Principal Engineer, Power Systems Controls

We are a team of seasoned operators run by founders who previously scaled a company to over 80 people and $350M in annual sales. We know how to operate and we move fast.

We are working directly with one of the largest compute providers to make our vision come true and plan to deploy 5GWs by 2028.

TAR is both a hardware and software company, we are building out massive, critical, physical infrastructure.

We operate on…

High ownership. High Agency. Own project end-to-end. Great people don’t need to be managed.

Speed. We achieve great things on incredible timelines. We always push ourselves to go faster.

First principles. No ego. No hierarchy. Challenge every assumption.

Passion. Solving the energy problem is one of the largest challenges that faces the world now and in the future. We put in long hours and hard work to solve this.

TAR builds fully islanded, behind-the-meter microgrids (solar, BESS, and gas peakers) powering AI data centers in West Texas at record speed. As Principal Engineer, Power Systems Controls, you own two things: how the power electronics behave in an inverter-dominant island, and the control architecture that ties every asset together. You translate architecture into single-lines, interrogate the grid-forming PCS and BESS down to the control level, define where OEM firmware ends and a separate system-level controller begins, and validate that the integrated plant holds frequency and voltage on its own, while powering a data center load 24/7, with no utility behind it. The hardest problems on this project live in controls and protection under islanded conditions, and this role owns the engineering answer to them. You drive the day-to-day electrical engineering under the Director of Power Systems Engineering.

Two scope notes on what this role is and is not. First, we integrate utility-scale OEM equipment; we do not design power converters at the silicon level. We need someone who understands converter internals well enough to push OEMs hard on grid-forming behavior, ride-through, and protection, not someone who wants to lay out gate drivers. Second, you own the control architecture and its validation (the control philosophy, the OEM-firmware-versus-MGC boundary, the MGC and EMS functional specs, and proof that the integrated island is stable), but you do not personally write the PLC logic or stand up the SCADA. A controls and automation engineer plus the MGC and EMS vendors carry implementation under the architecture you set.

MSEE with a power electronics or microgrid focus.

Direct islanded, off-grid, or BTM microgrid experience.

Field-validated GFM behavior, fault response, ride-through, and inverter-to-inverter interactions in a real IBR-dominant or islanded plant with limited fault current.

Experience with EMT modeling of utility-scale PV+BESS powering a large variable load.

Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) validation of inverter and BESS controls.

Written and executed commissioning/validation test plans and troubleshot bring-up in the field.

Test-like-you-fly culture (Tesla Energy, Fluence, SpaceX, Array, Nextracker, or comparable) where validation rigor is the norm.