Full-Time

Commissioning Lead

Updated on 8/19/2026

TAR

TAR

1-10 employees

Off-grid power plants for AI data centers

No salary listed

Austin, TX, USA

In Person

Heavy travel is expected, with sustained field work at a site in remote West Texas.

Category
Electrical Engineering (1)
Required Skills
Software Testing

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Requirements
  • At least 10 years of experience commissioning and starting up utility-scale power projects, including at least 3 years in a manager or lead role.
  • A track record leading commissioning for multi-hundred-megawatt renewable projects, including solar and battery energy storage systems.
  • A thorough understanding of alternating-current and direct-current electrical systems.
  • Hands-on experience troubleshooting electrical systems and communications networks in the field.
  • Experience building and managing commissioning teams that combine direct staff and contracted support.
  • Willingness to travel heavily and spend sustained time at the remote West Texas site.
Responsibilities
  • Lead testing, startup, and performance validation for utility-scale islanded microgrids, taking hundreds of megawatts of solar and grid-forming storage from construction completion to reliable operation.
  • Develop and execute hot and cold commissioning plans and procedures, from pre-functional checks through full-system energization and performance testing.
  • Create staffing plans covering full-time employees and contracted support, and manage all commissioning resources against an aggressive energization schedule.
  • Provide field quality assurance reviews during construction so defects are identified and corrected before startup.
  • Perform handover walkdowns and manage punch lists to closure with construction, original equipment manufacturer, and operations teams.
  • Feed commissioning and test data back to power systems engineers and Tier 1 original equipment manufacturers to validate system models and tune inverter and battery control settings.
  • Enforce all site safety policies as the campus transitions from an active construction site to a live electrical plant.
Desired Qualifications
  • Commissioning experience on microgrid or black-start projects is strongly preferred.
  • Experience with wind turbines.
  • Experience with natural gas turbines or reciprocating engines.
  • Experience with substations.

TAR builds and operates behind-the-meter power plants for AI data centers that cannot wait out a utility interconnection queue. The company designs islanded microgrids pairing solar, battery storage, and gas peakers, then manufactures, installs, and runs them, handling power electronics, microgrid controls, dispatch software, and site construction in-house. Compared with grid interconnection, which can take years to clear, an off-grid plant can be sited and energized on the developer's own schedule, and TAR says it is working with a large compute provider and targets 5 GW by 2028. Its goal is to remove power as the constraint on AI buildout by owning generation end to end.

Company Size

1-10

Company Stage

Seed

Total Funding

$27M

Headquarters

Texas

Founded

N/A

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • June 2026 funding gave TAR $27 million to build its first deployments.
  • Forbes reported first customer deployment for an undisclosed large neocloud provider.
  • TAR says grid queues last five to seven years, making speed a real wedge.

What critics are saying

  • Only a 10 MW pilot exists; 200 MW by 2027 remains unproven.
  • TAR depends on gas turbines for redundancy, undercutting green claims and adding permitting risk.
  • A $500 million seed valuation and undisclosed investor create financing and governance pressure.

What makes TAR unique

  • Pat Becker and Leonhard Soenke attack data-center power scarcity with behind-the-meter systems.
  • TAR prefab-rigs solar, batteries, wind, and gas backup for three-month deployment.
  • Its 2026 pitch targets neocloud buyers needing speed, not cheapest grid electricity.

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Benefits

Meal Benefits

Unlimited Paid Time Off

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Relocation Assistance

Company News

Business Insider
Jun 29th, 2026
Creator economy founders pivot to data centers, raise $27M at $500M valuation to power AI infrastructure

Leonhard Soenke and Patrice Becker, who founded creator economy startup Throne in 2021, have pivoted to launch TAR (Transformative American Resources), a data centre energy startup. The company recently raised $27 million in seed funding at a $500 million valuation from an undisclosed strategic investor. TAR aims to reduce time-to-token for AI models by building modular, behind-the-meter energy systems combining solar, batteries, wind and natural gas. Soenke told Business Insider the shift came from seeking larger impact opportunities, as the creator economy has matured and become crowded. The founders spent six months transitioning Throne to trusted team members before relocating from New York to San Francisco and Austin to pursue the data centre opportunity.

Forbes
Jun 15th, 2026
Startup Raises $27 Million To Solve Two Massive Data Center Problems

Data centers are noisy and power-hungry. This startup might have a solution that prioritizes off-grid renewable energy.