Principal Power Systems Sales Engineer

Simple Thread • Glen Allen, VA

18h • Remote

About The Position

Simple Thread is at the intersection of software engineering and energy innovation, dedicated to developing cutting-edge solutions that streamline workflows and enhance processes within the power and energy sectors. We are seeking a technical and commercial leader to push our Sales Engineering function forward. This strategic role is the primary technical bridge between our clients (utilities, RTOs/ISOs, renewable energy developers, and data center operators) and our internal software development teams. You will be responsible for demonstrating the technical and business value of our software and automation tools, driving the sales process alongside our business development team, and translating critical market feedback into our product innovation pipeline. Position Overview: Reporting to sales and executive leadership, the Principal Power Systems Sales Engineering is responsible for all technical aspects of the pre-sales process. This is a "player-coach" opportunity to establish and grow a team that functions as the technical powerhouse for our sales efforts. The ideal candidate combines deep power systems expertise with strong commercial acumen and a passion for technology. You will be responsible for a deep partnership with business development, technical discovery and solution scoping, compelling product demonstrations, proposal development, and directly informing the company's software product strategy by serving as the "voice of the customer."

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering (Master’s or PhD preferred).
• Minimum of 10+ years of experience in power system studies, including transmission planning and/or generation interconnection.
• At least 4 years in a client-facing technical role (e.g., sales engineering, solution architecture, technical consulting, or product management).
• Commercially-driven mindset with a demonstrated ability to support and close complex technical sales.
• Extensive experience with industry-standard power system simulation tools (e.g., PSS®E, TARA, PSLF, PowerWorld).
• Exceptional strategic thinking skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear business value.
• Outstanding communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage effectively with C-level executives, clients, and software developers.
• Deep familiarity with regulatory and planning frameworks across multiple RTO/ISO markets.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a consulting environment.
• Strong understanding of dynamic transient stability and EMT studies using tools like PSCAD™ or EMTP.
• Strong understanding of underlying computational algorithms, processes, and workflows for power system analysis, including power flow, stability, EMT, and other advanced analyses.
• Experience with production cost modeling tools (e.g., Plexos, PROMOD, Probe).
• Familiarity with inverter-based resource (IBR) modeling, grid-forming (GFM) technologies, and their integration challenges.

Responsibilities

• Technical Sales & Solution Architecture: Partner with the business development team to identify and qualify sales opportunities, acting as the primary technical expert in client meetings.
• Lead technical discovery sessions to deeply understand a client's challenges, workflows, and business objectives. A genuine commitment to leveraging our human-centered design process, including participating in user research and discovery to truly understand the ‘why’ behind a client’s challenges.
• Design and present tailored, high-impact demonstrations of our software and automation tools that directly address client needs.
• Help architect and scope comprehensive solutions that align with client needs, whether that involves our Minerva Interconnect SaaS platform, full custom software development, traditional power systems consulting services, or a hybrid of all three.
• Develop comprehensive technical proposals, scopes of work (SOWs), and responses to RFPs/RFIs, ensuring solutions are technically sound and competitively positioned.
• Articulate our software strategy and technical roadmap clearly to a wide range of audiences, from engineering teams to C-level executives.
• Market Feedback & Product Strategy: Serve as the primary bridge between the sales process and the software development teams, ensuring a tight feedback loop.
• Translate client challenges, study findings, and manual engineering workflows into concrete software requirements, new features, and new product concepts.
• Provide critical customer and market feedback to the Director of Energy Technology and Software Engineering leadership to inform the technical roadmap.
• Evangelize our vision for a digitized and modernized power system study process to the broader market.
• Industry Engagement & Team Leadership: Identify and analyze key industry trends, emerging technologies, and regulatory shifts to inform sales strategies and uncover new opportunities.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with technical stakeholders and decision-makers at key client and partner organizations.
• Provide thought leadership through technical presentations, whitepapers, and industry conference participation, establishing Simple Thread as an authority in power system innovation.
• Establish the foundational framework for the Sales Engineering function, including building robust demo environments, standardizing proposal templates, and documenting best practices for RFI responses, with an eye toward mentoring and growing a team as our sales pipeline expands.

Benefits

• A Great Team – Our team is the best part of working here. We only hire people who are fantastic teammates – competent and smart, sure, but also humble, positive, and generous.
• Great Clients – We work with mostly small and medium clients, for whom our projects make a huge impact. We prioritize clients who are pleasant and good to work with, people who share our values of transparency and empathy.
• Work From Home – We are a distributed company. Everyone works from home.
• Flexible Work Schedule – We require a certain amount of overlap with the rest of the team, but if you have a predictable schedule, we can probably support it, e.g., ending at 3:30 every day or being out every Friday morning.
• Good Work Life Balance (really) – We ask our team to work 40 hours a week. That’s all: a good, productive 40 hours. And then we try our best to leave you alone off the clock. We do this in part because that’s how we want to live but also because we want our team to be recharged and ready to do their best when working. If you need to work fewer than 40 hours, that might be possible too; let’s talk.
• Competitive Compensation – We offer highly competitive salary and benefits, including generous time off, 401k, FSA, medical and dental insurance

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal