Senior/Staff AI/ML Engineer, Plant Intelligence

📋 Job Overview

1AP builds software-defined power systems: utility-scale solar and storage plants designed, built and run on one software stack, from the layout of the land to the electronics on every string. Plant Intelligence is the layer that understands each plant: how it is designed, how it should perform and how it actually runs. It spans site design, performance modeling, digital twins, forecasting and asset health. This is the first machine learning role on Plant Intelligence, shaping how AI becomes part of every plant.

🏢 About 1 Arc Power

At 1 Arc Power, we are on a mission to deliver simple, fast-to-deploy, customer-centric and intelligent power systems leveraging the abundance of solar to provide inexpensive and reliable clean energy to global customers from data centers to energy starved communities around the world. We envision a future where every community, business, and nation thrives on the limitless potential of clean energy, united in a shared commitment to a sustainable and equitable world.

🎯 The Role

You will be working with Dr. Tom Buttgenbach, one of the most successful clean energy technology innovators and entrepreneurs who has been a driving force in making solar-based energy solutions the cheapest and most reliable energy option. Tom founded and led Avantus (formerly known as “8minute Solar Energy“), to become one of the largest and most profitable solar and energy storage companies in the United States and the largest in California, including delivering over 17% of Los Angeles’ power.

✅ Key Responsibilities

• Combine physics and machine learning into models that predict how each plant performs.
• Build the data foundation: capture and label operations, maintenance and field data for model training.
• Build the pipelines every model is trained, evaluated and deployed through.
• Package models for the plant, working with Plant Infrastructure on running them on site.

📌 Required Qualifications

• 6+ years of software engineering, including 3+ years building machine learning for production.
• Strong Python and SQL background with hands-on modern ML libraries experience.
• Strong data engineering: reliable pipelines for large volumes of sensor and time-series data.
• ML systems: training and evaluation pipelines, model registry and production monitoring.
• Experience with modern data platforms: data lakes, streaming and workflow orchestration.
• Infrastructure as code: Terraform or similar.
• Bias for action and end-to-end ownership: shipping early, measuring results, and owning models from first prototype through production and beyond.

⭐ Desirable Experience

• Utility-scale solar and battery storage operations: dispatch, curtailment, clipping, availability, degradation.
• Solar performance modeling tools: PVsyst, SAM, or similar.
• Hybrid modeling: combining physics or simulation with machine learning.
• Optimization: linear or mixed-integer programming.
• Power electronics awareness: inverter limits, thermal derating, active and reactive power control.
• Deploying models on edge hardware.
• Full-stack software development experience.

🎁 Benefits

• Competitive Compensation Package
• Health Insurance: We offer 100% coverage of employee and 75% of dependent premiums under a Gold-level PPO plan. Dental & Vision Insurance: 50% of employee premiums are covered.
• Retirement Plan: A 401(k) plan with a 6% employer match.

🛂 Visa & Eligibility

1AI Energy, the employing entity for 1 Arc Power, and 1 Arc Power are committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee based on race (inclusive of traits associated with race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles), color, religion, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding), age, veteran or military status, marital status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, reproductive decision-making, or any other legally recognized protected class under federal, state, or local law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. Applicants with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), and local laws. A reasonable accommodation is a change in the way things are normally done which will ensure an equal employment opportunity without imposing undue hardship on 1AI Energy or 1st Avenue Power. Please inform the company's personnel representative if you need assistance completing an application or to otherwise participate in the application process.