{"id":3999220,"url":"https://alion.io/job/monterra-lead-protection-and-controls-engineer","title":"Lead Protection and Controls Engineer","company":{"id":4502450,"name":"Monterra","domain":"monterra.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/monterra-2","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":[],"countries":[],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Grid-Forming Inverters","optional":false},{"name":"IEEE 1547","optional":false},{"name":"DNP3","optional":true},{"name":"ETAP","optional":true},{"name":"IEC 61850","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-09T23:21:57Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-09","last_verified_at":"2026-11-14T22:00:27Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":5,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":5},"description":"Most controls roles are about wiring up one relay panel after another the way it's been done for decades. This one is different. Yes, you'll define how a microgrid behaves when the utility drops, set the protection that keeps it safe, and take designs through utility review, but you'll also work shoulder-to-shoulder with our AI and software team to encode your expertise into a system that produces coordinated power designs faster and more reliably than anything the industry has seen. You won't just be doing the work. You'll be re-imagining how it gets done.\nThe Opportunity\nMonterra is a new kind of consulting engineering firm specializing in power infrastructure for modular data centers, battery storage, microgrids, onsite generation, and EV charging. Our licensed PEs work with AI agents developed in-house to deliver engineering services faster while remaining in responsible charge of every design.\nSince launching the service a few months ago, we've been winning and delivering projects, and our client base is quickly growing.\nWe're hiring our first Controls Engineer, who will serve as the technical authority and in-house subject matter expert on microgrid controls and protection. You'll work closely with our electrical engineering team, own controls and protection design across the firm, lead the development of our controls engineering standards and processes, and help translate your expertise into the AI-powered workflows that make Monterra different. In this role, your time will be split across:\nClient project delivery (~60%): microgrid control philosophy, sequences of operation, and protection design, from concept through utility/AHJ review.\n\nDiscipline building (~20%): establish and continuously improve Monterra's controls and protection standards, design practices, and quality controls.\n\nShaping the AI (~20%): set the standards and design rules our AI agents follow, and work with our product & engineering team to make them better on every project.\n\nWhat You'll Do\nMicrogrid Controls\nWrite the control philosophy and sequences of operation for data center and industrial sites that combine utility service, BESS, gas turbines, reciprocating generators, solar, and critical loads.\n\nDefine operating modes and transitions: grid-connected, islanding, resynchronization, black start, load shedding, generator dispatch, and ride-through.\n\nSpecify microgrid controllers and BESS plant controllers, and integrate grid-forming and grid-following inverters with rotating generation.\n\nDefine the controls and communications architecture linking the microgrid controller, relays, generators, BESS, and site SCADA/EPMS/BMS, including points lists for integrators.\n\nCoordinate controls interfaces with equipment vendors and integrators, including generator controls, paralleling, and load sharing.\n\nProtection & Relays\nOwn the protection philosophy, relay coordination, and relay settings for MV systems, generators, BESS, and PV, designed to hold up in both grid-connected and islanded operation.\n\nSpecify relays, instrument transformers, and transfer-trip and interlock schemes.\n\nProduce protection and control one-lines, three-lines, DC control schematics, and relay panel layouts.\n\nCoordination & Delivery\nDefine interconnection protection to IEEE 1547 and utility requirements, including direct transfer trip, and take it through utility interconnection review.\n\nRespond to utility and AHJ comments and support construction RFIs and submittals.\n\nHand off clear design packages and settings to the integrators who commission the system, and support them remotely when questions come up.\n\nEngineering Standards & Shaping Our AI Agents\nOwn Monterra's controls and protection standards, including control philosophy templates, standard schemes, a details library, and QC checklists.\n\nDefine the technical rules our AI agents follow, review and validate their engineering output, and work with our AI platform team to continuously improve the system.\n\nWho You Are\nYou're a controls engineer who loves and takes pride in your craft, but is also a little frustrated by the monotony and the slow pace of change in the industry. You've taken microgrids from control philosophy through energization, you know exactly how a site should behave when the utility drops, and you can read a relay settings file in your sleep. But you're also the person on your team who is always trying out and evangelizing new ideas and tools, experimenting with new ways of working, and building spreadsheets to automate your own work. If that sounds like you, this could be the right role for you!\nRequired\n7+ years of experience in power system protection and controls, including significant microgrid controls work for generation, BESS, or MV systems.\n\nHands-on experience writing sequences of operation and implementing microgrid operating modes: islanding, resynchronization, black start, load shedding, and the transitions between them.\n\nUtility interconnection protection, including IEEE 1547 and direct transfer trip.\n\nProtection relay settings and coordination for MV, generator, and BESS applications (SEL or similar), including protection that works under the low fault current of inverter-dominated islanded systems.\n\nStrong communication and collaboration skills, including the ability to explain engineering decisions to non-specialists (e.g., software engineer teammates) and work closely with clients and teammates.\n\nQualities we value: intensely curious, strong team player, pursuit of excellence, strong sense of ownership and accountability, self-starter, creative problem solver. Equally comfortable being scrappy or meticulous, depending on the situation.\n\nPreferred But Not Required\nHands-on configuration of SEL RTAC or comparable automation controllers.\n\nField commissioning experience with distributed energy resources, turbine systems, or BESS, and an understanding of how design decisions play out during startup.\n\nGas turbine or reciprocating generator controls, including governor/AVR interfaces, paralleling, and load sharing.\n\nGrid-forming BESS integration, including PCS and plant controller interfaces.\n\nWorking knowledge of IEC 61850 GOOSE, DNP3, and Modbus for integration with SCADA, EPMS, and BMS.\n\nData center power and controls experience: ATS and UPS interfaces, and modular power systems.\n\nExperience with fully off-grid or prime-power microgrids, including aeroderivative turbines.\n\nHands-on relay coordination studies in ETAP, SKM, ASPEN, or similar.\n\nComfort with AI tools and enthusiasm for using AI to improve engineering workflows. No software development experience required.\n\nCompensation & Benefits\nCompetitive salary commensurate with experience.\n\nMeaningful early-stage equity: you'll be the first controls engineer on a small team, not employee #50.\n\nBenefits including but not limited to: health, vision, and dental insurance, unlimited PTO, and more.\n\nRemote-first; occasional travel for site visits, customer meetings, conferences, and team gatherings.\n\nAbout Monterra\nYou'll work most closely with:\nDavid Kim, Co-Founder & CEO\n\nKelson Reiss, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer\n\nDaniel Ihlenfeldt, PE, Principal Electrical Engineer\n\nTyler Blauvelt, PE, Principal Electrical Engineer\n\nMonterra is backed by reputable VC and Angel investors, including Urban Innovation Fund, Base10 Partners, Very Serious Ventures, and more. Learn more about the company here.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7413,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":7,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Dental insurance","Equity","Unlimited PTO"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Energy Storage","EV Charging","Engineering Services"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-10T02:43:12Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":4,"expected_fill_days":28,"reasons":["conf:3","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-14T05:58:10Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/monterra-lead-protection-and-controls-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/monterra-lead-protection-and-controls-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-15T01:09:29Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":2152,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-16T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":4502450},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=4502450"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fmonterra-lead-protection-and-controls-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"free","price":{"credits":0,"usd":0},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fmonterra-lead-protection-and-controls-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fmonterra-lead-protection-and-controls-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/monterra-lead-protection-and-controls-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fmonterra-lead-protection-and-controls-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3999220}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"monterra.ai","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3999220},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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