Solar Performance Engineer

Blue Sky Utility•Fort Lauderdale, FL

38d•Hybrid

About The Position

Blue Sky Utility/ Nofar USA is seeking a Solar Performance Engineer who desires genuine ownership and autonomy. This role involves leading performance monitoring, analytics, and modeling for a growing fleet of utility-scale and distributed generation (DG) solar and hybrid solar+storage sites. The ideal candidate will have experience in solar performance or O&M analytics and is ready to build scalable processes, tools, and systems. You will work extensively with SCADA/historian data, inverter and tracker telemetry, meteorological data, and contractual performance guarantees, with significant latitude in problem-solving approaches.

Requirements

2–3 years of experience in solar performance engineering, asset management, O&M, or a closely related analytical role in renewable energy.
Track record of building (not just using) a process, tool, or reporting pipeline.
Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Renewable Energy, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).
Working knowledge of PV system fundamentals: inverter operation, string/central architecture, tracker systems, revenue metering, and how weather drives production.
Hands-on experience with AlsoEnergy PowerTrack (or a comparable SCADA/DAS/historian platform such as Locus, Power Factors, or PI), including familiarity with the PowerTrack API.
Proficiency in SQL for querying large datasets.
Comfort with Python for analysis/automation (pandas, matplotlib/plotting libraries).
Ability to read electrical single-line diagrams and site layout/LBD drawings.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
A builder's mindset: energized by taking a manual or ad hoc process and turning it into something scalable.
Self-directed and comfortable owning ambiguous problems.
Comfortable using AI tools (LLMs, coding assistants) to speed up day-to-day analysis and scripting, paired with the technical judgment to catch errors and verify AI-generated output.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with performance modeling tools (PVsyst, SAM, PlantPredict, or similar) — or strong quantitative aptitude and willingness to learn.
Experience with Modbus register-level troubleshooting or inverter fault code analysis (e.g., Sungrow, SMA, or similar OEMs).
Exposure to BESS (battery energy storage) performance and dispatch data.
Experience with BI tools (Metabase, Power BI, Tableau).
Familiarity with O&M contract structures, availability guarantees, and liquidated damages calculations.

Responsibilities

Monitor daily/weekly performance of utility-scale and DG-scale PV sites against expected (weather-adjusted) production.
Identify underperformance at site, inverter, combiner/recombiner, and string/tracker levels using SCADA and DAS platforms.
Track and triage inverter faults, tracker stow/follow anomalies, and communication outages, escalating to O&M vendors with supporting data.
Maintain dashboards for a real-time picture of fleet health.
Design and build alarming and monitoring tools for faster visibility into faults, underperformance, and communication issues, focusing on scalable processes.
Build and maintain loss-waterfall analyses to decompose the gap between actual and expected production.
Calculate contractual availability and performance ratio (PR) metrics per O&M and PPA agreements.
Query and manipulate large time-series datasets (SQL/PostgreSQL) for root-cause investigations.
Automate recurring reporting using Python (pandas, etc.) to build repeatable processes.
Utilize AI tools (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot) to accelerate data cleaning, script writing, and report generation, validating AI-assisted outputs.
Build and maintain expected-generation models (e.g., PVsyst, SAM, PlantPredict, or in-house models) for new and existing sites.
Update models to reflect as-built conditions, equipment changes, degradation curves, and shading/soiling assumptions.
Support P50/P90 production forecasting and budget-vs-actual variance analysis.
Validate model assumptions against real operating data and refine over time.
Partner with O&M vendors on performance guarantee true-ups and dispute resolution.
Support procurement/engineering teams with data on equipment reliability.
Support technical due diligence for site acquisitions and portfolio growth by reviewing historical performance data, production estimates, and equipment condition.
Present findings to internal stakeholders and, occasionally, asset owners/investors.