--- title: 'Plant Controls Lead (EMS/PPC) at Fluidstack' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/plant-controls-lead-ems-ppc-fluidstack-austin-zgktpas0hnze' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-18' --- # Plant Controls Lead (EMS/PPC) at Fluidstack - **Company:** [Fluidstack](https://feeny.ai/companies/fluidstack) - **Location:** Austin, TX - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-10-06 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/fluidstack/ac945197-00f5-421b-9515-07799cbbf447 ## Job description ## About Fluidstack We exist to make humanity more free. For most of human history, you farmed or you starved. Technology gave people more time for the things they wanted to do, instead of things they had to do. Powerful AI will be the biggest lever for human choice we've ever built - but only if models are aligned with what humanity actually wants. There are groups building AI who don't share these goals. Whoever deploys frontier compute infrastructure fastest will decide whether AI expands human freedom or shrinks it. We're singularly focused on delivering 10 to 100s of GWs of compute faster than anyone else, rethinking every layer of the stack. We acquire power, design and build data centers, and operate them - with teams spanning hardware and software. Speed and scale are our key differentiators. Come be a part of building civilization-scale infrastructure for AI. We hire people who care deeply about this problem space. If that is you, please apply! ## How We Operate - Be a barrel. Full autonomy. Own things end to end, take on scope without being asked, no permission required to operate outside your core role. - Insane urgency. We drive everything forward as fast as possible. - Reason from first principles. Challenge every assumption. Zero analogy thinking, no egos, the best idea wins. - Love of the game. The frontier of AI is the most interesting problem of our time. We put in long hours at high intensity to push the frontier forward. - Build something that actually matters. If you're going to spend your time, spend it on something that matters to the world. The Power Generation Team Examples of key problems the team is working on - Build an islanded grid at gigawatt scale, from a blank sheet. Generation, storage and compute running with no utility behind them, where the machine you design is the only thing holding frequency. No playbook exists at this size, so the architecture you set becomes the reference. - Get power online in months, not years. Interconnection queues are measured in years and we do not have them. Generating our own power is how a site goes from signed lease to live compute inside six months, and the power system is the long pole in that plan. - Make one power block, then build it a thousand times. A repeatable block and cluster unit, validated once and stamped across the fleet, is the only route to the scale we are targeting. Every bespoke site is schedule we do not get back. - Design a grid whose largest load answers back. Compute is not passive demand here. Load behaviour, curtailment and shedding are design variables you negotiate and specify, a lever almost no power system engineer has ever been handed. ## Role Scope - Own the control stack for fully off-grid campuses, the site energy management system, the plant controller for each power block and the dispatch logic across PV, BESS and gas, as one standard architecture that scales from a single block to a GW-scale campus energized in six months. - Turn the control philosophy into sequences of operation our own code executes, covering every operating mode, source transition, blackstart path, emergency shed and degraded state, with each one proven in simulation and hardware-in-the-loop before the plant is energized. - Hold the generation side of the control contract between the power plant and the data center, and extend it from one plant and one facility to many blocks feeding many buildings, with load reduction deadlines measured in seconds that both sides are measured against in production. - Decide which components we bring in to energize the first campuses faster and which we build first, then replace each bought piece with our own code on a planned schedule, holding every supplier to our specification and conformance tests so Fluidstack keeps its configuration, its data and a clean exit. - Build the controls test capability, a plant model library and hardware-in-the-loop bench where any controller, vendor or our own, is tested against our plant before it ships to site. - Lead controls commissioning and tuning in the field, through frequency and voltage response, load-step testing against real AI load profiles and every mode transition, and fold each finding back into the standard so the next campus starts tuned. - Hire the controls software and test engineers who build the stack with you, sequenced against the components we replace first. ## What We're Looking For The below is a starting point. We always make space for exceptional people, so if you don't fit this role exactly, [tell us where you would](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/fluidstack/05c2e69c-42f9-4fcb-9cf0-a467aaf98f1c). - You've owned the plant controller or EMS on a utility-scale hybrid plant combining at least two of PV, BESS and thermal generation, and you can name the sites and the megawatts it dispatches today. - You've written sequences of operation for source transitions, blackstart or islanding, and you've stood on site when they ran against energized equipment, including the times they did not work. - You've shipped control software as a product, version-controlled, tested and released to running plants, and you know what changes when the loop closes on a real turbine or inverter fleet. - You've brought a third-party controller or component into a live plant to hit a date, held the vendor to a specification through factory and site acceptance, and later replaced it with your own code without an outage. - You've designed an interface between two control systems owned by different parties, with the data, timing and failure behavior written down and tested, not left to whoever integrated it. - You've tuned a plant in the field, frequency and voltage response, ramp rates and load steps, and you can explain the tradeoff behind each setting you left in place. - You write clearly enough that an OEM controls engineer, a commissioning agent and a CEO each get the decision they need from the same document. - Bonus: Islanded or weak-grid operation (island utilities, mining and remote microgrids, offshore). Real-time simulation and hardware-in-the-loop (RTDS, OPAL-RT, Typhoon HIL). Commercial plant controller platforms (FlexGen HybridOS, Tesla, Schneider EcoStruxure, SEL RTAC). Industrial control protocols and OT security (DNP3, IEC 61850, IEC 62443). Real-time and control software languages (Go, Rust or C++, IEC 61131-3). We are committed to pay equity and transparency. Fluidstack is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Fluidstack will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law. You will receive a confirmation email once your application has successfully been accepted. If there is an error with your submission and you did not receive a confirmation email, please email careers@fluidstack.io with your resume/CV, the role you've applied for, and the date you submitted your application-- someone from our recruiting team will be in touch. ## About Fluidstack ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Fluidstack builds and operates gigawatt-scale AI data centers and provides fully managed GPU cloud clusters for frontier AI labs, governments, and enterprises. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series A stage; total funding of $11.0B) - **Headquarters**: New York, New York, United States - **Founded**: 2017 - **Founders**: Gary Wu (CEO) ## Core Business - **Primary Industry**: AI Infrastructure / Data Center Construction & Operations / Cloud Computing - **Target Customers**: Leading AI labs (e.g., Anthropic, poolside), governments, and large enterprises requiring massive-scale compute for training and inference. - **Mission Statement**: "We exist to make humanity more free... Powerful AI will be the biggest lever for human choice we've ever built — but only if models are aligned with that objective." ## Products & Services - **Fully Managed GPU Clusters**: Multi-thousand GPU clusters delivered with zero setup, fully managed (no node touching by the customer), with 15-minute engineering response SLAs and built-in monitoring and remediation. Purpose-built for AI workloads. - **Custom Data Centers**: Design, build, and operate greenfield data centers from the ground up, delivering gigawatts of compute in 6 months versus the industry standard of 18-24 months. Includes power acquisition, site selection, and civil/electrical/mechanical engineering. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed. - **Total Funding**: $11.0 billion (across 14 rounds). Key rounds include a $750M venture round (March 2026) and a $200M Series A led by Cacti (February 2025). - **Key Metric**: $11.0B in total funding; leading the deployment of Anthropic’s $50B compute buildout, one of the largest infrastructure projects in US history. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Cacti (lead investor), Anthropic (customer/partner), poolside (customer). - **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew 516.7% year-over-year to 143 employees. Currently has 270 active job postings. Expanding rapidly across the US (NY, SF, Austin, Seattle, Buffalo) and internationally (UK, France, Sweden, Nigeria, Switzerland). ## Competitive Advantages - **Speed of Deployment**: Can deliver gigawatts of compute in 6 months vs. the industry’s 18-24 months, giving them a massive first-mover advantage in a capital-constrained market. - **Full-Stack Control**: They acquire power, design and build data centers, and operate them — owning the entire hardware and software stack from power generation to GPU orchestration. - **Tier-1 Customer Base**: Trusted by the world’s most ambitious AI labs (Anthropic, poolside), providing both credibility and a feedback loop for product improvement. - **Purpose-Built Platform**: Not general-purpose cloud; their platform is specifically optimized for AI researchers, removing all infrastructure friction (no K8s configs, no bare metal management). ## Strategic Focus - **Massive Scale Buildout**: Deploying Anthropic’s $50B data center project across New York and Texas, representing one of the largest infrastructure projects in US history. - **Global Expansion**: Expanding operations across 8 countries and multiple US states, with a heavy focus on data center site acquisition, power generation, and modular design. - **Talent Acquisition**: Aggressively hiring across engineering, construction, operations, security, and project management roles to support hypergrowth. ## Why Work Here - **Mission-Driven Work**: Directly building the physical infrastructure for the next generation of AI — a rare opportunity to work on frontier technology with tangible, large-scale impact. - **Rapid Growth Trajectory**: 516.7% headcount growth YoY with 270 open positions signals massive opportunity for career acceleration and ownership. - **Technical Depth**: Work spans hardware (electrical, civil, mechanical engineering for data centers) and software (GPU cluster orchestration, monitoring, infrastructure platform engineering), offering diverse technical challenges. - **Top-Tier Talent Pool**: Employees come from AWS, Tesla, Crusoe, Palantir, Oracle, and Meta, indicating a high-caliber, ambitious work environment. - **Work Policy**: Remote-friendly for many roles, with hubs in San Francisco, New York, Austin, Seattle, and Buffalo. Departments span Engineering, Operations, Data Center, Security, and more. - **Culture**: Emphasis on speed, autonomy, and removing friction — "We build technology to enable delivery of gigawatts of compute in 6 months" — reflecting a bias for action and operational excellence. ## Sources 1. [fluidstack.io](https://www.fluidstack.io/) 2. [fluidstack.io/about-us](https://www.fluidstack.io/about-us/about) 3. [fluidstack.io/jobs](https://fluidstack.io/jobs) 4. [LinkedIn](https://es.linkedin.com/company/fluidstack) 5. [CB Insights](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/fluidstack) ## Other roles at Fluidstack - [Energy Associate](https://feeny.ai/job/energy-associate-fluidstack-austin-dj3gpsnme3d4) — Austin, TX - [Gas Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/gas-lead-fluidstack-austin-n2hgh4bbe836) — Austin, TX - [Head of Supply Chain](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-supply-chain-fluidstack-austin-6wre32ssw16y) — Austin, TX - [Inventory Control Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/inventory-control-technician-fluidstack-united-states-6yhw6wykje9j) — United States - [Commodity Sourcing Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/commodity-sourcing-manager-fluidstack-united-states-29wn1smanvmk) — United States - [Commodity Manager, Mechanical](https://feeny.ai/job/commodity-manager-mechanical-fluidstack-united-states-dgjddznf6rst) — United States - [Commodity Manager, Electrical](https://feeny.ai/job/commodity-manager-electrical-fluidstack-united-states-yha66znvh369) — United States - [CapEx Commodity Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/capex-commodity-manager-fluidstack-united-states-y2gx6904b9yc) — United States - [Transportation Coordinator](https://feeny.ai/job/transportation-coordinator-fluidstack-phoenix-0mn9ej49bs48) — Phoenix, AZ - [Sourcing Manager, Steel](https://feeny.ai/job/sourcing-manager-steel-fluidstack-austin-7k7pbkskc7ft) — Austin, TX