Electrical Engineer, Power Generation

About the Team

OpenAI, in close collaboration with our capital and delivery partners, is building the infrastructure required to support frontier AI systems. The Data Center Engineering team defines repeatable technical standards and carries them through design, construction, commissioning, and operational readiness. The team works across data center facilities, power generation, compute infrastructure, construction, procurement, and operations to deliver reliable capacity at unprecedented scale and speed.

About

the Role

We are seeking an Electrical Engineer to design and integrate on-site power-generation systems for large AI data center campuses. You will work across generation, substations, medium-voltage distribution, protection, auxiliary systems, grid interfaces, and data center loads. This role will establish technical requirements, evaluate technology and vendor solutions, and carry electrical designs from concept through commissioning and validated operation.

Travel:

50%

Responsibilities

• Develop electrical architectures, one-lines, design criteria, specifications, and studies for generation plants and campus interconnections.

• Design and review generator or alternator interfaces, transformers, MV and HV switch gear, protection, synchronization, grounding, station service, DC systems, and black-start capability.

• Perform or review load flow, short circuit, arc flash, protection coordination, transient, motor-starting, grounding, and reliability studies.

• Coordinate generation controls, microgrid or islanding behavior, utility interconnection, data center load characteristics, and operating modes.

• Evaluate OEM and EPC proposals, equipment ratings, test plans, failure modes, maintenance strategies, and lifecycle tradeoffs.

• Support procurement, factory acceptance testing, construction, energization, commissioning, performance testing, and root-cause investigations.

• Resolve cross-discipline interfaces with mechanical, controls, CSA, fuel, utility, and data center electrical teams.

• Create repeatable electrical reference designs and standards for future generation deployments.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of electrical engineering experience on power generation, utility, industrial, microgrid, or mission-critical projects.

• Deep knowledge of generators, transformers, switch gear, protection and controls, grounding, auxiliary power, and electrical system studies.

• Experience with grid-connected and islanded generation, synchronization, load sharing, and black-start or restoration concepts.

• Ability to interpret OEM data, operating scenarios, failure modes, and data center load requirements.

• Experience carrying designs through construction, commissioning, and operational validation.

• Knowledge of applicable NEC, NFPA, IEEE, NERC, and utility requirements.

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or a related field.

Preferred Skills

• Professional Engineer license.

• Experience with gas turbines, reciprocating engines, battery systems, microgrids, or hybrid generation plants.

• Proficiency with ETAP, PSCAD, PSS/E, SKM, Easy Power, or equivalent analysis tools.

• Experience supporting high-density data center loads and fast-changing AI compute demand.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate…