Optimization Software Engineer
About the Company
Verrus develops next-generation, greenfield hyperscale data centers that flexibly leverage onsite energy infrastructure (e.g., large-scale BESS) through proprietary technology. This approach allows Verrus to serve as a flexible grid resource, providing grid services that facilitate interconnection, power procurement, and carbon-free energy while balancing traditional and variable uptime workloads (e.g., AI/ML). Verrus builds and capitalizes turnkey data centers deeply integrated with energy resources, offering significant advantages over traditional designs.
Verrus is led by industry veterans with experience at major data center development companies and power & utilities, having delivered gigawatts of data center capacity across four continents. Verrus is backed by Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), a leading infrastructure holding company funded by Alphabet, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and Stepstone Group. SIP invests in breakthrough businesses at the intersection of scalable, affordable, and resilient energy and digital systems.
About the Role
The Optimization team at Verrus designs, builds, and deploys robust optimization software and models to operate advanced infrastructure, achieving unrivaled efficiency and resilience. This role focuses on building foundational software systems that enable data centers to operate with unprecedented efficiency and intelligence, bridging the gap between physical infrastructure and high-level optimization models.
Responsibilities
- Collaborate with partners to design software systems interacting with thousands of physical assets (e.g., smart meters, thermal sensors) and integrate with core optimization logic.
- Implement and scale optimization algorithms and data pipelines driving real-time decisions for power and thermal management across the fleet.
- Develop analytical tools and processes to evaluate system performance and reliability, ensuring safe and effective deployment of new infrastructure controls.
- Design and implement scalable software architectures orchestrating energy market participation and fleet-wide asset management, ensuring high availability and system reliability.
Requirements
- At least 5 years of experience as a full-time software engineer or equivalent role, with significant contributions to complex, distributed systems, ideally with exposure to physical infrastructure or optimization problems.
- Proficiency in Python for modeling and data analytics, and Go for performance-critical components.
- Strong background in mathematical optimization, particularly MILP (Mixed-Integer Linear Programming) and Optimal Control theory.
- Experience with distributed system architecture, including RPC frameworks, containerization (Docker), and orchestration tools like Argo.
Culture
Verrus’ engineering culture prioritizes productivity and sustainability, built on the belief that a small, talented, and highly-focused team can achieve outsized impact. The team consists of lifelong learners who are humble, kind, and collaborative. Written communication (e.g., proposals, design docs) is emphasized to gather feedback asynchronously across roles, minimizing meetings to allow focus on solving hard problems. Systems thinking is valued—viewing software, energy, and mechanical assets as one integrated ecosystem.
Onboarding
Your first few months will include a scoped starter project aligned with your skillset, paired with a peer for guidance. The software infrastructure is built on modern open-source technologies (Python for modeling/data analytics, Go/Rust for performance-critical systems) with heavy automation (environment setup, CI) to accelerate ramp-up.
Pay
The annual base salary range for this position in California is $140,000–$200,000. Compensation includes a discretionary bonus, equity, health benefits, and paid time off, and may vary based on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.