Postdoctoral Researcher - Model Engineering

National Renewable Energy Laboratory • Golden, CO

3d

About The Position

The National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), a leader in energy systems research, is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Researcher to join our Grid Planning and Analysis Center (GPAC). This position will focus on tackling critical optimization challenges in medium-term power system planning like maintenance planning, hydro reservoir planning and storage cycle budget allocations. You will join a dynamic team of researchers developing cutting-edge computational tools to design and operate the next generation of reliable, resilient, and clean electric power grids. This role involves formulating and solving complex optimization problems and integrating them into the Sienna Platform for the simulation of large-scale systems. The ideal candidate will have a strong foundation in operations research, control theory or power systems and a passion for applying these skills to real-world energy problems at large scale.

Requirements

• Must be a recent PhD graduate within the last three years.
• Must meet educational requirements prior to employment start date.
• A Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Control Systems, or a related field, awarded within the last three years.
• Demonstrated expertise in mathematical optimization techniques.
• Strong programming proficiency, with a willingness to code extensively in Julia.
• Applicants must provide a link to their GitHub profile or another public code repository for review.

Nice To Haves

• Domain knowledge in power system operations, economics, and planning problems.
• Experience with control theory concepts (e.g., Model Predictive Control, Dynamic Programming) and their application to energy systems applications
• Hands-on experience with JuMP.jl or similar algebraic modeling languages (e.g., Pyomo, GAMS, AMPL).
• Familiarity with high-performance computing (HPC) environments.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work effectively in a collaborative research environment.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement novel mathematical optimization models (e.g., stochastic programming, robust optimization, mixed-integer linear programming) for medium-term grid planning.
• Design and code efficient algorithms for large-scale optimization problems using the Julia programming language and packages such as JuMP.jl. Experience with Xpress and Gurobi are a plus.
• Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of engineers, computer scientists, and data scientists to put research insights into open-source software products.
• Publish research findings in leading academic journals and present at major international conferences.
• Contribute to the development of the open-source power systems modeling software Sienna and contribute to all the packages as needed.

Benefits

• Benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance; short-term disability insurance; pension benefits; 403(b) Employee Savings Plan with employer match; life and accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance; personal time off (PTO) and sick leave; and paid holidays.
• NLR employees may be eligible for, but are not guaranteed, performance-, merit-, and achievement- based awards that include a monetary component.
• Some positions may be eligible for relocation expense reimbursement.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees