Senior Engineer, Power Systems Controls

Austin

Full time

On-site

Power Systems

TAR's mission is to power intelligence for the world. We are building the world's first off-grid power plant for data centers powered by renewable technologies.

We firmly believe AI should be built in the US for the benefit of all people. For that, power must be fast, clean and scalable. We are singularly focused on delivering GW-scale power faster than anyone has ever done, by rethinking every layer of the stack.

We vertically integrate to solve every bottleneck, from racking systems to power electronics to dispatch algorithms to on-site construction.

Leave your mark on the future of civilization-scale energy infrastructure.

TAR is both a hardware and software company, we are building out massive, critical, physical infrastructure. TAR is working directly with one of the largest compute providers to scale and deploy 5GWs by 2028.

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 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.

As Senior Engineer, Power Systems Controls, you own the two places where an islanded, inverter-dominant plant is proven before it is energized: detailed PSCAD EMT studies and Typhoon HIL testing. You build and validate the EMT models of the grid-forming PCS, BESS, PV, and data center load, then take the same control behavior onto a real-time HIL bench and prove it against the actual controller hardware.

Your results tell the team whether the integrated plant holds frequency and voltage on its own, powering a 24/7 data center load with no utility behind it. You report to the Principal Engineer, Power Systems Controls, within the VP of Power Systems Control and Integration's organization.

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. You need to understand converter internals well enough to build credible EMT models, read OEM control block diagrams, and find where an OEM model or firmware misbehaves, not to lay out gate drivers. Second, the Principal Engineer sets the control philosophy and the OEM-firmware-versus-MGC boundary;

you prove it works.

Build, maintain, and version-control the plant-level PSCAD EMT model: grid-forming BESS PCS, PV inverters, MV collection, transformers, cables, grounding, and a representative data center load (UPS, rectifier front ends, and load-step profiles).

Integrate OEM-supplied black-box and user-defined PSCAD models. Check them for numerical stability, time-step sensitivity, initialization, and fidelity to the OEM's stated control behavior; document gaps and push OEMs for corrected or better-documented models.

Run islanded EMT studies: black start and energization (transformer inrush, cable charging), large load steps and load rejection, fault ride-through, fault current contribution in the 1.1 to 1.5x rated range, unbalanced faults, and protection operation.

Study inverter-to-inverter and control interactions: GFM droop and virtual-inertia sharing, GFM/GFL coexistence, sub-synchronous and harmonic oscillations, weak-grid and low-SCR behavior, and impedance-based stability screening.

Verify that protection settings stay selective across every operating mode, and provide the EMT evidence behind differential, communication-assisted, or adaptive schemes.

Automate study cases and post-processing in Python (batch runs, parameter sweeps, pass/fail criteria, plots, and reports).

Build and maintain real-time Typhoon HIL models of the islanded plant, sized and partitioned to run on the available HIL hardware while keeping the dynamics that matter.

Run controller-HIL testing of the microgrid controller (MGC/PPC), EMS functions, and, where available, OEM PCS controllers or replica panels.

Write HIL test procedures and automate them with Typhoon's Python API and Typhoon Test IDE: black start, mode transitions, load steps, loss of a BESS block, communications loss, setpoint dispatch, and protection trips.

Correlate HIL results with the PSCAD offline model; track which differences come from model reduction and which reveal real…