

• Meals: Lunch provided daily when working from an office.

• Time off: Unlimited PTO with manager approval, plus company-wide office closures for July 4 week and one week in December.

• Additional perks: Laptop of choice provided, convenient SF office location on the Embarcadero and near public transit (pre-tax transit benefit), and employee contribution 401(k) program.