Senior Power Infrastructure Engineer

About the Company

We are a renewable energy and ocean technology company committed to rapidly developing and deploying technologies that will ensure a sustainable future for Earth by unlocking the vast energy potential of its oceans. Our focus is on capturing civilizational levels of ultra-low-cost renewable energy for applications including computing and affordable renewable fuels delivered to shore.

The company is a public benefit corporation headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and backed by leading venture capitalists, philanthropic investors, university endowments, and private investment offices. We operate as an idea meritocracy in which the best ideas change the company’s direction on a regular basis.

Our staff have worked at organizations such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing, Tesla, Apple, Virgin Orbit, Astra, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, New Relic, Bridgewater, Raytheon, Disney Imagineering, and the US Army and Air Force, as well as research universities, startups, and small companies across a range of industries.

About the Job

Our core technology is the node, a device that produces energy in the ocean’s harshest conditions for years at a time without human maintenance or intervention.

Panthalassa is expanding across multiple sites to support manufacturing, testing, and land-based compute. These activities require substantially more power than our facilities use today, and the time needed to obtain that power can shape where and when we operate.

As our Senior Power Infrastructure Engineer, you will lead the work needed to bring sufficient power to each site. You will assess available capacity, develop credible forecasts of future demand, evaluate upgrade paths, and work with utilities and design partners to get new service energized. Your work will inform site selection and capital decisions as well as the delivery of upgrades at properties we already occupy. Projects may range from improving service to an existing building to planning for roughly 10 MW at a new site.

Candidates should have strong interpersonal skills and be able to thrive in a creative, scrappy, and collaborative environment in which the best ideas change the company’s direction on a regular basis.

Responsibilities

• Assess the electrical capacity of existing and prospective sites, including current service, historical demand, available headroom, and constraints on expansion.
• Build phased site-level load forecasts with teams responsible for compute, manufacturing, testing, and building operations.
• Develop practical options for bringing additional power to a site, comparing capacity, cost, lead time, operational impacts, and the ability to support future growth, including interim or on-site power where utility timelines don't fit.
• Lead technical coordination with electric utilities on service requests, studies, upgrade plans, agreements, schedules, and energization.
• Define the scope and requirements for major service upgrades and work with engineers of record, landlords, contractors, and internal teams to carry them through design and delivery.
• Review utility proposals, electrical studies, designs, and cost estimates; identify gaps and resolve issues before they affect site or investment decisions.
• Track power availability, utility commitments, upgrade dependencies, and key decisions across Panthalassa’s sites and prospective properties.
• Communicate power options and risks clearly so leaders can make timely decisions about sites, equipment deployments, and capital investments.

Required Qualifications

• A degree in electrical engineering or a related field, or equivalent experience delivering substantial commercial or industrial power infrastructure.
• Experience planning or delivering utility service connections and electrical capacity upgrades for commercial, industrial, or similarly demanding facilities.
• Working knowledge of electrical loads, utility service, transformers, switchgear, metering, and the interface between utility infrastructure and building distribution.
• Ability to develop and evaluate load forecasts when equipment plans, operating profiles, and future uses are still changing.
• Experience working directly with utilities and coordinating external engineers, contractors, property owners, and internal stakeholders.
• Ability to distinguish between a service’s rated capacity, the power currently available from the utility, and the capacity a site can practically use.
• Sound judgment about cost, schedule, and technical risk, with the ability to explain tradeoffs to people outside the electrical field.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with projects involving approximately 1–10 MW of site demand or comparable electrical upgrades.
• Experience supporting site selection or due diligence for a portfolio of properties.
• Experience with power-intensive manufacturing, testing, compute, or other industrial operations.
• Experience taking a utility upgrade from initial capacity inquiry through construction and energization.
• Professional Engineer licensure.

The above qualifications are desired, not required. We encourage you to apply if you are a strong candidate with only some of the desired skills and experience listed.

Additional Requirements

• Travel to vendors and test sites as needed
• Intermittently able to work longer hours and weekends to support critical needs. While we expect a lot of each other, we also offer a high degree of autonomy and work-life balance, including flexible PTO and flexible working hours.

Compensation and Benefits

If hired for this full-time role, you will receive:

• Cash compensation of $175,000 – $225,000.
• Equity in the company. We’re all owners and if we’re successful, this equity should be far and away the most valuable component of your compensation.
• A benefits package that helps you take care of yourself and your family, including:
  • Flexible paid time off
  • Health insurance (the company pays 100% of gold-level PPO plan for full-time employees, their partners, and dependents)
  • Dental insurance (the company pays 100% for full-time employees, their partners, and dependents)
  • Vision insurance (the company pays 100% for full-time employees, their partners, and dependents)
  • Disability insurance (the company pays 100% for a policy to provide long-term financial support if you become disabled)
  • Ability to contribute to tax-advantaged accounts, including 401(k), health FSA, and dependent care FSA
• Relocation assistance to facilitate your move to Portland (if needed).

Location

This is an on-site position. Our offices, lab, and shop are located in Portland, Oregon.