Position Overview

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of the substation Edge AI product, from architecture baseline through field commissioning.
  
  
• Define and maintain the integrated master schedule across hardware, software, DSP, AI/ML, and security workstreams, tracking dependencies and critical path.
  
  
• Manage partner deliverables: enforce interface control documents (ICDs), integration milestones, and acceptance criteria with each vendor.
  
  
• Drive risk identification, mitigation planning, and escalation across all technical domains.
  
  
• Report program status, risks, and decisions to executive and cross-functional stakeholders.
  
  

• Edge compute hardware (selection, qualification, environmental hardening for substation environments)
  
  
• Embedded and real-time software components from multiple supply partners
  
  
• DSP signal processing code (protection, power quality, fault detection)
  
  
• AI/ML inference engine, model integration, and performance validation
  
  
• OT cybersecurity (IEC 62443, NERC CIP compliance, secure boot, network segmentation)
  
  
• Lead system-level integration architecture reviews; resolve cross-domain interface conflicts.
  
  
• Maintain technical authority to accept or reject partner deliverables against agreed specifications.
  
  

• Define and own the Integration Master Test Plan (IMTP) covering hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), software integration, DSP functional verification, AI model performance, and end-to-end system validation.
  
  
• Oversee lab integration environments; lead multi-partner integration test events.
  
  
• Drive failure analysis, regression testing, and defect triage to closure.
  
  
• Ensure test evidence package meets utility interconnection, safety, and regulatory requirements.
  
  

• Lead pilot deployment planning and execution at substation sites, coordinating with operations, field engineering, and protection engineering teams.
  
  
• Manage site readiness criteria, commissioning test procedures, and operational acceptance gates.
  
  
• Establish and oversee rollout playbooks for scaled deployment, including tooling for remote monitoring, firmware updates, and model refresh.
  
  
• Act as technical escalation point during field deployment and early operational support.
  
  

• Manage technical relationships with hardware vendors, software integrators, AI/ML model providers, and security partners.
  
  
• Chair integration working groups and architecture review boards.
  
  
• Coordinate internally with protection engineering, IT/OT security, operations technology, and grid modernization teams.
  
  
• Align product requirements with regulatory, reliability (NERC), and operational standards of the utility.
  
  

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a closely related field. Master's degree preferred.
  
  

• 10+ years of progressive technical experience in electric power systems, OT product development, or related engineering fields.
  
  
• 5+ years in a technical lead, systems engineering lead, or engineering program management role with multi-partner delivery accountability.
  
  
• Demonstrated experience integrating complex embedded systems with hardware and software components from multiple vendors.
  
  
• Prior experience in substation environments (protection & control, SCADA, IEDs, communications) is required.
  
  
• Proven track record delivering technology products through hardware-software integration, test, and field deployment phases.
  
  

• Power systems / substation OT: Protection and control systems, IEDs, SCADA, substation automation (IEC 61850, DNP3, Modbus).
  
  
• Embedded systems integration: Real-time OS, edge compute platforms, hardware bring-up, BSPs, driver-level software.
  
  
• DSP / signal processing: Familiarity with power system signal processing concepts (phasor estimation, FFT, event detection) as applied to protection or power quality.
  
  
• AI/ML at the edge: Understanding of inference pipeline deployment — model optimization (quantization, pruning), inference runtimes (ONNX, TensorRT, TFLite), and model performance validation.
  
  
• OT Cybersecurity: Practical knowledge of IEC 62443 and NERC CIP standards; secure hardware and software architecture in critical infrastructure environments.
  
  
• Systems engineering: Requirements management, interface control, verification and validation (V&V), configuration management.
  
  
• Integration testing: Experience authoring and executing integration master test plans across HW/SW stacks; HIL test environments.
  
  

• Experience with grid edge or DER integration (smart grid, AMI, or distributed energy resource management).
  
  
• Familiarity with AI/ML operations (MLOps) pipelines, model versioning, and inference monitoring in production environments.
  
  
• Exposure to functional safety standards (IEC 61508 / IEC 61511) in power systems context.
  
  
• Working knowledge of Linux-based embedded platforms and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes at the edge).
  
  

Skills & Competencies

• Technical authority: Able to drive engineering decisions, challenge partner designs, and resolve multi-domain integration issues — not just coordinate.
  
  
• Program discipline: Skilled in integrated scheduling, dependency management, earned value, and risk/issue tracking for complex hardware-software programs.
  
  
• Communication: Translates technical complexity clearly for both engineering teams and non-technical executive and operations stakeholders.
  
  
• Partner management: Direct experience holding external vendors accountable to contractual and technical commitments.
  
  
• Field orientation: Comfortable working in active substation environments; understands the operational constraints and safety requirements of electric utility infrastructure.
  
  
• Decisiveness under uncertainty: Able to make sound technical and schedule trade-off decisions in complex, multi-variable environments.
  
  

Working Conditions

• Office, lab, and field-based role. Regular travel to partner sites, integration labs, and substation deployment locations required (estimated 25–40%).
  
  
• Work in active substation environments; compliance with all utility safety and PPE requirements.
  
  
• Availability for critical integration events and field deployment windows, which may include off-hours coordination.
  
  

Reporting & Organizational Context

• Reports to: Director / IIJA Product Delivery Lead
  
  
• Works closely with: Protection Engineering, OT Cybersecurity, IT/OT Architecture, Field Operations, Procurement, and external product and systems integration partners.
  
  
• Oversight: Direct or matrixed oversight of integration engineers, test engineers, and partner technical resources.