Manager, SCADA Engineering

About the role

DESRI is seeking a senior, hands-on SCADA and plant controls engineer to join its Grid Integration team as Manager, SCADA Engineering – BESS Self-Integration.

DESRI increasingly acts as the integrator on its battery energy storage (BESS) and hybrid projects, procuring the DC block, PCS, EMS, and PPC separately and owning the controls interfaces between them. This is a hands-on technical leadership role for an engineer who knows plant controls and SCADA from the inside and wants to bring that depth to the owner's side, setting the technical bar across a growing pipeline of storage projects. You will work closely with Asset Management (whose SCADA team owns DESRI's SCADA standards and operating fleet), Engineering, BESS Procurement, Project Delivery, Construction, Market Operations, and external EPC, OEM, and integrator partners.

What you'll do

• SCADA, RTU, and network design: Own the architecture, communications, and interfaces between plant controllers, EMS, PCS, BMS, substation, and utility or ISO. Define requirements including points lists, IEC 61850 and DNP3 interfaces, Modbus and vendor protocol mapping, update rates and latency, time synchronization, and OT network and cybersecurity design. Build and maintain DESRI's points-list and interface templates.
• PPC performance: Working from interconnection, offtake, and grid-code requirements (voltage and reactive power control, frequency response, ramp rates, response times, ride-through, dispatch/AGC tracking), review and challenge vendor gains, filters, and timing, approve final settings, and confirm closed-loop performance in the lab and field. Drive resolution of control interactions between vendors that no single vendor owns.
• HIL/CHIL readiness: Ensure SCADA and PPC hardware, communications, and initial settings are ready for testing, and drive resolution of the issues those tests surface.
• Contracts and vendor oversight: Write the SCADA, communications, and PPC sections of EMS, PCS, DC block, integrator, and EPC contracts and scopes. Review vendor deliverables (network drawings, points lists, protocol documents, test procedures, settings files) and witness factory and site acceptance testing.
• Commissioning: Support DESRI's commissioning lead on communications checkout, utility/ISO telemetry and point-to-point testing, PPC performance testing, and grid-code compliance testing.
• Portfolio: Share SCADA design reviews with Asset Management on projects delivered by an EPC or integrator, help extend the DESRI SCADA standard to self-integrated BESS, and turn commissioning lessons into repeatable designs that scale self-integration from a handful of projects to many.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or a related field. A master’s degree or Professional Engineer (PE) license is a plus.
• 6+ years in SCADA, plant controls, or power systems integration for utility-scale generation or storage, including direct technical responsibility for at least one utility-scale BESS or hybrid project through commissioning.
• A solid understanding of plant control architecture (roles and interactions of the MPC, PPCs, EMS, PCS, PLCs, RTUs and SCADA platforms on standalone, hybrid, and multi-resource sites), including writing or reviewing controls narratives.
• A solid understanding of closed-loop PPC performance, including active and reactive power control, voltage regulation, and frequency response, against interconnection and grid-code requirements, gained through PPC tuning or by leading PPC performance, HIL/CHIL, grid-code compliance, or model verification testing (e.g., NERC MOD-025/026).
• Working fluency in DNP3 and Modbus (TCP and RTU), and experience specifying and reviewing plant and substation OT network designs.
• Experience leading multiple vendors, integrators, or EPCs toward a shared technical outcome: writing clear requirements, holding vendors to them, and resolving issues between scopes.
• Understanding of how technical requirements connect to contract terms (performance guarantees, liquidated damages, change orders, COD milestones).
• Ability to work across teams without direct authority and explain controls tradeoffs to non-specialists, with strong documentation and organizational skills to manage multiple projects in parallel.
• Hands-on PPC tuning; hands-on IEC 61850 (MMS, GOOSE, SCL) and vendor PCS/BMS protocols and with substation automation controllers such as the SEL RTAC, including IEC 61131-3 logic, is strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with IEEE 2800, NERC standards for inverter-based resources, ISO/RTO telemetry and dispatch requirements, MESA-ESS, and OT cybersecurity frameworks (NERC CIP, IEC 62443).
• Occasional travel to project sites, vendor facilities, and test labs.
• At DESRI, we consider a wide range of factors to determine your compensation. We rely on market indicators and consider your specific job family, background, location, skills, and experience. The expected annual base salary for this position is $155,000 – $175,000.
• Our compensation and benefits package includes variable compensation in the form of a year-end bonus, guaranteed in the first year of hire, and benefits including medical and prescription drug coverage, 401(k) contribution matching, paid time off, wellness reimbursement, family building benefits, and a charitable gift match program.