---
title: 'Lead Controls & Firmware Engineer (Austin, TX) at Exowatt'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/lead-controls-firmware-engineer-austin-tx-exowatt-austin-vjtjt2fej397'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Lead Controls & Firmware Engineer (Austin, TX) at Exowatt

- **Company:** Exowatt
- **Location:** Austin, TX
- **Compensation:** $125k–$185k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-06-16
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/exowatt/23f4bd8e-c956-4274-89d5-6544a4943ba6

## Job description

Exowatt is revolutionizing the energy landscape for the AI era with our groundbreaking P3 system that captures solar energy, stores it as heat, and generates electricity on demand. Founded in 2023 and backed by leading investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Sam Altman, and Felicis, we're committed to providing clean, modular, and scalable power that meets the rapidly growing demands of AI infrastructure. Our mission is to make sustainable renewable energy always available and almost free, enabling technological advancement while protecting our planet.

We are looking for a Controls & Firmware Engineer to help design and implement the control architecture for our scalable thermal energy storage system. This hands-on role involves both PLC programming and embedded firmware development, giving flexibility as we evolve our platform from industrial controllers to custom microcontroller-based solutions. The engineer will also contribute to building test benches, CI/CD pipelines, and GitHub-based workflows to ensure high reliability and rapid iteration.

This position is based in Austin, TX, however an alternate location of Miami, FL is possible for the right candidate. If hired for this role, relocation to one of these sites is required. We provide relocation assistance.

## Key Responsibilities

- Controls (PLC Path)
- Develop and test PLC programs (Siemens, Rockwell, or equivalent) for system,
- module, and site-level controllers.
- Implement safety interlocks, alarms, and operational sequences for energy storage
- modules.
- Configure and validate industrial communication protocols (Profinet, Ethernet/IP,
- OPC UA, DNP3, MQTT).
- Integrate different system components with Microcontroller based devices.
- Set up and maintain a test bench / HIL environment for PLC validation.
- Firmware (Microcontroller Path)
- Design and implement embedded firmware in C/C++ (Rust optional) for
- microcontrollers if we migrate from PLC-based controls.
- Develop and test communication stacks, device drivers, and OTA update
- mechanisms.
- Ensure deterministic, real-time operation in power and energy storage applications.
- Set up and maintain a test bench / HIL environment for validation.
- DevOps & CI/CD
- Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions or similar) for PLC code, firmware,
- and test automation.
- Implement version control best practices for branching, releases, and tagging
- safety-critical builds.
- Develop infrastructure to run automated test suites including regression, simulation,
- and hardware-in-the-loop.
- Energy Storage Integration
- Apply knowledge of utility-scale energy storage systems (battery management, PCS
- interfaces, dispatch logic).
- Participate in the development of control panel design for various components of energy
- storage system.
- Design & develop EMS/SCADA application to map controls data into historians, HMIs,
- and cloud telemetry systems for monitoring & management of the system.
- Support system integration, commissioning, and field validation.

## Qualifications

- Bachelor’s in Electrical, Controls, Computer Engineering, or related field.
- 2–6 years of experience in PLC programming and/or embedded firmware development.
- Proficiency with Siemens TIA Portal / Rockwell Studio 5000 (or similar).
- Strong coding skills in C/C++ (Rust/Python a plus).
- Experience with GitHub workflows, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing.
- Familiarity with utility-scale energy systems or DERs.
- Understanding of industrial networking and protocols (Profinet, Ethernet/IP, OPC UA,
- DNP3, MQTT).

## Preferred Skills

- Exposure to energy storage standards (UL 9540, IEC 62443, IEC 61131-3, IEEE
- 1547).
- Knowledge of cloud-integrated controls (AWS IoT Core, InfluxDB, Timestream,
- CloudWatch).
- Experience setting up test benches, simulators, or hardware-in-the-loop systems.

## About Exowatt

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Exowatt designs and manufactures modular, full-stack solar energy systems that capture solar energy, store it as heat, and dispatch electricity on demand to power energy-intensive infrastructure like AI data centers.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: Miami, FL, USA
- **Founded**: 2023 (implied by company narrative)
- **Founders**: Not publicly disclosed on the website or job postings

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Renewable Energy, Clean Technology, Energy Storage, AI Infrastructure.
- **Target customers**: B2B — specifically AI data centers, high-performance computing (HPC) data centers, and utility-scale energy projects. They also target utility companies and industrial sites with high energy demands.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Our mission is to deliver ultra-low-cost, reliable power that fuels global AI infrastructure while protecting our planet" — as stated by the founders on their vision page.

## Products & Services
- **Exowatt P3**: The flagship product, a "dispatchable solar" system. It is a modular, full-stack energy system that captures solar energy using custom optical lenses (Fresnel lenses), stores it as heat in a proprietary high-temperature sensible heat battery (long-duration energy storage), and converts it into electricity on demand via a proprietary heat engine. It is designed to provide up to 24 hours of dispatchable energy, essentially serving as a baseload power source. The system can be deployed behind the meter (BTM) to reduce interconnection wait times, and is built in the USA without rare earth minerals.
- **Energy Optimization Software**: Integrated software platform for real-time monitoring, control, and automation of Exowatt P3 systems. Enables intelligent dispatch, integration with other energy assets (solar PV, wind, natural gas, grid), and participation in arbitrage and virtual power plants (VPPs).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding — $70 million Series A round announced on April 22, 2025 [exowatt.com](https://www.exowatt.com/faq).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not named on the website (the funding announcement and Crunchbase profile are referenced but not detailed on the main site). The company claims a "Made in the USA" supply chain and mentions partnerships with utility companies and data center operators.
- **Growth Signals**: 
    - Raised a significant $70M Series A in early 2025, signaling strong investor confidence.
    - Actively hiring across multiple key engineering and leadership roles (Electrical, Mechanical, Controls, Power Electronics) in two locations (Miami, FL and Austin, TX).
    - Targeting the rapidly expanding AI and HPC data center market, which has an enormous and growing demand for clean, dispatchable power.
    - Their product’s "Bring Your Own Power" (BYOP) capability directly addresses the critical bottleneck of long interconnection queues for new data centers, a major market pain point.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Dispatchable Solar + Storage**: Unlike standard solar PV, Exowatt's system can provide 24/7 baseload power by storing solar energy as heat and generating electricity on demand, solving the intermittency problem of renewables.
- **Expedited Time-to-Power**: The ability to deploy fully behind the meter allows customers to bypass lengthy utility interconnection queues, accelerating project timelines for energy-intensive facilities like data centers.
- **No Rare Earth Minerals**: The system is built with abundant, domestically sourced materials, avoiding supply chain vulnerabilities and environmental concerns associated with rare earth mining.
- **Modular & Scalable**: Factory-built modules allow for linear scaling, enabling customers to start small and expand capacity as their energy needs grow.
- **30-Year Lifespan**: Designed for low maintenance and a 30-year operational life, providing long-term reliability.

## Strategic Focus
- **Targeting the AI Energy Boom**: Exowatt is squarely focused on providing clean, reliable, and rapidly deployable power to solve the massive energy demands of AI and HPC data centers.
- **U.S. Manufacturing & Energy Independence**: The company is prioritizing domestic manufacturing to ensure quality, supply chain security, and alignment with national energy independence goals.
- **Scaling Rapidly to Meet Demand**: With a $70M Series A, the focus is likely on scaling manufacturing, building out their deployment pipeline with initial customers, and expanding the engineering team to accelerate product development and deployment.

## Why Work Here
- **High-Impact Mission**: The opportunity to work on a critical technology that directly enables the AI revolution by solving its most fundamental constraint: sustainable, scalable power.
- **High-Performance Team**: The company describes itself as a "high-performance team of engineers, scientists, and builders pushing the boundaries of what’s possible," indicating a fast-paced, ambitious environment.
- **On-Site Engineering Roles**: The posted positions (Electrical Engineer, Lead Mechanical Engineer, Lead Controls & Firmware Engineer) are full-time and on-site in either **Miami, FL** or **Austin, TX**. No remote or hybrid options are visible in current job listings.
- **Competitive Benefits**: Benefits include comprehensive healthcare, flexible PTO, and team-wide equity [exowatt.com/careers](https://www.exowatt.com/careers).
- **Small, Fast-Moving Company**: With a Series A funding, this is an early-stage company, offering roles with high ownership, influence, and the chance to build foundational systems.

## Sources
1. [exowatt.com](https://www.exowatt.com/?gad_campaignid=21982037242)
2. [exowatt.com](https://www.exowatt.com/faq)
3. [exowatt.com](https://www.exowatt.com/vision)
4. [exowatt.com](https://www.exowatt.com/careers)
5. [jobs.lever.co](https://jobs.lever.co/exowatt)

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