Senior Power Systems Engineer

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.

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, con