Full-Time
Senior Electrical Engineer
Power Systems
Critical Energy Systems
11-50 employees
Develops modular, dispatchable geothermal power plants
Compensation Overview
$175k - $200k/yr
Hawthorne, CA, USA
In Person
Bachelor's
 Electrical Engineering (1) |
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- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field.
- 3–5+ years of experience in power generation, electrical system design, or a related field.
- Demonstrated experience with medium voltage power systems (4 kV – 15 kV class) including generators, switchgear, transformers, and protection relays.
- Experience performing power system analysis using ETAP including load flow, short circuit, coordination, and arc flash studies.
- Experience sizing and specifying motor branch circuit protection per NEC Article 430, including VFD applications.
- Strong knowledge of generator protection principles and ANSI/IEEE device function numbers.
- Experience balancing power budgets and defining system requirements for generation facilities.
- Experience specifying and sizing circuit protection systems including breakers, fuses, contactors, and switchgear.
- Familiarity with utility interconnection requirements (IEEE 1547-2018) and the generator synchronization process.
- Familiarity with safety instrumented systems and IEC 61511 principles.
- Experience with 2D electrical drawings using AutoCAD Electrical, EPLAN, or similar.
- Experience with ETAP power system simulation including load flow, short circuit, coordination, and arc flash.
- Experience with medium voltage equipment procurement, including surplus and refurbished medium voltage gear evaluation.
- Experience with synchronous generator systems including protection, excitation, and voltage regulation.
- Experience with VFD-driven motor systems and NEC-compliant branch circuit design.
- Experience with 0-to-1 design and development of electrical and controls hardware.
- Familiarity with PLC-based control systems and industrial communication protocols including EtherCAT, Modbus TCP, DNP3, and OPC-UA.
- Past experience supporting hardware bring-up, factory acceptance testing, and commissioning.
- Design and size medium voltage electrical systems for ORC geothermal power generation, including synchronous generators, medium voltage circuit breakers, step-down transformers, neutral ground resistors, surge arresters, and associated switchgear.
- Design and size low voltage auxiliary power systems (480 VAC, 120 VAC, 24 VDC), including motor branch circuits, VFD-driven pump and fan loads, MCC lineups, and control power distribution.
- Evaluate and select motors, generators, drives, and protection devices considering efficiency, cost, reliability, and lead time, including surplus/refurbished equipment and new long-lead original equipment manufacturer hardware.
- Support procurement of surplus medium voltage equipment including medium voltage breakers, transformers, switchgear, PTs, CTs, NGRs, and surge arresters.
- Perform power system studies using ETAP including load flow, short circuit fault analysis, motor starting, protective device coordination, and arc flash analysis per IEEE 1584.
- Design generator protection schemes per IEEE C37.102, including specification and configuration of digital protection relays.
- Size and specify digital voltage regulators and excitation systems, and support commissioning of AVR, PF control, OEL, and UEL functions.
- Design plant auxiliary power budgets and generator operating point analyses, including capability chart verification and reactive power planning for utility interconnection.
- Collaborate with systems engineering on controls architecture, safety instrumented systems (IEC 61511), and control system integration across plant devices.
- Ensure all designs comply with applicable standards.
- Produce and maintain 2D electrical drawings including single line diagrams, schematics, wiring diagrams, and panel layouts using AutoCAD Electrical, EPLAN, or equivalent.
- Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues across design, procurement, test, and commissioning phases.
- Experience with ORC, geothermal, or other Rankine-cycle power generation systems.
- Experience with API 670 machinery protection systems, such as Bentley Nevada or equivalent.
- Experience with digital protection relay configuration, such as SEL, GE, or equivalent.
- Experience with digital voltage regulator commissioning, such as Basler DECS or equivalent.
- Familiarity with NEC Article 430 motor protection and medium voltage switchgear standards.
- Experience designing for classified hazardous areas (NEC Class I Division 2).
Critical Energy Systems designs and builds modular geothermal power plants to deliver dispatchable 24/7 clean electricity. Its Cascade system uses factory-assembled, shipping-container modules that can be moved to remote sites and operated individually or in parallel to match local resources. Each module provides multi-megawatt output and relies on a closed-loop geothermal cycle with heat exchange, working fluid circulation, and turbine-driven power generation. The approach allows faster, more flexible deployment than traditional geothermal facilities. The company differentiates itself with aerospace-inspired engineering, a proven testbed (over 50 kW generated in a demo), and a focus on cost-effective, scalable modules that can be deployed rapidly. The goal is to accelerate adoption of low-cost, dispatchable geothermal energy to provide reliable, carbon-free power at scale.
Company Size
11-50
Company Stage
Seed
Total Funding
$19M
Headquarters
Los Angeles, California
Founded
2024
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Critical Energy closed $22 million in June 2026 from Susa and Upfront Ventures.
- Data-center power shortages are acute; Bloomberg and TechCrunch highlight weeks-fast geothermal deployment demand.
- Its demo system generated over 50 kW, validating the closed-loop design before scale-up.
What critics are saying
- Apex lacks commercial revenue until the first plant targets 2027, stretching execution risk.
- Fervo, Quaise, and Eavor attack the same geothermal opportunity with stronger capital bases.
- If its custom turbine fails field reliability, Critical Energy becomes a dead hardware supplier.
What makes Critical Energy Systems unique
- Factory-built Apex modules ship in containers, cutting geothermal deployment to weeks, not years.
- Critical Energy sells surface turbomachinery, not drilling, making geothermal infrastructure more modular.
- Spencer Jackson’s SpaceX background gives aerospace manufacturing discipline to geothermal hardware development.
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Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↓ -33%1 year growth
↓ -41%2 year growth
↓ -41%Power supply becomes the binding constraint on AI compute. The defining theme across today's announcements is that securing electricity, rather than securing chips or capital, is now the decisive limit on artificial intelligence expansion. Federal regulators moved to force the question into the open on the same day that developers raced to bring new generation online and one campus collapsed for want of power. FERC orders all six US grid operators to defend or revise large-load rules. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission used its June 18 open meeting to issue tailored show-cause orders under section 206 of the Federal Power Act to each of the six regional grid operators it oversees, namely PJM, MISO, SPP, CAISO, ISO New England and NYISO, requiring them either to justify their existing large-load interconnection tariffs or to file reforms, as set out in the commission's own announcement. Each operator has sixty days to defend or revise its rules for connecting data centres and other large users, and thirty days to file an informational report on how it will secure adequate generation, an unusually fast route that the agency chose over a conventional rulemaking, as Renewable Energy World reported. Critical Energy raises $22m for modular geothermal plants aimed at data centres. Los Angeles startup Critical Energy, founded by former SpaceX propulsion engineer Spencer Jackson, announced $22 million in early funding comprising a $19 million seed round and $3 million in venture debt, co-led by Susa Ventures and Upfront Ventures with participation from MaC Venture Capital and others, according to the company-issued release carried by citybiz. The company builds assembly-line modular turbines that it says can be deployed in roughly two weeks, targeting a first 2.5 MW commercial plant in 2027, and it positions geothermal as a firm round-the-clock supply for compute campuses, as ThinkGeoEnergy confirmed. TerraPower Natrium reactor enters UK regulatory assessment. The UK Office for Nuclear Regulation, working with the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, formally began the three-step Generic Design Assessment of TerraPower's Natrium reactor, a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor with molten-salt storage that can lift output to 500 MWe, the regulator announced. TerraPower, chaired by Bill Gates, also opened TerraPower UK as its first office outside the United States, while its first Natrium plant remains under construction at Kemmerer in Wyoming with a 2030 target, as World Nuclear News reported. Ohmium and Hynfra agree green hydrogen development across MENA and Africa. US-based PEM electrolyser manufacturer Ohmium International and Polish developer Hynfra signed a master cooperation agreement to advance green hydrogen and green ammonia projects in Mauritania, Jordan and Oman, according to the companies' release on BusinessWire. The framework covers the front-end engineering and design stage, with Ohmium supplying electrolyser technology and technical support, and the partners citing energy independence and reduced fossil fuel imports as the rationale, as Energy Monitor reported. The agreement does not yet disclose capacity, tonnage or financial figures. CIM Group closes about $600m financing for California solar and storage. CIM Group's Permanent Power Company closed an approximately $600 million construction financing facility for its Grape project at Westlands Solar Park in California's San Joaquin Valley, the company said on BusinessWire. The facility combines a roughly $372.3 million construction-to-term loan, a $166.7 million tax-credit transfer bridge loan and a $61.3 million letter of credit facility, with Truist as administrative agent, funding 246.4 MWac of solar paired with a 150 MWac and 600 MWh battery system, as confirmed in the company's SEC 8-K filing. Eos Energy lands first order under 2 GWh battery reservation deal. Eos Energy Enterprises announced the first purchase order under Frontier Power USA's 2 GWh capacity reservation agreement, supporting the Redbird project, a 100 MW and 400 MWh four-hour battery system using Eos's zinc-based Z3 technology for the ERCOT market in Texas, the company said on GlobeNewswire. The order fills nearly half of a 1 GWh master supply agreement and the company pointed to a further 12 GWh development pipeline across ERCOT, PJM, CAISO and MISO, as StockTitan reported.
Critical Energy raises $22m to develop modular geothermal plants targeting data centers. Targeting both conventional and enhanced geothermal sectors June 18, 2026 A US company focused on the design and development of factory-built modular geothermal plants for the data center sector has raised $22 million in seed funding. 20 Nov 2025 Meta and others have thrown their backing behind experimental geothermal projects as energy demand from AI continues to rise Los Angeles-based Critical Energy announced the close of its funding round, led by Susa Ventures and Upfront Ventures. It plans to use the proceeds of the funding round to advance its technology and expedite plans for its full-scale commercial plant, which is slated to come online in 2027. Critical Energy was founded by SpaceX alum Spencer Jackson, who serves as its CEO. The company is seeking to offer a bespoke solution for the AI data center sector by building custom on-site geothermal power plants. Jackson said that the company is taking a manufacturing-based approach to geothermal deployments, with its Apex power units designed to be factory-manufactured, shipped in containers, and assembled on-site where they will deliver power. The company has two flagship models, dubbed Apex 2500 and Apex 5000, which provide 2.5MW and 5MW of capacity, respectively. According to the company, the former is targeted for standard conventional geothermal power, and the latter is designed for Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), which have seen growing interest from hyperscale companies. "The thing that needed to be done here was a manufacturing and supply chain change, not a technology invention," Jackson said. The fundraiser reflects the growth of interest in geothermal energy within the data center market. Over the past two years, we have seen a swathe of deals within the sector, with much of the focus on EGS systems, which offer much higher capacity factors than conventional geothermal systems. To date, Google, Meta (x2), Microsoft, and Amazon have all inked deals with geothermal developers, with the bulk of the deals within the US market. More in north america.
Critical Energy, founded by SpaceX alumnus Spencer Jackson, has raised $19 million in seed funding led by Susa Ventures and Upfront Ventures, plus $3 million in venture debt, bringing total early capital to $22 million. The startup is building modular turbines specifically designed for geothermal power plants. Jackson, who worked on Falcon Heavy and Starship at SpaceX, is applying rocket engine design principles to create factory-built turbines that can be deployed faster than traditional large-scale models. The company's first 2.5 megawatt project is scheduled for completion by 2027 at an existing geothermal site, with a larger 5 megawatt module planned for enhanced geothermal applications. Critical Energy aims to produce gigawatts of capacity within four to five years, positioning geothermal to outpace nuclear fission and fusion development timelines.