Sebana
Energy Infrastructure Built For Tomorrow

Lead Power Systems Engineer

 

Lead Power Systems & Microgrid Engineer

Sebana | New York, NY (FiDi) | Full-Time | Onsite | sebana.co

About Sebana

Sebana is a developer of small and medium-scale battery energy storage and microgrid infrastructure, focused on New York State and the Northeast.

We are a small team — currently two people — and an early-stage company (founded in 2024). We're looking for someone to join the team who is excited by the prospect of shaping what we build.

The Role

This is a hybrid engineering and generalist developer role. You will be the first engineer-by-training at Sebana, responsible for our power systems design and interconnection activities. You will also contribute broadly across our other development activities.

Given we’re an early-stage company, you will have more exposure and more impact than you would get at a more established firm. You will make major contributions in deciding what we build and how we build it, from the ground up. You will learn the full development process — not just the engineering slice of it. The role is not well-defined, and it will change as the company grows. We are looking for a self-starter who is comfortable with ambiguity - when you need an answer, you will often have to go find it yourself.

Over time, as our project pipeline grows, the goal is for you to act as our Head of Engineering — owning our technical approach, managing external engineers and consultants, and eventually building a team.

Our projects span 480V to 35 kV, distribution-connected, with a mix of front-of-the-meter and behind-the-meter / microgrid work — including battery backup and on-site electrical design for C&I customers. Full IFC design will likely be handled externally for the medium term, though you'll help shape how much we bring in-house over time.

What You'll Do

In your first months:

  • Get a deep understanding of what we're trying to do: our project pipeline, our current capabilities, the challenges we face, and how we're trying to develop
  • Work with our external engineers to start taking over responsibility for new and ongoing interconnection applications across NY utilities
  • Get your hands dirty with whatever we have going on at the time

Ongoing core responsibilities:

  • Lead interconnection applications to utilities — understanding the process, writing and managing submissions, and pushing back on utility cost estimates and scope where appropriate
  • Drive equipment selection for BESS installations: battery block, PCS, transformers, and balance of system — understanding what's available, what things cost, what it means to use a given piece of equipment, and which configurations suit which types of projects
  • Help develop initial site designs and layouts, thinking across electrical and civil considerations to support cost-effective IX packages
  • Oversee and vet the work of our external engineering consultants and service providers — keeping them on task and ensuring quality; help us figure out what to bring in-house over time
  • Build and maintain vendor and OEM relationships; understand what's available to us at our current scale, and work to expand those relationships over time
  • Understand utility tariff structures and incentive programs in the markets where we operate or are considering entering — and what they mean for what we should build and how we should build it

Broader contributions: A lot of what we do day-to-day is not engineering — it's development: site control structuring, feasibility study coordination, permit applications, community engagement, and market analysis. We're a small team and we want you to help move the business forward however you can - nothing is out of scope. We want someone excited by that opportunity, and eager to get their hands dirty on whatever we need to do, large or small, engineering-related or not.

Who We're Looking For

Desired Qualifications:

  • Degree in electrical engineering (power systems focus preferred) or equivalent
  • Experience with one or more of utility-side interconnection, BESS, on-site generation, or microgrids at distribution voltages.
  • We're open to a wide range of experience levels. The responsibilities of the role typically fall to someone with at least 8–10 years of experience, but we're most interested in someone who can learn and take on scope quickly. We're genuinely open to someone earlier in their career who is sharp, hungry, and sees this as a chance to grow faster than they would elsewhere.

Approach:

We're looking for a systems thinker — no decision here is made in a vacuum. An equipment choice affects site layout, site layout affects what we can promise a landlord, that conversation affects project economics, and tariff structures affect what we want to build in the first place. We're looking for someone who wants to understand the full picture, is comfortable building without a playbook, willing to do junior work alongside senior work, and genuinely curious about the business side of what we're doing. We make decisions from first principles, and we want a teammate to add their knowledge, experience and perspective to our process, collaborating with us to expand our capabilities.

Compensation

  • Base salary: $157,500
  • Performance bonus: Performance bonuses are paid in phantom equity units. Your upside is tied directly to what we build together — we want you to have a real stake in the outcome.
  • Benefits: Healthcare benefits via stipend; 20 days PTO plus holidays

Office

We are based in lower Manhattan by Chambers St. We spend a lot of our time together brainstorming, working through problems, and figuring out where we're going — and that collaboration is hard to replicate remotely. There's flexibility on any given week but we typically work four days in the office with Fridays remote.

How to Apply

Send your resume to careers@sebana.co. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sebana is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, disability status, marital or partnership status, caregiver status, unemployment status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States.

Note to recruiters: We do not pay placement fees to agencies or recruiters who have not been engaged by Sebana in writing for a specific search.