Pravah
Power Systems Distribution Specialist
San Francisco
Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 166 days ago
PythonMATLABMachine LearningData ScienceNLPAccountingForecastingSystems EngineeringElectrical EngineeringPower ElectronicsResearchGISLeadershipCommunicationCollaborationProblem SolvingSCADADemand Planning
About the role
- You will not be running studies in isolation.
Responsibilities
- Build, validate, and maintain distribution power flow models for utility clients, ingesting real-world network topology (GIS, CIM), asset parameters (transformer ratings, conductor impedances, capacitor banks), and operational measurements (AMI, SCADA) to produce accurate steady-state solutions.
- Develop and operationalize real-time technical loss computation workflows that run continuously against live or near-live meter data, identifying loss hotspots at the feeder, distribution transformer, and segment level across networks with thousands of nodes.
- Build automated validation pipelines that detect data quality issues, topology errors, and measurement inconsistencies before they propagate into power flow results, including cross-referencing GIS asset records against electrical measurements to identify unauthorized connections, phase imbalances, and metering anomalies.
- Develop loss disaggregation methodologies that separate technical losses (I²R, transformer core/copper) from commercial losses (theft, metering errors), enabling utilities to target interventions with quantified impact estimates.
- Develop simulation workflows for new distribution system planning, including capacity expansion studies, feeder routing optimization, transformer sizing, and voltage regulation analysis for greenfield and brownfield scenarios.
- Build and run hosting capacity analysis and DER interconnection studies to evaluate the impact of rooftop solar, battery storage, and EV charging on distribution feeders, including voltage rise, reverse power flow, protection coordination, and thermal limits.
- Perform contingency analysis and reliability studies, covering N-1 scenarios, fault current calculations, and protection coordination reviews, to support utility investment planning and regulatory filings.
- Develop power flow scenarios that model the impact of demand growth, electrification (EV, heat pumps), and DER penetration on existing distribution infrastructure over 5 to 20 year planning horizons.
- Support voltage optimization and power factor correction studies, analyzing capacitor placement, voltage regulator settings, and conservation voltage reduction (CVR) opportunities to reduce losses and defer capital upgrades.
- Data Ingestion, Normalization and Model Building
Requirements
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Power Systems, or a related technical field.
- 5+ years of experience in distribution power systems analysis, either at an electric utility, engineering consultancy, grid software vendor, or research institution.
- Strong understanding of power system fundamentals: power flow analysis, voltage regulation, short circuit analysis, contingency analysis, power factor correction, and technical loss computation at the distribution level.
Nice to have
- Professional Engineer (P.E.) license.
- Experience with distribution system state estimation or real-time power flow applications using AMI or SCADA data.
- Experience with DER interconnection studies, hosting capacity analysis, or solar/storage impact assessments on distribution networks.
- Working knowledge of CIM (IEC 61968/61970) data models and experience with utility data integration or GIS-to-model conversion workflows.
- Experience with distribution system planning in emerging markets, particularly India, where challenges include high AT&C losses, partial metering, unbalanced LT networks, and rapid load growth.
- Understanding of ML/AI applications in power systems, including demand forecasting, anomaly detection, or probabilistic load modeling, and ability to bridge domain expertise with data science approaches.
- Experience in a software product environment, agile development, or working closely with software engineering teams to productionize analytical workflows.
- Track record in high-growth or zero-to-one environments where you have defined analytical approaches from scratch rather than following established playbooks.
This listing is sourced directly from Pravah's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.