Senior SCADA / PPC-EMS Systems Engineer

TAR•Austin, TX

About The Position

The Senior SCADA / PPC-EMS Systems Engineer bridges the plant as it is built today with the product TAR is developing. The role owns PPC/EMS roadmap requirements, device-driver integration and lab validation, system-level acceptance criteria and test automation, and data collection, logging, and telemetry requirements. Working with Project Engineering, the engineer helps rethink SCADA, EMS, and plant network architecture from first principles. The role retains ownership of requirements, pass/fail criteria, and test suites; software implementation is handled by software and controls teams, while project-level performance-test scope and sign-off are agreed jointly with Project Engineering. The goal is to make project-specific networking, protection, SCADA, and PPC needs repeatable software features, reducing custom engineering and accelerating plant launches. TAR describes itself as a hardware and software company building renewable-powered, off-grid power infrastructure for data centers. The company says it is working with a large compute provider to scale and deploy 5 GW by 2028.

Requirements

At least 7 years of experience in utility-scale solar, BESS, wind, or hybrid plants across SCADA, PPC/EMS, controls, or commissioning.
Hands-on field experience commissioning plants, conducting performance tests with utilities, and debugging failures on site.
Experience with commercial PPC/EMS platforms, such as 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; working knowledge of IEC 60870-5-104 and OPC UA.
Solid plant networking knowledge, including VLANs, ring topologies, redundancy (RSTP, PRP/HSR), fiber, time synchronization (PTP, NTP, IRIG-B), and latency budgeting.
Grid-interconnection knowledge, including 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; Python is preferred.
Clear written and verbal communication across Applications, Project, and Software Engineering, and with customers.

Nice To Haves

Power-plant cybersecurity experience, including NERC CIP, IEC 62443, network segmentation, secure remote access, and security testing in OT environments.
Hardware-in-the-loop testing experience using 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.
Protection coordination and relay-settings knowledge, including SEL, GE, ABB, or Siemens equipment.
Background in a product company where field knowledge was translated into software features.

Responsibilities

Own PPC/EMS roadmap requirements, translating field needs, customer requirements, and grid-code obligations into 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; validate each driver in the TAR test lab before project deployment.
Define pass/fail acceptance criteria for PPC/EMS features 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 (HIL) and lab rigs, to catch regressions before field deployment.
Define PPC/EMS performance testing jointly with Project Engineering for each project, from factory acceptance (FAT) through site acceptance (SAT) and commissioning; ensure tests meet applicable utility and interconnection requirements and feed results back into the product.
Architect next-generation SCADA, EMS, and plant network solutions with Project Engineering, addressing control hierarchy, communication protocols, redundancy, latency, and failover while accounting for legacy field limitations.
Own data collection, logging, and telemetry requirements, including collection scope, resolution, retention, and integrations for third-party O&M platforms, alerting, and dashboarding tools.
Translate new 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.