About Redwood Materials
Redwood is localizing a global battery supply chain that seamlessly integrates recovery, reuse, and recycling — keeping critical minerals in circulation and driving the energy transition. Founded in 2017, we’re delivering low-cost and large-scale energy storage and producing battery materials in the U.S. for the first time, all from batteries we already have.
Microgrid Controls Engineer, Energy Storage
Responsibilities will include:
- Design, develop, and implement plant-level microgrid control algorithms for BESS operating in both grid-following (GFL) and grid-forming (GFM) modes, from concept through validated deployment.
- Design and architect the site controller to manage GFL inverters in direct P/Q, power factor, and voltage/frequency droop modes, and to process Vref and Fref commands to the GFM inverter.
- Implement active and reactive power control (P/Q), voltage and frequency control (V/F), and droop-based control strategies to coordinate generating assets operating as GFL with BESS as GFM master.
- Design control systems that integrate BESS with other assets including solar PV, gensets, and loads for applications spanning utility-scale power plants, off-grid and islanded microgrids, and data center power.
- Develop and modify control algorithms in PSCAD and/or MATLAB/Simulink, and verify performance through simulation and HIL environments including RTDS and/or Typhoon HIL.
- Verify MGC behavior under normal operating conditions and abnormal system events, including fault scenarios, mode transitions, and disturbances, using simulation, HIL, and field testing.
- Develop simulations and workflows to test and troubleshoot BESS site controller behavior prior to and during field deployment.
- Translate validated control designs into clear implementation specifications for production software teams, and support integration and commissioning activities as needed.
- Collaborate with controls, power systems, firmware, and software engineers to define control behaviors, validation scenarios, test cases, and performance requirements driven by customer and grid needs.
Desired Qualifications:
- MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Power Systems, or Controls Engineering.
- 3 to 6 years of hands-on experience designing and implementing microgrid or BESS plant controllers, with direct experience taking control designs from Simulink into a real-time site controller platform.
- Strong foundation in control systems, including linear control theory, PI controllers, low-pass filtering, limiters, and anti-windup techniques.
- Solid understanding of GFL and GFM inverter concepts, including frequency and voltage droop for both inverters and synchronous generators.
- Clear understanding of what a plant or site controller does for BESS in both grid-connected and islanded modes.
- Demonstrated experience with HIL validation using RTDS and/or Typhoon HIL.
- Practical experience with islanded microgrid operation including black start, resynchronization, and mode transitions.
- Practical understanding of P/Q control and energy management, including SoC-based charge and discharge constraints.
- Familiarity with microgrid protection concepts and the ability to reason about fault behavior across different operating modes.
- Experience supporting commissioning, troubleshooting, or operational validation of BESS or power systems in a lab or field environment.
- Familiarity with utility interconnection requirements and grid operations is a plus.
- Proficiency in Rust and/or C++ for real-time or embedded control applications is a plus.
- Comfortable collaborating across disciplines and communicating clearly with power systems, firmware, software, and field engineering teams.
In accordance with California pay transparency laws, the salary range for this position is listed below. Actual compensation may vary based on a variety of factors, including experience, education, and skills.
The position is full-time. Compensation will be commensurate with experience.
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Skills Required
- MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering specializing in power systems and control systems
- Expert proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink for control algorithm development and testing
- Strong foundation in classical and modern control theory
- Experience with inverter-based resource modeling including grid-forming and grid-following control
- Hands-on experience with real-time simulation and CHIL environments
- Programming experience in Python, C, or C++
Redwood Materials Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Redwood Materials and has not been reviewed or approved by Redwood Materials.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is considered okay to good overall, often competitive for engineering and corporate roles while closer to local norms in hourly operations.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Stock options or equity are included in many offers, providing additional upside beyond base pay.
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Parental & Family Support — Parental leave is viewed positively, with maternity and paternity leave standing out within the package.
Redwood Materials Insights
What We Do
Redwood is developing a fully closed-loop, domestic supply chain for lithium-ion batteries. Our team manufactures critical battery components using as many recycled batteries as possible — localizing a 50,000-mile global supply battery chain on a single site.
