Principal Systems Engineer - R&D

Houston, Texas, United States;
Miami, Florida, United States;
Reston, Virginia, United States

ON.energyis setting the standard for large load interconnection. ON’s patented AI UPS™ is a medium-voltage UPS that serves as a firewall, protecting the data center from the grid, and the grid from the data center.

With multiple gigawatts currently under construction, we are enabling grid-safe data centers.

Job Description:
Principal Systems Engineer, R&D

Role Objective

The Principal Systems Engineer will serve asatechnical originator and design authority for newON.energy products. This role is responsible for identifying and shaping new product concepts, leading engineering teams through preliminary design, and supporting the transition from prototype to full productization. The Principal Systems Engineer will own requirements development, drive early-stage prototyping, coordinate with supply vendors on component engineering, and apply structured qualitative decision-making to navigate the trade-offs inherent in grid-scale energy storage system design.

Residing within the R&D team, this position ensures thatON.energy’sproduct pipeline is grounded in sound, agile systems engineering practice.

Key Responsibilities

• Product Concept Origination

Opportunity Identification: Monitor market signals, customer feedback, field performance data, and technology trends to identify opportunities for new products or significant architectural evolution of existing ON.energy platforms. Translate unmet needs into preliminary product concepts with clear value propositions.

Feasibility Assessment: Conduct early-stage technical feasibility studies,evaluating product suppliers, novel topologies, and control strategies to down-select concepts before committing engineering resources.

Coordinate internal and external subject matter expertise review and feedback into all evaluations.

Concept Documentation: Author concept proposals that articulate the technical approach, target specifications, competitive differentiation, key risks, and resource estimates. Present concepts to R&D leadership and cross-functional stakeholders for stage-gate review.

• Requirements Development and Management

System Requirements Authoring: Develop and maintain system-level requirements documents that capture functional, performance, environmental, safety, and regulatory requirements for new products. Ensure requirements are traceable, testable, and aligned with customer and grid code obligations.

Requirements Flow-Down: Decompose system requirements into subsystem and component specifications. Coordinate with discipline engineers to ensure consistent interpretation and compliance.

• Preliminary Design Leadership

Architecture Definition: Lead the definition of system architectures for new products, including power conversion topology, DC bus design, protection and isolation strategy,control hierarchy, and mechanical/thermal layout. Produce system block diagrams, interface control documents, and preliminary design packages.

Prototyping and Early Validation: Plan and oversee prototyping activities to retire key technical risks early in the design cycle. Define prototype scope, success criteria, and test plans. Coordinate rapid-build efforts across hardware, firmware, and test teams.

Design Reviews: Organize and lead preliminary design reviews (PDRs).

Vendor Technical Interface: Serve as the primary engineering point of contact with component and subsystem vendors. Communicate technical requirements, review vendor design proposals, and negotiate specification compliance.

Vendor Qualification and Selection: Lead technical evaluation of prospective vendors through design audits, capability assessments, and prototype sample testing. Provide engineering input to make/buy…