Microgrid Architect Lead - Power Generation

About Fluidstack

We exist to make humanity more free. For most of human history, you farmed or you starved. Technology gave people more time for the things they wanted to do, instead of things they had to do. Powerful AI will be the biggest lever for human choice we've ever built - but only if models are aligned with what humanity actually wants. There are groups building AI who don't share these goals. Whoever deploys frontier compute infrastructure fastest will decide whether AI expands human freedom or shrinks it.

We're singularly focused on delivering 10 to 100s of GWs of compute faster than anyone else, rethinking every layer of the stack. We acquire power, design and build data centers, and operate them - with teams spanning hardware and software. Speed and scale are our key differentiators. Come be a part of building civilization-scale infrastructure for AI.

We hire people who care deeply about this problem space. If that is you, please apply!

How We Operate

• Be a barrel. Full autonomy. Own things end to end, take on scope without being asked, no permission required to operate outside your core role.

• Insane urgency. We drive everything forward as fast as possible.

• Reason from first principles. Challenge every assumption. Zero analogy thinking, no egos, the best idea wins.

• Love of the game. The frontier of AI is the most interesting problem of our time. We put in long hours at high intensity to push the frontier forward.

• Build something that actually matters. If you're going to spend your time, spend it on something that matters to the world.

The Power Generation Team

The Power Generation team designs and builds the power that runs Fluidstack's AI infrastructure, including grids that stand alone with no utility behind them.

Examples of key problems the team is working on

• Build an islanded grid at gigawatt scale, from a blank sheet. Generation, storage and compute run with no utility behind them, and the machine you design is the only thing holding frequency. No playbook exists at this size, so the architecture you set becomes the reference.

• Get power online in months, not years. Interconnection queues are measured in years and we do not have them. Generating our own power is how a site goes from signed lease to live compute inside six months, and the power system is the long pole in that plan.

• Make one power block, then build it a thousand times. A repeatable block and cluster unit, validated once and stamped across the fleet, is the only route to the scale we are targeting. Every bespoke site is schedule we do not get back.

• Design a grid whose largest load answers back. Compute is not passive demand here. Load behaviour, curtailment and shedding are design variables you negotiate and specify.

Role Scope

• Own the design basis. Fix voltage levels, topology, grounding, redundancy boundaries and the repeatable block and cluster unit for the islanded grid, with v1 and the site and block single-lines issued inside six months.

• Treat the block as a product. Hold one standard design across sites, drive out the variation that turns a repeatable build back into bespoke engineering, and freeze the design early enough that procurement and construction never absorb late change.

• Write the grid code and hold vendors to it. Set the internal grid code every generator, BESS, inverter and transformer must meet, own the conformance evidence that proves compliance before equipment ships, and own the technical content of equipment specifications and bid evaluation, with v0.1 in vendors' hands before the first major RFP.

• Build the model of record. Produce the first-pass generation, BESS and reserve sizing and the first load flow, short circuit and transient stability results yourself, own the study register and its prioritised roadmap, and accept or reject every vendor and EPC study against it.

• Set stability, protection and phasing. Define the loss-of-largest-unit contingency, reserve policy and a load shedding scheme with compute as a participating resource, negotiate the load behaviour specification with the compute side, and decide whether the next block can be energised safely at every intermediate build state.

• Close the loop from the field and build the team. Go to site, fold every commissioning finding and installer workaround into the next revision of the standard, and hire the specialists behind you in sequence: protection and HV substation, studies and EMT, and the operations counterpart who will own dispatch, reserves and switching orders.

What We're Looking For

The below is a starting point. We always make space for exceptional people, so if you don't fit this role exactly, tell us where you would.

• 10+ years of experience in power system design and studies for islanded or weak-grid systems, including EMT and load flow modeling, protection, and grid-forming inverter integration.

• You have delivered a real islanded or very weak-grid power system at 100MW or more, on an island or remote utility, a mining or LNG captive plant, an OEM power systems group, or a specialist islanded-systems practice. A grid-tied microgrid is not the same problem.

• You build the models with your own hands: deep EMT work alongside RMS, and you have personally produced the load flow, short circuit and stability results that decisions were made on.

• You have designed around grid-forming inverter control and inverter-dominated protection, where there is little or no synchronous machine underneath you to hide behind.

• You have owned a system design basis that vendors were held to, and you have rejected a vendor or EPC study that did not meet it. You set standards that OEMs and EPCs comply with on technical authority rather than headcount or a title.

• You have been in the room when an island went dark, and you were the one who had to explain why.

• You have designed something that got built many times over. You freeze a design, you say no to the change that would have been a small improvement and a large disruption, and you have watched what a late revision does to a supply chain.

• You spend time where the work happens, and the standards you write are shaped by what installers and operators actually do rather than what the drawing assumed.

• You're comfortable with regular travel: expect 25% or more, depending on business needs.

• Most of our engineering team, stakeholders, and work are based in Austin, TX, and we value working in person. We have a strong preference for Austin and run a hybrid model, but we're open to other locations for the right role and candidate.

• Bonus: ERCOT market and interconnection dynamics. HV substation design at 230kV and above. Professional Engineer licence. Lean practice applied to design and build, including standard work and design freeze discipline. Load shedding and dispatch schemes that treat flexible load as a participating resource. Utility control room and switching order design.

We are committed to pay equity and transparency.

Fluidstack is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Fluidstack will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law.

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