Generation Lead, Fuel-Based Generation

About the role

Fluidstack exists to make humanity more free by delivering 10 to 100s of GWs of compute infrastructure faster than anyone else. We acquire power, design and build data centers, and operate them with teams spanning hardware and software. Speed and scale are our key differentiators.

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: 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; put in long hours at high intensity to push the frontier forward
• Build something that actually matters: spend time on something that matters to the world

Team context

The Power Generation Team is solving problems including: building islanded grids at gigawatt scale from a blank sheet with generation, storage, and compute running with no utility behind them; getting power online in months not years by generating our own power; creating repeatable power blocks that can be stamped across the fleet; and designing grids where the largest load (compute) answers back, making load behavior, curtailment, and shedding design variables.

Responsibilities

• Assess and qualify every fuel-oxidation generation technology worth considering for our blocks (reciprocating engines, turbines, linear generators, fuel cells) and build the qualified technology and supplier list Fluidstack buys from
• Set the standard interface that turns any engine, turbine, or fuel cell into one interchangeable node in the site's decentralized generation array, with defined electrical connection, control signals, telemetry, and operating envelope so the plant controller dispatches it alongside PV and BESS without bespoke integration
• Decide how much fuel-based capacity each block carries, in what unit sizes and with what redundancy, for its firming and backup role, and hold that decision against cost, fuel use, and uptime as the block design evolves
• Write the technical specification and acceptance tests for each qualified unit, covering step-load acceptance, ramp rate, minimum load, start reliability, heat rate across the load range, and emissions; witness factory and site acceptance before a unit is accepted
• Own installation and commissioning of the generation fleet through first fire, load testing against real AI load profiles, and handover; fold every field finding back into the specification
• Run the fleet for the longest life and lowest fuel burn, tracking heat rate, availability, and maintenance cost per unit; set overhaul intervals and operating strategy; feed learnings into the next qualification round
• Hire the rotating equipment engineers who extend the qualification, commissioning, and operations work across the fleet

Requirements

• Evaluated competing prime movers from several OEMs for a real project (engines, turbines, or fuel cells); the unit you chose is running today and you can explain why the others lost
• Written an equipment specification and acceptance test procedure, witnessed factory and site acceptance against it, and rejected or held a unit that did not meet it
• Owned distributed generation in operation (oil and gas, mining, island utilities, CHP, or data centers); tracked heat rate, availability, and maintenance cost unit by unit; changed how units were run to extend overhaul intervals or cut fuel burn
• Integrated fuel-based generation with inverter-based resources on the same bus or in an islanded system; can specify exactly what the engine needs from the controller and what the controller needs from the engine
• Commissioned generation through first fire and load testing; were on site when a unit tripped on a load step and worked out why
• Worked across more than one generation technology or fuel; can explain which experience transfers to the next one and which does not
• Write clearly enough that an OEM application engineer, a site technician, and a CEO each get the decision they need from the same document

Preferred qualifications

• Islanded or weak-grid operation with large load swings (mining, offshore, island utilities)
• Alternative and blended fuels (hydrogen blends, methanol, dual-fuel diesel)
• Electrochemical generation (solid oxide fuel cells, Bloom Energy)
• Condition monitoring and predictive maintenance (vibration analysis, oil analysis, borescope inspection)
• Emissions controls and their interplay with air permits (SCR, oxidation catalysts)

Pay

Compensation range: $330K – $400K