T

TAR

Off-grid power plants for AI data centers

Senior SCADA / PPC-EMS Systems Engineer

Controls & Automation EngineeringConfirmed live in the last 24 hours
Full-timeAustin, TX, USANo salary listedIn-person

About the Job

Requirements

  • At least 7 years of experience in utility-scale solar, battery energy storage systems, wind, or hybrid plants across SCADA, PPC/EMS, controls, or commissioning.
  • Hands-on field experience commissioning plants, running performance tests with utilities, and debugging failures on site.
  • Experience with commercial PPC/EMS platforms, including Ignition, Inductive Automation, and RTAC, and a clear understanding of their limitations.
  • Strong command of industrial protocols, including Modbus TCP/RTU, DNP3, and IEC 61850, with working knowledge of IEC 60870-5-104 and OPC UA.
  • Plant networking knowledge covering VLANs, ring topologies, redundancy protocols RSTP and PRP/HSR, fiber, time synchronization with PTP, NTP, and IRIG-B, and latency budgeting.
  • Grid interconnection knowledge covering active and reactive power control, voltage and frequency regulation, ramp-rate limits, and utility-required tests such as IEEE 2800 and NERC MOD/PRC.
  • Experience writing testable requirements and pass/fail criteria and working with software teams on test automation.
  • Comfort with scripting for test automation, data analysis, or tooling.

Responsibilities

  • Own PPC/EMS roadmap requirements by translating field needs, customer requirements, and grid-code obligations into clear, prioritized product requirements for software and controls teams.
  • Own requirements for new device-driver integrations, including inverters, BESS/PCS, meters, relays, meteorological stations, and RTUs, and validate each driver in the test lab before project use.
  • Define pass/fail acceptance criteria for each new PPC/EMS feature, covering active and reactive power control, voltage and frequency response, ramp rates, curtailment, and setpoint tracking.
  • Build and own automated system-level test suites, including hardware-in-the-loop and lab rigs, to catch regressions before field deployment.
  • Define PPC/EMS performance testing jointly with Project Engineering for each project, from factory acceptance testing through site acceptance testing and commissioning, ensuring tests meet utility and interconnection requirements such as IEEE 2800, NERC, ISO/RTO, and local grid-code tests, and feed results back into the product.
  • Architect next-generation SCADA, EMS, and plant-network solutions with Project Engineering, addressing legacy field limitations and optimizing control hierarchy, communication protocols, redundancy, latency, and failover.
  • Own data collection, logging, and telemetry requirements, including collection content, resolution, retention, and integration requirements for third-party O&M platforms, alerting, and dashboarding tools.
  • Turn customer and site requirements from Applications Engineering into product features rather than one-off project work.
  • Work directly with customers, utilities, and O&M partners to understand their needs and help set industry standards.

Desired Qualifications

  • Python is preferred for test automation, data analysis, or tooling.
  • Power-plant cybersecurity knowledge, including NERC CIP, IEC 62443, network segmentation, secure remote access, and security testing in operational technology environments.
  • Hardware-in-the-loop testing with tools such as RTDS, OPAL-RT, or Typhoon HIL.
  • Experience with time-series data and observability stacks such as historians, InfluxDB/TimescaleDB, Grafana, MQTT, or Kafka.
  • Knowledge of protection coordination and relay settings, including SEL, GE, ABB, or Siemens.
  • Background in a product company where field knowledge was translated into software features.

About the Company

TAR

Off-grid power plants for AI data centers

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
11-50
Company stage
Series A
Total funding
$147M
Headquarters
Texas, United States
Founded
2025

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