Senior Power Systems Engineer

Department: Programs

Reports To: Director, Power Systems Engineering

Location: Remote, U.S.

Employment Type: Full-Time, Exempt

Travel: Approximately 15% for utility partner meetings, project sites, company gatherings, industry conferences, and sales visits

About Sparkfund

Sparkfund is the utility services company unlocking capacity on the grid. Through its Distributed Capacity Procurement (DCP) model, Sparkfund enables utilities, energy majors, and large-load customers to deploy front-of-the-meter batteries and gensets as distribution infrastructure. By adding targeted capacity exactly where and when the grid needs it most, DCP helps meet demand, support reliability, and put downward pressure on rates. Sparkfund supports program design, grid value assessment, asset host engagement, and value chain management to ensure on-time, on-budget deployment with maximum system value and lowest cost.

With more than 3,200 projects deployed across 43 states and more than 300MW of energized assets constructed, Sparkfund is transforming customer-sited assets into a valuable portfolio resource for the benefit of our society. To learn more about Sparkfund, visit sparkfund.com.

About the Role

The electric grid is evolving faster than it has in decades. Utilities are navigating significant load growth driven by electrification, data centers, distributed energy resources, battery energy storage, and other emerging technologies while continuing to balance reliability, affordability, and infrastructure constraints.

Sparkfund is looking for a Senior Power Systems Engineer to help execute the technical engineering strategy behind our Distributed Capacity Procurement programs.

In this role, you'll serve as a technical subject matter expert across distribution system planning, utility operations, DER integration, interconnection, controls, operational technology, and grid modernization. You'll work directly with utility and large electricity-consumer customers to identify grid needs, evaluate distributed capacity opportunities, and help ensure DCP technologies can be integrated safely, effectively, and at scale.

You'll partner closely with Commercialization, Program Management, Project Delivery, and utility technical teams to evaluate use cases, develop integration strategies, and translate complex engineering requirements into practical solutions.

Direct experience working with electric utilities on distribution planning and interconnection is required for this role. You’ll be working closely with utility engineers to deploy distributed energy resources in their service territory.

This is an individual contributor role with significant technical ownership and no direct reports.

How We Work at Sparkfund

Our values guide how we work together, make decisions, and deliver for our customers and partners. Regardless of role or level, we expect everyone at Sparkfund to demonstrate:

• Excellence: We hold ourselves to a high standard, take pride in the quality of our work, and continuously look for ways to improve.
• Stewardship: We take ownership of our work and make thoughtful decisions with the long-term interests of Sparkfund, our customers, our partners, and one another in mind.
• Positivity: We bring a constructive, solutions-oriented mindset to our work and contribute to an environment where people can collaborate, learn, and do their best work.

These values are part of how we evaluate success at Sparkfund, alongside the skills, competencies, and results required for each role.

What You'll Do

Distribution System Analysis

• Evaluate utility power-flow analysis capabilities, tools, techniques, and outputs and their application to grid needs assessments, hosting-capacity studies, and locational value determinations.
• Perform operational technology maturity assessments for utility partners, evaluating DERMS, ADMS, SCADA, DMS, and OMS capabilities against the requirements for DCP fleet dispatch, monitoring, and market participation.
• Help utility partners identify where existing planning, operational, and technology capabilities may need to evolve to support distributed capacity at scale.

DCP Asset Interconnection and Integration

• Support the development and review of DER interconnection engineering deliverables, including single-line diagrams, site plans, preliminary protection coordination settings, effective grounding calculations, commissioning plans, and IEEE 1547 conformity assessments.
• Identify opportunities to streamline and improve utility processes that may otherwise slow or constrain DER deployment.
• Inform the technical design of distributed energy technologies, including battery energy storage systems, to support deployment at speed and scale while balancing schedule, budget, and operational requirements.
• Identify appropriate distribution-system integration study processes for DCP use cases, including traditional distribution system planning, non-wires alternatives, and DER interconnection.
• Contribute to communications and network architecture for DER site integration, including DNP3, SunSpec Modbus, IEEE 2030.5, data-point mapping, polling requirements, and cybersecurity considerations.
• Develop OT integration roadmaps and architecture recommendations that help utility partners move from current-state capabilities toward DCP-ready dispatch and telemetry.
• Define end-to-end controls and communications architectures required for market participation, including communication pathways, DERMS integration points, and site-controller dispatch interfaces.

Opportunity Evaluation

• Help develop Sparkfund's portfolio of distributed energy resource use cases from both a distribution-system and electricity-consumer perspective across front-of-the-meter, behind-the-meter, and across-the-meter applications.
• Contribute to cost-benefit analyses for DCP deployments by evaluating technical data and informing assumptions related to capital costs, operating costs, and distribution-system value streams.
• Help internal teams and utility partners understand how technical, operational, and economic considerations interact when evaluating deployment opportunities.

Wholesale Market Interface 

• Maintain current working knowledge of energy-storage registration, telemetry, dispatch, and settlement requirements across relevant ISO/RTO markets.
• Track rule changes and implementation timelines that may affect DCP asset participation.
• Translate wholesale market mechanics, including co-optimization rules, DER participation frameworks, and telemetry requirements, into practical engineering and program-design inputs.

What Makes This Role Unique

• Work directly with electric utilities across different markets, regulatory environments, and technical landscapes.
• Help shape how distributed energy resources and battery storage are integrated into modern distribution systems.
• Solve real-world engineering challenges involving grid capacity, reliability, interconnection, controls, and operational technology.
• Work at the intersection of utility engineering, emerging technology, wholesale markets, and commercial program development.
• Build technical approaches and engineering processes designed to scale across multiple utility territories rather than solving only one-off projects.
• Contribute to programs designed to help utilities address growing capacity needs without relying solely on traditional infrastructure investments.

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from a university with an accredited program. 
• 5+ years of experience in power system engineering, distribution engineering, DER integration, or a closely related field
• Experience working directly with electric utilities on interconnection and distribution planning
• Experience with distributed energy technologies such as battery energy storage, solar, or rotating machine generation. 
• Familiarity with engineering simulation tools and power-system modeling software
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with utility technical teams and manage complex engineering workstreams
• Experience with utility codes and standards for medium- and low-voltage electric distribution equipment
• Experience with utility safety practices and standards, including the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC/IEEE C2)
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts and engineering tradeoffs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Nice to Have

• Experience developing or improving business processes, operating practices, or change-management initiatives
• Familiarity with cybersecurity considerations for utility operational technology, including NERC CIP compliance frameworks and BES Cyber System applicability
• Background in battery energy storage system design and integration
• Experience with BESS project-finance technical due diligence, including technical reports or bankability documentation
• Familiarity with DER aggregation participation models related to FERC Order 2222
• Experience working in a program-based or multi-site deployment environment

What Will Help You Succeed

• Technical Authority: You can serve as a trusted engineering voice on distribution planning, operations, DER design, interconnection, and code compliance while making sound technical decisions and clearly communicating engineering tradeoffs.
• Utility Technical Engagement: You understand how utilities evaluate interconnection applications and system impacts and can identify practical strategies to improve approval pathways and reduce cycle time.
• Engineering Scalability: You think in systems rather than one-off solutions and can develop engineering standards, processes, and approaches that scale across utility territories and program types.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: You work effectively across Commercialization, Program Management, Project Delivery, and technical teams and understand how engineering decisions affect commercial and operational outcomes.
• Problem-Solving Under Complexity: You're comfortable navigating utility-specific requirements, jurisdictional differences, evolving codes, and emerging technologies while finding practical solutions to complex technical challenges.

Compensation

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $119,000–$142,000 per year.

Individual placement within the range depends on experience, qualifications, technical capabilities, geographic location, internal alignment, and other relevant business considerations.

Where applicable, this position may also be eligible for discretionary bonus or incentive compensation. Any such compensation is separate from base salary and is not guaranteed. Eligibility, amounts, and payment are subject to applicable plan terms, company performance, individual performance, and other business considerations.

Benefits

Sparkfund offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support employees both at work and outside of it, including:

• Employer-subsidized medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance
• 401(k) with 2% employer match
• Flexible vacation policy with a strong emphasis on work-life balance
• Federal holidays and Flexible Fridays, including half-day Fridays each week
• 12 weeks of gender-neutral paid caregiver leave
• One-time work-from-home stipend
• $100 monthly phone and Wi-Fi allowance

Work Environment

Sparkfund is a remote-first company with a distributed workforce and emerging hub offices in Denver, Minneapolis, and Washington, DC. This role is performed remotely with approximately 15% travel for utility partner meetings, project sites, company gatherings, industry conferences, sales visits, and other business needs.

No significant physical requirements apply beyond standard office work. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the role.